Visa for the Sinai

[Conor]

Chiara - thats what I meant by 'outside of dahab'

Nickjb, I think you are probably right, its better from a liveaboard, which I am hoping to do soon anyway. But I guess there is no harm keeping my options open and 14 days is quite a long time its quite possible I would want to get out to other sites. So I reckon I'll get the visa just in case.

 

[spottydog]

to get the visa in sharm rush straight to the bank as soon as they let you off the plane. That way you can hopefully get it before everyone else works out what to do. Then go straint to customs and stick the stamps in your passport whilst you are in that queue.

I find I can get through in about 10 - 15 mins this way (if we are not so fast off the plane one queues for the visas and the other for customs which saves time).

It doesn't really make that much difference to overall time anyway since they're not the fastest people to unload planes and you will still have to wait for everyone else on your bus to get through.

Have fun.

 

[clive francis]

Conor once bubbled...
I'm flying to Sharm but staying in Dahab, is it likely that any of the sites we would try to reach from there would require a visa ? BTW - I will be there for two weeks.

I thought about getting a visa in advance, but won't have time to get down to london in the two weeks I have before travelling.

is this an entry visa or dive visa, as i went to marsa alam via sharm and still had to get a visa so someone is talking a load of balls

 

[Ruu]

No-one has disputed the need to get a visa as far as I can see. The additional visa that people are talking about is the one that allows you to dive in the Ras Mohamed national park. The other one is the standard issue tourist visa, unrelated to diving and required wherever you go in Egypt (to the best of my knowledge).

Dave

 

[chiara]

Ruu once bubbled...
The other one is the standard issue tourist visa, unrelated to diving and required wherever you go in Egypt (to the best of my knowledge).

Dave

Unless things have drastically changed in the last couple of years, it's the other way around.

There is a cheaper (for some countries it used to be free) visa for people going to Sinai and spending their whole holiday on a beach.

If you go to the pyramids and the rest, you have to pay full, and it's the only way you'll be allowed to dive anywhere but the Sinai Peninsula (this applies to Ras Mohammed, the Thistlegorm and all the resorts on the African coast, as Sinai is geographically Asia).

 

[Diversauras]

I think Ruu is right, when we did our liveaboard there we needed the "go anywhere in Egypt visa plus the one for Ras Mohammed. Othere friends that stayed on the beach and dived only Shar'm and Dahab didn't need the Ras visa but they did beed the other. We had to send passport in in advance and could not get either at the boarder entry.

 

[chiara]

Diversauras once bubbled...
I think Ruu is right, when we did our liveaboard there we needed the "go anywhere in Egypt visa plus the one for Ras Mohammed. Othere friends that stayed on the beach and dived only Shar'm and Dahab didn't need the Ras visa but they did beed the other. We had to send passport in in advance and could not get either at the boarder entry.

As I said I might well be wrong, but the first time I went to Egypt (October 2000) I stayed a few days in Cairo before going to Sharm, the visa, including the possibility to dive in Ras Mohammed was 20$.

I went back (Sharm only) in May 2001, paid another 20$ and Ras Mohammed was inside.

One visa, same kind of official stamp, both times I landed first in Cairo.

 

[vicky]

people (divers ) from all nationalities, but-

One can get a "visa" that is valid for two weeks in *Sinai* only. And not everywhere in Sinai- only from Taba to Sharm El Sheikh.
With this visitor's visa you cannot go south of Sharm, west of Santa Catherina. One can go, however, on boat to Tiran (but *not* to Ras Mohammed).

Another type of visa is a regular "tourist visa" that usually allows to stay in Egypt for one month and can be extended in Cairo. With this visa one can visit almost everywhere in Egypt (lots of places are restricted to tourists. For example the western oasis desert). I assume that any tourists who comes to Cairo must have this type of visa.
I don't know if only Israelis are required to this- sometimes they add (upon arrival) a small triangular stamp that says in small illegible letters "registration within 7 days". It means that one has to go to a police station within 7 days and they write his name and the hotel where staying. That's all. Again, I am not sure if everyone is required to do this.

And if speaking about visas (and visa "oddities") then the most strange visa I have ever received was in Kenya. I visited there several times and it happened to me twice but after the first time I already knew :
On the visa stamp itself (received in the airport upon arrival) it was written "valid for three months". The immigration clerk stamps the visa and writes down just below it (with a really illegible hand-write): "v. for 4w". That's all. So, here's a tough quiz: for how long was the visa valid? Three months? Wrong! "v. for 4w" stand for "Valid for Four weeks". How did I discover it? By chance. After three months ( a few days before my visa "expired") I went to the immigration office in order to extend it for another three months. They were really angry at me because the "4w" in hand writing meant "four weeks". Didn't you know? They shouted at me and insulted me ("You stupid tourist, why don't you ask what the "4w" on the visa means?" etc.). OK, so after cooling them off a little and offering a special fine of 10$ to both officers I was granted an extneded visa.

 

[chiara]

vicky once bubbled...
I don't know if only Israelis are required to this- sometimes they add (upon arrival) a small triangular stamp that says in small illegible letters "registration within 7 days". It means that one has to go to a police station within 7 days and they write his name and the hotel where staying. That's all. Again, I am not sure if everyone is required to do this.

I think this is the main point.

Please do not misunderstand me, my best friend is a Jew, and that has never been a problem for me, it couldn't be otherwise when you start buddying up at age 6.

The only time I came to Israel in August 1985 (I wish I could now, but I'm very unhappy with the general situation in the area, and this applies to Egypt as well, albeit for different reasons) I was told that if I intended to go to South Africa with the same passport I had to ask for a different visa, one which was stamped on a detached paper and then clipped to my passport, I wouldn't be able to enter SA with an Israeli visa on it.

In a certain way I suppose it works the other way round too.

You go to a Muslim country coming from a neighbour where being Muslim (or Jewish, or Christian) is part of the problem, I'm not surprised they apply different rules.

It's the same reason why Catholic priests who go to strict Muslim countries need a passport with no mention of their "real" job.

 

[Conor]

Well, maybe I'm niave but I try to see it as a political issue rather than a religuous one, this is mostly to keep myself sane and stop me getting pissed off with some of the attitudes in the world.

It is true that having an Israeli visa can be a problem in some countries and that certain islamic countries will not let you enter with an Israeli stamp. I found this out after visiting Eilat and so did not know to get the seperate sheet stamped. Actually the thing that impressed me during this trip was that on a Day trip to Taba I didn't have to 'exit' Israel and 'enter' egypt, my passport wasn't stamped in any way. Then again the Aquasport Dive centre in Taba is almost in between the two anyway (in that after entering Egypt you double back on yourself to get to the centre). I thought that attitude on both sides showed a level of maturity and common sense that is sometimes missing from the normal bureaucracy of immigration procedures.

I am lucky in that as a dual national I can have two passsports and therefore get around this problem of where I have been.

I have also heard about the rpocess of notifying the authorities of where you are staying but was told that this is normally carried out by the hotal or resort you are staying in and therefore is not noticed by most visitors (it may be this service from the hotel that is different for Israeli tourists).

Well I'm off to Dahab in two days (YIPPEE) and am now counting the minutes. I think we will probably get the 'full' visa just in case, although I am pretty certain I won't leave Dahab for the whole time.

Thanks for all the advice

Conor