# VISA for self employed



## elrasho (May 16, 2010)

If I was to be self employed offering a service like freelance web design or educational tutoring how would I go about getting a VISA for this? Do I need one?


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

elrasho said:


> If I was to be self employed offering a service like freelance web design or educational tutoring how would I go about getting a VISA for this? Do I need one?




Not sure how you would go about this one.. but does anyone worry about visas here?


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## NZCowboy (May 11, 2009)

It depends on how big of business you plan to have, I set an offshore company, the offshore company invoices for services provided, and pays me a wage. You can even have a virtual office, based offshore, answers the phone, takes messages, receives and forwards mail and faxes etc.


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## Beatle (Aug 14, 2009)

NZCowboy said:


> It depends on how big of business you plan to have, I set an offshore company, the offshore company invoices for services provided, and pays me a wage. You can even have a virtual office, based offshore, answers the phone, takes messages, receives and forwards mail and faxes etc.


Is that set-up permitted under the Egyptian immigration rules? In most countries if you are doing work in that country, even if you have an offshore company (or work for a company in another country), you would still require the appropriate work authorisation


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## NZCowboy (May 11, 2009)

It can be a bit of a grey area in todays virtual world, I can operate my businesses from a moblie and laptop, from anywhere in the world, does that mean I need a work visa for every country I visit. 
My legal advisors tell me, my place of work is where my company is registered, data stored and IP address is located, not where the remote terminal (laptop) is. Basically I was advised that if I don't need to be in that country to operate my business, then I don't need a work visa.
The way I see it I'm not taking any jobs from Egyptians.


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## Beatle (Aug 14, 2009)

NZCowboy said:


> It can be a bit of a grey area in todays virtual world, I can operate my businesses from a moblie and laptop, from anywhere in the world, does that mean I need a work visa for every country I visit.
> My legal advisors tell me, my place of work is where my company is registered, data stored and IP address is located, not where the remote terminal (laptop) is. Basically I was advised that if I don't need to be in that country to operate my business, then I don't need a work visa.


Arguably you wouldn't need a visa in the above scenario if you are not actually "doing business" in Egypt (although I don't know enough about Egyptian immigration law to know if that's the case but it would be the case in most jurisdictions). In respect of El Rasho's query I had presumed that his target market was the Egyptian market in which case it would differ from your scenario.


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## Sam (Aug 27, 2009)

elrasho said:


> If I was to be self employed offering a service like freelance web design or educational tutoring how would I go about getting a VISA for this? Do I need one?


As far as I know, to get a VISA for this would mean physically establishing it as a company in Egypt, then you work from a business visa as a company owner. But the costs and the time involved would not be worth it for something so simple. My advice is to just get the standard residential visa, which does not permit work, and carry on doing what you're doing. Most other expats in the country do not have work permission either.


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