On 16 July 2018, the Egyptian parliament passed a law that will grant residency – and, subsequently citizenship for applicants who have a continued residence of five-years in Egypt – to those who deposit an equivalent of US$ 391,000 (seven million Egyptian pounds) in one of the country’s state-owned banks.
A report revealed that the new programme has several unconventional features compared to the other programmes currently trending in the RCBI-market:
– Those approved under the deposit option are permitted to apply for a citizenship within a five-year period in contrast with other programmes who offer this citizenship option only after a ten-year period
– Family members of the main applicant are obliged to reside in Egypt to qualify for citizenship alongside the main applicant
– Once the citizenship application has been approved in the fifth year of residence, the bank deposit is transferred to the Treasury, hence converting the investment in to a donation
– Those who become naturalised through this scheme will only be eligible to “exercise their political rights”(likely meaning the right to vote), five years after obtaining their citizenship status
According to a report on Mada Masr:
“The legislation sparked backlash in Parliament from lawmakers who used nationalist arguments to criticize it, noting that the amendments essentially put Egyptian citizenship up for sale.”
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