Getting a Canadian or UK visa from Egypt

Which route fits you

Canada: Express Entry. No job offer needed. You are scored on age, education, language and work history, and the highest scores are invited to apply. Language is the factor you control most: a better test result is often the quickest way to a higher score, and strong French earns additional points on top of your English (CRS criteria).

Canada: Provincial Nominee Programs. A province nominates you, which adds enough points to make an invitation all but certain. Worth checking if your Express Entry score is mid-range or your occupation is one a province is short of.

UK: Skilled Worker. You need a licensed employer to sponsor you first. Then the salary rule applies: you must be paid whichever is higher, the general threshold or the going rate for your specific job. Care worker recruitment from overseas has closed; anyone selling UK care jobs from Egypt cannot deliver that route.

UK: Health and Care Worker. For doctors, nurses and other health and adult social care professionals with an eligible job offer. You, your partner and your children do not pay the healthcare surcharge (gov.uk).

→ Work out your Canadian points: it takes about two minutes and tells you where you stand before you spend anything.

What it costs from Egypt

Government fees are set in Canadian dollars and pounds. Your bank converts them at its own rate on the day you pay, so the cost in Egyptian pounds moves with the exchange rate.

The health surcharge is what most people miss. Over three years it costs more than the visa itself, and it is paid upfront. For Canada, also budget for your language test, your credential assessment and certified translations.

What is different for Egypt

Your police certificate has to be collected in person. Canada asks for the Egyptian Criminal Record. In Egypt you apply at your local police station; your fingerprints are taken onto the front of the certificate and the result of the check is printed on the back, and you must pick it up yourself. If you live outside Egypt, you apply in person at the nearest Egyptian embassy or consulate (IRCC Egypt). There is no postal route, so plan it around a visit home or a trip to the consulate. Those fingerprints are separate from the biometrics Canada collects for the application itself.

Arabic documents need a certified translation, and not by a relative. IRCC accepts documents in English or French. Anything else needs a translation by a translator accredited where the translation is made, or an affidavit sworn by the translator, together with the original or a certified copy. You, your representative and your family members cannot do the translation, even if one of them is a qualified translator (IRCC translation rules). The UK asks for a certified translation of any document not in English or Welsh (gov.uk).

You are not exempt from proving your English. The UK only treats nationals of a short list of majority-English-speaking countries as meeting the requirement, and Egypt is not on it (Appendix English Language). You need a Secure English Language Test from an approved provider, or a degree taught in English and confirmed by Ecctis (gov.uk). Canada exempts nobody.

Book the right test for Canada. Express Entry accepts CELPIP-General, IELTS General Training and PTE Core for English, and TEF Canada or TCF Canada for French. IELTS Academic, the version many Egyptian graduates already hold, does not count (IRCC language tests).

No TB test for the UK. Egypt is not on the UK's list of countries whose residents need a tuberculosis test (gov.uk). That changes if you have recently lived for a long period in a country that is on the list.

Your degree needs assessing for Canada. An Educational Credential Assessment is required for the Federal Skilled Worker program and to score points for education outside Canada. Use a designated organisation such as WES, ICAS, IQAS, the University of Toronto's Comparative Education Service or BCIT's ICES; doctors and pharmacists who need a licence go through their professional body instead. The organisation you choose tells you how your documents must reach it (IRCC: ECA).

Health and education jobs in the UK need a criminal record certificate too. If you apply from outside the UK for work in healthcare, education or social services, the UK asks for a criminal record certificate from each country you have lived in (gov.uk).

Biometrics. Both countries collect fingerprints and a photo at visa application centres run by contractors. Use only the official finders: IRCC and gov.uk.