Hire a Japanese Chef in Egypt: Work Permit and the 10% Rule

Egypt's rules on foreign workers are built around a ratio: foreign staff should not exceed one in ten of a company's workforce. For a restaurant that means the number of Egyptian employees on the books decides whether a Japanese chef can be hired at all. This guide covers the ratio, the two permits a chef needs, and the work permit fees, which rise the longer the chef stays.

1. The market

• MAFF counted about 60 Japanese restaurants in Egypt in 2025, about 10 more than in 2023 (MAFF rounds to the nearest ten).
• MOFA recorded 757 Japanese nationals in Egypt on 1 October 2025: 534 long-term stayers and 223 permanent residents.

With only a few hundred Japanese residents, most Japanese restaurants in Cairo will rely on training Egyptian cooks under one experienced chef. See our guide to training local staff in Japanese cuisine.

2. A note on sources

We could not access the Egyptian labour ministry's own website when researching this article in September 2026. The rules below come from JETRO's page on Egyptian foreign employment rules, last updated 31 October 2025, which cites the underlying decrees and laws. JETRO notes that the ministry's online guide to the work permit procedure is in Arabic only. Treat the figures as a starting point and confirm them with the ministry or a local lawyer.

3. Two permits: work and residence

• A foreigner working in Egypt needs both a work permit and a residence permit.
• The work permit is renewed every year. The residence permit usually has to be renewed every six months.
• The conditions and procedures for issuing work permits are set by Ministerial Decree 146 of 2019.
• Some groups are exempt from the work permit, in eight categories set by law, including embassy staff, press correspondents, researchers and holders of investor residency.
• A work permit can be renewed a maximum of ten times for each foreign worker.

Foreigners are barred from some occupations, such as tour guiding and import, export and customs clearance work. Cooking is not among the prohibited occupations JETRO lists.

4. The 10% rule

JETRO sets out the ratio as follows:

• Foreign workers must not exceed 10% of total employees, and the reference point is the number of Egyptian employees enrolled in social insurance.
• For branch offices, joint stock companies and limited liability companies, the Companies Law (Law 159 of 1981, Article 174) and Decree 146 of 2019 also bar paying foreign employees 20% or more of total wages.
• Companies set up in free zones may have foreign workers up to 20% of total employees, under Investment Law 72 of 2017.

For a restaurant, the arithmetic is blunt. With ten Egyptian employees registered for social insurance, you have room for one foreign employee. A new restaurant that wants its Japanese head chef on day one needs its Egyptian team hired and registered first. Also check the wage share: one well-paid foreign chef in a small team can pass 20% of the wage bill.

5. Work permit fees by year

Per worker, per one-year permit, as listed by JETRO:

Companies exempted from the 10% rule pay a different scale: EGP 8,000 for the first permit, then EGP 8,000 plus EGP 2,000 for each year beyond the first, up to EGP 50,000.

6. The 2025 Labour Law

Egypt adopted a new Labour Law (Law 14 of 2025). JETRO reports that it allows the competent minister to decide the maximum proportion of foreign workers, the exceptions and the occupations barred to foreigners, and that as of October 2025 the new rules had not been issued. Under the new law, employment contracts must be written in Arabic, English or the employee's native language. Until the new ministerial rules appear, the 10% ratio above is the working assumption, but check whether anything has changed before you plan headcount.

7. Step by step

1. Hire your Egyptian team and register them for social insurance.
2. Check the 10% headcount ratio and, for companies, the 20% wage share, with the planned chef salary.
3. Interview with a practical test. See remote skills tests.
4. Prepare a contract in Arabic, English or Japanese. See our contract checklist.
5. Apply for the work permit through the labour ministry (with a local adviser, since the online guide is in Arabic).
6. Arrange the residence permit and diary the six-month residence and annual work permit renewals.
7. Plan arrival with our onboarding guide.

For the Gulf, where rules differ, see our Dubai and Saudi Arabia guides.

General information, not legal or immigration advice. This article relies on JETRO's summary (updated 31 October 2025) because the Egyptian ministry's site could not be accessed in September 2026, and new rules under Law 14 of 2025 were pending; confirm everything with the Ministry of Labour and a local lawyer before acting.