Egypt requires a visa arranged before travel on a Kenyan passport. Kenya is on neither Egypt's visa-on-arrival list nor its e-Visa list, so the route is a tourist visa from the Egyptian Embassy in Nairobi, by appointment. Travellers holding a valid and already-used US, UK, Schengen, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand or Japanese visa can instead be stamped in at the airport for USD 30. No yellow fever certificate is required from Kenya.
Key Warnings
Insider Tips
If you hold a valid visa from the USA, UK, a Schengen state, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or Japan that you have actually used, you can be stamped in at the airport and pay USD 30 there. If not, you need the embassy — or Okay-To-Board pre-clearance — before you fly.
Appointments are required and, at several missions, arranged by email. Assemble the full document set first: incomplete files are turned away rather than held.
A straightforward file is decided in days. Applications referred to Cairo for security clearance can take up to three months, so apply well ahead and keep travel bookings changeable until the visa is in your passport.
The visa is a sticker in your passport, valid for a 30-day single-entry stay. EgyptAir and regional carriers connect the main hubs to Cairo.
Pre-cleared travellers pay USD 30 at the airport — or USD 36 by card at Cairo, which switched to a QR-code digital visa on 1 August 2026. Compare that against the agency's pre-clearance fee, which can run into hundreds of dollars.
Egypt refers applications from several African nationalities to Cairo for clearance, with a stated minimum of six to eight weeks. Applications fail here more often than at the counter.
Fix: Apply at least three months ahead and keep bookings changeable. A clearance referred to Cairo cannot be accelerated.
The mission returns incomplete applications rather than holding them open.
Fix: Assemble every item before booking: form, photographs, confirmed return ticket, hotel booking, three months of bank statements and an employment letter.
A single deposit shortly before applying, or an itinerary that does not match the accommodation booked.
Fix: Three months of ordinary account activity, and make the itinerary and hotel dates agree.
No published rejection rate. Egypt publishes no visa refusal statistics by applicant nationality. Checked August 2026.
Egypt's 2026 guidelines confirm no visa on arrival for Kenyan passports
The Egyptian Consulate General's published 2026 entry guidelines list the nationalities eligible for visa-free entry and visa on arrival. Kenya appears in neither, and is not on the e-Visa list either. Kenyans must obtain a tourist visa from an Egyptian embassy or consulate before travelling, unless they hold a valid used US, UK, Schengen, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand or Japanese visa, or arrange Okay-To-Board pre-clearance.
Cairo airport switched to a digital visa on arrival on 1 August 2026
From 1 August 2026 Cairo International Airport issues the visa on arrival as a QR code instead of a paper sticker. The total is USD 36 — the USD 30 visa plus a USD 6 issuance charge — paid by credit or debit card through the official portal, the mobile app, or a self-service kiosk in the arrivals hall. The QR code expires 48 hours after you generate it, so create it close to departure. Bank teller windows still sell paper stickers during the pilot, and Hurghada, Sharm El Sheikh and Luxor are unchanged for now.
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