Park my car in Egypt
 

I want to travel to Egypt towards the end of this year. Planning to park my car there for two months. In the meanwhile I will go home and come back two months later to continue my trip. Does anybody know if this is possible? Or will I get big problems with customs at the airport?

Thanks

I'm sure there'll be some regular Egyptian travellers / residents along soon and maybe they can say categorically if it's possible or not. I'm not sure but I would suggest it would be difficult.

Firstly there'll be a stamp put in your passport seperate from the visa regarding your vehicle. If you try to leave the country without this stamp being cancelled (normally done by customs when you drive out) I think you will have problems.

Secondly in my experience customs won't give your vehicle more time in Egypt than your personal visa lasts for, so to leave it there for longer than 1 month you have to first extend your personal visa then go to customs and extend the vehicle time. When I was there I met a couple of people who had tried this as they wanted to stay in Egypt longer than 1 month, but they found the burocracy impenatrable so weren't successful.

Sorry for the bad news, hopefully someone will be along to tell you how it is actually possible.

Does Egypt stamp vehicle details in your passport now?

My experience, albeit several years ago, was that vehicle details were not stamped in the passport, therefore if that is still the case, then you should be fine to leave the country without your vehicle.

The bigger hassle will be, as misterpaul points out, that Egyptian customs will usually only allow the vehicle in for the amount of time on your original visa. I understand it is possible to extend the customs paperwork in the country, but given Egyptian bureaucracy, this would be a nightmare.

The other option is to run the risk of not extending and then simply pay any excess when you leave. After my vehicle overstayed by five months, I simply turned up to leave at Nuweiba and payed the additional road tax before I could leave. It took an extra hour or so, but it wasn't a major hassle. There is a risk you might get pulled up at a roadblock on this point, but based on my experience, the police at roadblocks are far more interested in your passport.

I would be interested to hear if the roadblocks are still as prevalent (particularly in Sinai and the delta) as they were before the revolution?

I don't read Arabic so it could say anything, but aswell as the circular entry stamp on my visa there's another rectangular stamp on the last page of my passport. I came in through Aswan so I arrived before the vehicle, and this other stamp was put in when the vehicle entered not when I arrived. It was stamped over by customs when they stamped out my carnet in Alex.

I was there just after the revolution. There were plenty of roadblocks around but we didn't get stopped so often. Not nearly so many stops as in Sudan anyway.

Permit is the issue
 

Dear All,

From my experience (several entrances with car/bike plus many many exits by plane while carneted vehicle remain) this is not an issue. The only time they touched my passport was the last exit from Nuweiba a couple of months ago.

By far the bigger deal is the fact that, as stated you will almost certainly only get the documentation for the length of your visa. This certainly can be extended in Cairo, but as mentioned, it is a big pain. Well, atleast it was pre revolution, and all evidence suggests that nothing has improved yet.

Regarding roadblocks: We did the Cairo to Dahab drive last week and many times before. I've been asked for the roxa (road license) once a long time ago, but not recently. The roadblocks are predominantly army manned and they're only interested in passports. Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend taking the risk that Matt suggests (Hi Matt, Pharoahs rallye just round the corner for another crazy desert blast) this is certainly an option.

Anyway, if and when you re sorted, we have space for a car for a month or two on our driveway. Just have to juggle some of the 7 KTM's that seem to be parked there.

Thanks a lot everybody. I read this post about extending Carnet, which did not seem that difficult. Cairo Customs, extending your car papers
So this opens possibilities, it seems. Extending visa is normally done at Tahrir sqaure, or not? Jamie, thanks for the parking offer. Will contact you by PM.

JT - good to hear from you mate!

Am defintely tempted to head over and have another blast following the Pharaohs, however a KTM in bits and a dodgy knee precludes that for this year.

Say hi to Samy and the ktm lads for me!

cheers
Matt