Egypt’s cabinet on Tuesday set five requirements to grant nationality to foreigners by investment in the country’s economy, per Law No. 90 of 2019, a law recently approved by the Parliament.
The requirements include either purchasing state-owned or public juridical person-owned property valued at $500,000 or more, or to establish or partner in an investment project with $500,000 or more. Other cases include depositing $750,000 through direct wire transfer from abroad into a special Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) account and to be retrieved in Egyptian pounds after five years without interest, or depositing $1m through direct wire transfer from abroad in a special CBE account, and to be retrieved in EGP after three years without interest. The fifth case is to deposit $250,000 non-refundable, through a direct wire transfer to the CBE.
Moreover, the cabinet approved the establishment of a special unit to look into citizenship by investment applications.
According to the law, the application for obtaining Egyptian nationality shall be submitted at the unit’s headquarters or through its to-be official website accompanied with the required data and documents after the payment of a $10,000 fee.
The unit shall examine the applications and made its decision within three months from the date of submission, after making the required security investigation, and in the case of initial approval for the request, the foreign individual will be granted the right of temporary residence in Egypt for six months to complete the procedures and documents necessary to obtain the final approval of his application.
The unit shall complete the examination of each application and submit its report to the prime minister for approval, all within three months of the submission date of the required data and documents.
