Funeral/Death of foreigners resident in Egypt.

This is a guide for foreigners resident in Egypt in the event of a death.



Unknown persons dying in Egypt.

Because of local custom, the deceased must be buried within 24 hours.


Egyptian Law states that every citizen must carry about their person an id card which hold information regarding name, address, and religion.
All citizens who reach the age of 16 MUST by law carry id.

Carrying the id ensures that should anyone be involved in an accident or death, the family can be notified immediately.

If an Egyptian child under 16, or any unidentified citizen dies without an id and no member of the family comes forward within a few days to claim it from a hospital mortuary, the body is then interred after a Muslim ceremony in the mosque, in a public paupers grave at the expense of the government.

The same rule applies to a foreigner dying in Egypt unknown.
Because the identity cannot be established the state will inter the body due to local custom in a paupers grave.
Foreign consulates would not be informed if there was no identifying marker, ie on a tour with a manifesto, holding a ticket with a name, some kind of identity marker about the person or surroundings.

It is for this reason that it is VITAL for a foreigner to keep about their person some form of id at all times. even a trip to the local shop.


In the event of the deceased resembling a foreign national, ( anyone with Arabic/African/ Middle Eastern features would presumably not) ie European, the body would be held for a longer period of time to allow relatives to come forward after noticing the deceased was missing. A few days at most.

If id is found then the police will alert the relevant embassy and the embassy will contact the next of kin. The body will be kept in a hospital mortuary till relatives arrive to conduct funeral proceedings.

Please note that embassy's merely advise and hand out numbers to call.





Known foreign persons dying in Egypt.

All foreigners wishing non repatriation should have an Egyptian grave.
All cemeteries have at the entrance 'grave sellers'.
A foreigner would approach one and purchase a grave.
The custom in Cairo is to be interred in a traditional 'house type' grave ( explained in the Dying in Egypt thread).
Elsewhere single graves are popular especially in Christian cemeteries.

It is not essential that an embassy is informed of a foreign nationals death. But it is possible to register the death and be given a foreign death certificate .

Procedure:
Relatives of the deceased must call the Ministry of Health immediately and report the death.
The MOH will then send out a doctor to certify cause of death. If there is no suspicious circumstance he will issue a document with time and cause of death.
This document is taken to the MOH and a death certificate issued for the deceased. This certificate allows burial at the cemetery.

Relatives then call the mosque and other relatives to attend funeral which will be held that day before sunset.
Relatives can then call the local undertaker ( number will be held at the mosque/church).
Relatives and the undertaker then prepare the body in the deceased's home for burial. This includes washing/ wrapping in shroud.
In Egypt a shroud is often called the coffin.
A traditional wooden coffin used to inter bodies abroad, in Egypt is only used to transfer a body to the grave where it is removed and placed on the sand in the grave, and wooden coffin removed.
Some Egyptians are buried in a wooden coffin, but this is not the norm.

Once the body is wrapped it is taken to the mosque/church for a service and from there taken in a truck, or microbus roof to the grave.

The death certificate is shown to the cemetery staff and the grave is opened, the deceased laid on the sand in the cubicle and the grave closed.

Sometimes a relative or relatives will sleep at the graveside within the walls of the 'house grave' for a few nights to protect the body from any mischief.

In Cairo there are two numbers I have for you. These are the only two numbers in the Yellow pages.

Funeral Director.

Emile Joseph Tawaf
31 El Zaher St.
El Zaher, Cairo
Tel: 02-25906753, 012-3260936, 012-2326708

George Aziz
18 Othman Ibn Affan St., Salah El Deen Sq.
Heliopolis, Cairo
Tel: 02-22314201

Egypt is NOT Europe. The customs are very different and one should not expect a traditional style European investigation, or burial after death.

Residency Visa Egypt

Available Residency Visa's in Egypt.


1) Spouse of an Egyptian Citizen. (3 or 5 year residency ) Husband must fill in appropriate form at the Mogamma Cairo and a 3 or 5 year resident visa will be issued within one week of applying. This 3-5 year residency visa DOES NOT allow the spouse to work in Egypt.

2) Owner of a REGISTERED property exceeding US $ 50,000. ( 1 year residency renewable ) (note: the property must be registered with the local council and the applicant must be registered to pay property tax and all documents must have the applicant as the official owner of the property. Applicants living in compounds which are still technically registered with the company and not yet handed to the owners will NOT be able to apply for residency. You MUST show proof that you OWN the property.)

3) Investment of US$ 50,000 in an Egyptian company with an Egyptian partner in one of the recognised companies. ( 1 year residency renewable )

4) Divorcee or widow of an Egyptian citizen showing divorce documents.
( 1 year residency )

5) Anyone over 60 years of age after living continuously in Egypt for 10 years.
( 1 year residency )

Note: Investors investing US$50,000 in an Egyptian Bank for the duration of the residency is no longer acceptable.

How to buy a property on a Gated Community in Egypt.

How to buy a property on a Gated Community in Egypt.


Each compound has a company office. The development companies vary in size.
Ours is huge and owns many sectors. This is the procedure we followed to buy on ours.

We went to the a real estate agent and viewed the property. It was unoccupied and was from the original owner.
The owner had bought it using a mortgage with a few years left to pay.
It had electric meter in their name.

Our estate agent then arranged for the seller and us, plus him to go to the Head Office to do the exchange. Because it was on a compound there was no need for a lawyer as the Company acted as the lawyer.

The company showed us( the buyer) the Ministerial Document saying that they had ownership of the Development and land.
They then showed us the purchase documents from the original seller ( our seller). It showed every payment to the mortgage and how much was left to pay. The seller had a few thousand pounds left to pay in our case.

The company then drew up a new contract of exchange.
Before they could sell it they had to complete the mortgage payments so they could legally sell it.
The usual thing done in this situation is the buyer (us) pays the remaining balance and deducts it from the price.
So we paid the company the balance and they cleared the debt and issued a final payment document.
We then paid the seller his money less the balance we paid.
We paid cash and it was all done in the office.
The seller then goes with his cash.

We are then given a full contract which was written up that afternoon detailing the sale. That included the ministerial letter, the layout, a statement of all the payments made and the final payment paid.
They also give us an electricity letter saying that we are now the legal owners.

We then pay them an admin fee ( sorry I can't remember how much that was?)

We then take the electric letter to the electric company with our new contract and they switch the electric to our name.

There are no lawyers involved because there is no court registration because it is a compound.
In our case the land is registered to the compound till handover. Then once the development is fully complete the company turn it over to the council and residents are then able to register their own units in their own names. In about 2 years we should be able to do this. Once they hand over they give a list of all the owners in the compound. Once you register it you then become liable to tax.
Also because the unit is not registered in your name I guess that is why residents are able to sell when they want , without the 5 year ban on selling?

The above only applies to compounds.

Egyptian Land Laws

The Government have three types of land.

1) Agriculture land
2) Special low cost land ( usually new in the desert) for low cost housing development.
3) Standard land for sale for housing or business.


1) Agriculture land

This land is not for building of any sort. In the land registry it is logged as being used for agriculture free from building and it is the countries natural resource for crops.
Any land built on it, is illegal and even though it may have been given permission to purchase for dwellings by backsheesh etc. It is still registered as agriculture land and any dwelling can be pulled down at any time at the whim of the government.



2) Special Low Cost Land

This land is often sections of desert with basic infrastructure like roads, lighting and water, electricity etc pinpointed to the lower classes of poor Egyptians unable to afford market priced housing.
This land is heavily subsidized and can only be bought by Egyptians, single with no other property, with jobs, on a mortgage scheme.

It cannot be bought by cash.

This land cannot be sold on for 5/10 years. This deters developers of buying up tracts of land to invest in and not build on and resell years later.
If the land does not come with housing the purchaser MUST start building work within 6 months on the dwelling or it is taken back.

Huge companies like Orascom and the Building and Development Bank are working alongside the Government to build affordable housing for poorer Egyptian families. The bank offering low rate mortgages for purchase.
Only someone working with a salary who is Egyptian can purchase these lands and houses.
These companies who work alongside the Government will buy the land and have it registered in the courts as theirs. Private buyers who buy a plot are unable to register the purchase in the courts because technically the owner is still the Government until the 'handover' of the project.


3) Standard land for building or business
This land is available at market price and is available to both Egyptian and Foreign investors.
Recent law stipulates that a certain percentage MUST be allocated to green area. ? a 1/6th. This is sold in plots and each plot must have a surrounding 'green area' used as a buffer to the next building or plot. It does not necessarily have to be planted but this is encouraged.

This land is purchased either privately from the Government where the owner will be registered in the courts, or by private investors who wish to build compounds or malls etc, with the purchaser having a legal contract of sale from the court. If you live on a compound which has not been 'handed over' it still belongs to the Government technically. I will explain this further in sales thread.

Power of Attorney in Egypt

POA Power of Attorney are quite popular in Egypt.

It is a legally drawn up document allowing another person to handle your affairs and act as your advocate.


Banking POA:

Banks have separate POA documents which do not have to be done outside of the banking system.
To do a POA for someone to act as your advocate for the bank you simply tell your bank and fill in the relevant form, with both yours and the POA signature on it.
This POA will then allow the advocate full powers to deal with your bank and that includes removing monies from your account.
A POA does not need your signature to remove or deposit monies, or handle investment certificates. It is not like a joint account where both signatures are required. That persons signature is all that is required.

The only thing that a POA cannot do is close an account. That has to be done by the account holder in person.

So in effect a POA can clear your account and cash in investment certificates without your knowledge.




General POA:

This is done at a Public Notary Office/ Al Shahre Al Akari/ الشهر العقاري
It is not a lawyers office as such.
Each office has a Government Official licensed to 'frank' documents with the official government stamp.

In this office you can specify exactly what you want your advocate to do.

You can make them a general POA which literally gives them the right to completely control your affairs, buy, sell, or exchange your property.

A (specific) POA will only allow what is specified on the document. So you can for instance allow an advocate to represent you in dealings, sell an item, act on your behalf for a limited period or for one specific duty or transaction.

To make a POA, both parties must attend the Notary Office and must present their id.

A POA General document is completed with deleted sections initialed and must specify exactly what powers you are handing over to the advocate.
Both parties sign in agreement and the Government Clerk will 'frank' it with the official stamp making them your POA.

This is also the office where you can register a book as your own work, register a valuable as yours if you have proof, register a sale of land between two parties.

The cost of a General POA currently costs 55le.
POA's for cars, land, valuables vary in price.

Once the POA is completed it is entered into the system and the previous owners contract is initialed and entered into the system as henceforth defunct.

Lawyers are NOT required to do a POA.
POA are easily done between seller and buyer with no need for a Lawyer.

Non Arabic speakers require a trusted Translator to translate the document as it is not in English.

Buying property in Egypt/Sinai.

Information for foreign investors in Egypt.

The Law currently states that foreigners can buy as many properties as they wish in Egypt as long as they do not have a court registered entry into the Land Register, and are less than 4,000 sq mtr floorspace in total.

Court registry of the property will put the owners name on the land register.

10% of property in Egypt is not registered on the land registry, but at Notary Offices.

A client wishing to buy off development/ non compound have to use the services of a lawyer to search for the true ownership of the property/land.

If it is not on the land registry this can be costly, time consuming and precarious. Once the lawyer has established the true ownership he then enters it onto the court registred Land Registry under the new owners name ( foreign investor ).

Because of this clause a foreigner is limited to buying only 2 properties in Egypt to a total of 4,000 sq mtr in actual building excl land attached.

The foreign investor is also not able to sell the property till a period of 5 years has elapsed after the sale date.

If foreign investors wish to sell within 5 years, or to buy more properties it is in their interest to register the sale only at a Notary Office as the registered owner, and not at the Land Registry Office.

If you buy from a compound that has the registry in it's company name, you are free to sell your property at any time.

If your name is on the Land Registry you cannot within 5 years.

Another restriction is buying land or property on the Sinai Peninsula, ie Sharm el Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba.
Foreigners cannot buy any property or land in Sinai on freehold.
This law came into force to stop any Israeli purchasing of land in Sinai and limiting it to only Egyptian investors.

Foreign investors wishing to invest in Sinai property can only buy leasehold for a term of 99 years. The ownership, therefore ensuring of the land and property will always remain in Egyptian hands.

Hotline Numbers of Egyptian Banks

Arab African 19555
ABC 19123
Arab 19100
Bank Audi 16555
Bank of Alexandria 19033
Barclays 16222
Banque Misr 19888
Blom Bank 19233
BNP Paribas 16664
CIB 19666
Credit Agricole 19191
Housing and Development 19995
Egyptian Gulf 19342
HSBC 19007
National Societe Generale 19700
Piraeus 19322

Informative Forum on Egypt

www.egypt4u.com

Nice friendly forum where you can find advice on living, working, and visiting Egypt.