By Hany Mostafa, Founder and CEO, Prime Properties Egypt
“Park money in a bank, get a residence permit” is the oldest promise in investment migration. In 2026, it is also nearly extinct.
Spain’s €1 million deposit option died with its golden visa. Portugal abolished its capital-transfer route. What remains in Europe is a category of two: Greece, which asks for a €500,000 fixed-term deposit with a Greek bank, and Latvia, which asks for €280,000 in a subordinated deposit, loss-absorbing capital locked for five years and sitting outside the EU’s €100,000 deposit guarantee, plus a €25,000 state fee on top.
Both come with a genuine prize: Schengen access. But every practitioner in this industry knows where those files actually get stuck.
Opening the bank account is now the hardest part of the program. For a non-EU national, European bank onboarding means months of compliance review and exhaustive source-of-funds documentation, at institutions that remain free to simply decline the relationship before a single form of the residency application is filed.
And once the money finally lands, it earns European rates: Greece’s €500,000 deposit typically pays on the order of €800 a year, or 0.16% per annum.
Against that backdrop, consider what Egypt offers: a $50,000 bank deposit with the country’s largest bank for a one-year renewable residency, or $100,000 for a three-year renewable residency. The account is opened, the deposit placed, and the residency filed in one single visit, and the money earns 3.62% per annum in US dollars the entire time.
It is the lowest-priced deposit residency in the world, and the only one where the money stays green.
Dollars in, dollars earned, dollars out
This is the detail sophisticated investors check first, and it is where Egypt’s structure is genuinely different:
- The qualifying deposit is placed in US dollars and stays denominated in US dollars for its full term.
- It earns interest, currently 3.62% per annum, paid in US dollars.
- At the end of the term, the principal is returned in US dollars and withdrawn in US dollars. No forced conversion, no local-currency exposure, no exchange-rate surprise at exit.
- The account operates as a genuine dollar banking relationship: free movement of funds, international transfers in and out, and full-service USD banking for as long as you hold it.
The arithmetic is blunt. At 3.62%, the $100,000 Egyptian deposit pays $3,620 a year. Greece’s €500,000 deposit, five times the capital, pays €800.
Even Egypt’s $50,000 entry deposit earns $1,810: more than double the Greek yield, on one-tenth of the money.
Your capital is parked, not spent, and unlike a subordinated European instrument, it is protected, liquid at maturity, and working the entire time, in the currency you put in.
One family, one file, two visits a year
The permit covers the principal investor, the spouse, and dependent children under 21 on a single family file.
Maintaining it is refreshingly simple. There is no minimum-stay quota, no points system, no tax-residency trigger. The only rule is continuity: Do not remain outside Egypt for more than 180 consecutive days.
In practice, two short visits per year, one every six months, keep the residency alive indefinitely.
And the residence card is not symbolic. It plugs the holder into daily life in Egypt: the right to register and license a car, obtain an Egyptian driver’s license, sign leases, open utility and telecom accounts, and enroll children in Egyptian and international schools.
The Platinum door at the National Bank of Egypt
The banking relationship is where the comparison to other programs breaks down.
Prime Properties Egypt holds a formal cooperation protocol, the first agreement of its kind in the Egyptian market, with the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), founded in 1898 and the largest and oldest bank in the country.
Through this protocol, our residency-by-deposit clients are not walk-in foreigners with a basic account. They are onboarded directly into NBE Platinum: the invitation tier where Egypt’s business elite, senior families, and top professionals bank.
Platinum is best understood as a club, not a product:
- Dedicated Platinum lounges and priority service, with no retail queues across the bank’s nationwide network
- A personal relationship manager who handles the account in English and is reachable directly
- Top-tier Platinum cards with the travel, lounge-access, and concierge privileges that come with them
- Preferential treatment on foreign exchange and deposit pricing
- Invitations and access reserved for the bank’s private-client segment, the room where Egypt’s decision-makers actually are
For a newcomer to any country, the hardest thing to buy is standing. This program hands it over at the door of the country’s most important financial institution. Whereas a European bank spends months deciding whether to accept you, NBE receives you through an institutional protocol on day one.
One single visit to Egypt does everything. In that one trip, the client opens the NBE account, places the deposit, and files the residency application. Renewals, banking, and paperwork afterward are handled by our team, and the client returns only for the two short annual visits that keep the permit alive.
Confidentiality, stated precisely
Egypt sits entirely outside the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) automatic-exchange framework. On the official list published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in July 2026, Egypt appears among the countries not asked to commit to automatic exchange of financial information, with no date set for any future participation.
In practice: An NBE account under this program is subject to no automatic annual reporting to any foreign tax authority.
The exceptions are exactly two: Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) obligations for US persons and a formal Egyptian court order, the same two carve-outs that exist at effectively every bank on earth. Outside those, nothing moves automatically, to anyone.
At a time when accounts in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai exchange data with home-country tax authorities every single year, that distinction is not a footnote. For many families, it is the entire decision.
What families actually use it for
In practice, our deposit-residency clients fall into a few clear profiles: families who want a low-cost, fully legal Plan B residence in a stable, neutral country; business owners who want a base between Europe, Africa, and the Gulf with real banking underneath it; parents positioning children for international schooling at a fraction of European costs; and investors testing the market before a larger commitment.
Why Prime Properties
We have been in this exact program longer than anyone. Prime Properties Egypt was established in 2009, has specialized in investment migration since 2011, and is the oldest accredited marketing agent for the Egyptian program, accredited by the Egyptian Citizenship Unit (ECU) under the Prime Minister’s office.
Our cooperation protocol with the National Bank of Egypt is the first of its kind in the market. We operate from Cairo and Sharjah, UAE, and execute the full file in-house: banking, government submission, renewals, and everything in between.
Work with us
For investors: Current requirements, document checklists, and timelines are available on request, in English, Arabic, or Chinese.
For agents and advisory firms: We welcome licensed agencies worldwide to sign cooperation agreements with Prime Properties Egypt. Partner onboarding, training materials, and full case execution are handled by our team in Cairo.
Contact: Tel / WhatsApp: +20 101 335 3321
Email: sales@primeproperties.com.eg
Website: primeproperties.com.eg
Locations: Cairo | Sharjah
