All about expats and FX at the weekly cabinet meeting: The Madbouly cabinet last week greenlit changes to two of its expat-focused FX-raising schemes — bringing back its initiative allowing Egyptians living abroad to import a new car to Egypt, and tweaking its citizenship-for-FX scheme.

#1- Expat car import scheme, round 2: The government is set to reopen its expat car import initiative for a three-month period under a draft law approved by the Madbouly cabinet at its weekly meeting, according to a ca binet stateme nt. The scheme allows expats to receive full rebates on customs fees, VAT, and other taxes within five years of purchasing a vehicle, provided they pay them upfront in FX.

Remember: Some 167k Egyptian expats reportedly registered in the first round of the scheme, which raised around USD 900 mn — a little over a third of the USD 2.5 bn originally targeted by the Finance Ministry. The scheme was initially set to remain open for three months from November 2022 but was extended through to May 2023 as part of the government’s efforts to maximize FX inflows.

No repeat customers: Those who took part in the first round of the initiative cannot do so again this time around.

Exact dates TBD: Expats who want to sign up will have a three-month window to pay the necessary fees in FX to the Finance Ministry, starting from the day after the new draft law is ratified. The law will also give the government the option to extend that window by a further three months. Draft laws are usually sent to parliament for debate before they are approved and then signed into law by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

#2- Citizenship applicants can’t flip their local real estate: Foreigners looking to acquire a green passport by investing in property must hold onto it for at least five years in order to qualify for citizenship, per legal amendments approved by cabinet on Thursday.

Admin fees need to be paid in FX: The USD 10k administrative fee citizenship applicants pay to have their application processed must now be paid in USD, according to the statement. Applicants previously had the option to pay the fee in its EGP equivalent.

Remember: Amendments to the Citizenship Act passed this year lowered the amount of money foreigners have to bring into the country in order to obtain citizenship. Foreigners can now invest USD 300k into local assets such as real estate to get the green passport, down from USD 500k previously.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was corrected on 17 September, 2023 to reflect that where foreigners could previously pay the USD 10k administrative fee in its EGP equivalent, they can now pay the fee in USD only. 


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