Egypt's Ministry of Labour said it has reached an agreement to regulate the status of Egyptian citizens who entered Lebanon on a tourist visa then took up work, thus breaching Lebanese residency and labour laws.
The deal, announced on Tuesday evening, applies to Egyptians who arrived in Lebanon before the end of 2025 and are now working without legal authorisation.
Under the mechanism, a Lebanese employer or their authorised representative can submit a request, with supporting documents, to the labour office at the Egyptian embassy in Beirut.
Approved applicants will then receive Lebanese work permits and corresponding residency from the Lebanese General Directorate of General Security.
The agreement runs in parallel with a wider drive launched in November. Under that scheme, Lebanon's General Security opened a window for foreign workers who had entered the country on a tourist visa and subsequently breached their residency or employment terms.
Remittances from Egyptians abroad reached a record $41.5 billion this year, the Central Bank of Egypt has said, equivalent to about 8 per cent of gross domestic product, making it a vital source of hard currency. The Gulf accounts for the bulk of that flow. Lebanon, however, remains a popular destination for work migration from Egypt, and the Labour Ministry says thousands of Egyptians are currently undocumented, most working in construction, hospitality, cleaning services and retail.
Lebanon's General Security has warned that once the regulation period closes on June 30, it will run a nationwide enforcement campaign targeting undocumented workers and the businesses that employ them. Syrians and Palestinian-Syrian citizens are excluded from the scheme, officials said.
Cairo urged its citizens to come forward through their employers, without delay. There are no official figures regarding the number of undocumented Egyptians in Lebanon.
Their position has been compounded by the renewed war raging in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, resulting in hundreds of air strikes across the country. Many workers living in cheaper neighbourhoods that came under heavy Israeli attacks have been displaced.
A subsequent ceasefire has been announced and repeatedly put to the test, with Israeli strikes on various parts of Lebanon and its so-called “Yellow Line” in the south continuing. This manoeuvre has been widely condemned as a de facto occupation of Lebanese sovereign territory.
