OK now I am really confused! I have been living here for five years and have never been able to get a residents visa. Every year I go to the passport office in Hurghada and get my annual tourist visa and multiple entry/exit visa but only if I am planning to to anywhere. Usually I just get the annual tourist visa and they say one week before you want to leave buy your six month entry/exit visa.
The annual tourist visa clearly states you are unable to work.
To obtain a residents visa you must either be employed (and I think you have to find this job in the UK and not once you are here),marry an Egyptian or register your property if it is worth something like over 75,000 or 50,000 USD. Now if your developer has not registered the land then you cannot register your property. I have not gone through the process of registering my property because hardly anyone else in El Gouna has either, so I hear.
And what are the advantages of having a residents visa over a tourist visa. Well there are different prices here for tourists and residents. All hotels and transport offer different prices and the difference is quite big but shopping around on the internet for hotels you can always find cheap deals. Also Egypt Air you can get good prices if you book in advance.
Also in the hospitals there are different prices for residents and tourists. Luckily in El Gouna I get resident prices because I am an owner and the hospital is excellent. If I go outside the price is huge.
And you have to take the tourist convoys unless there are only a few other tourists on the bus (i.e. Cairo or Luxor buses, etc.)
And there is also some rule about owning or registering cars if you are not resident but as I said before it is safer to walk
