I moved my family of five from London to Cairo.This is every number, every document, and every mistake.
A 33-page field guide for Western Muslim families considering hijrah to Egypt — written on the ground in Cairo, from my own bills, my own paperwork, and my own wrong turns. Not a blog post. Not a vlog. The document I wish someone had handed me.
Free · The full 33-page PDF, emailed to you · Edition 1, July 2026
You can't plan a move on YouTube comments.
You've watched the vlogs. You've read the Facebook groups. And you've noticed the same thing I did: everyone speaks in vibes, and nobody shows their bills.
“It's so cheap!” — how cheap, exactly? “The visa is easy!” — which visa? “Schools are affordable!” — what did you pay?
When it's your family, your savings, and your children's schooling on the line, “roughly” isn't good enough. I moved my wife and three kids from London to Cairo, and I made expensive mistakes that one honest document would have prevented. So I wrote that document.
Written for one family: yours, if this is you.
This guide is written first and foremost for Western Muslim families considering hijrah to Egypt — people weighing the deen, their children's future, and the practical reality of the move together. That's the journey my family made, and it's the lens for every page.
If you're exploring Egypt mainly for the lower cost of living, the sun, or a remote-work base — the practical chapters on visas, money, housing and the roadmap will still carry you a long way. But the heart of this book belongs to the first group.
My actual bills. Not estimates. Not ranges.
Most relocation content gives you vague bands and “it depends.” This guide gives you receipts:
- ✓My family's real monthly bills — rent, utilities, internet, groceries — itemised line by line
- ✓The complete cost of landing and setting up a family of five, every line item, from flights to furniture
- ✓The school fees I actually paid — and what I was quoted across the different schooling routes
- ✓Every figure in one currency, converted at the current exchange rate, so you can plan without a calculator
Twelve chapters. Four toolkits. Zero fluff.
- 01
My why
The honest story of why we left London.
- 02
Getting in
Visas, entry, and the small things that catch people out at the airport.
- 03
Staying
The residency routes compared, and the one I'd point most families to.
- 04
Where to live
The areas I'd point a family to, mapped, and how to choose between them.
- 05
Money
The currency reality, my real bills, and the full cost of setting up.
- 06
Finding & renting a home
How renting actually works here, and the traps foreigners walk into.
- 07
Deen
What daily Islamic life is really like: masjids, Qur'an, Arabic, raising kids in it.
- 08
Family, schools & healthcare
The schooling routes compared, real fees, and the paperwork requirement that catches families off guard.
- 09
Working & earning
Remote income, internet reality, and the connectivity setup that actually works.
- 10
Safety, culture & daily life
The apps, the shopping, the etiquette, the daily rhythm.
- 11
The honest challenges & the balance sheet
What people wish they knew, weighed properly.
- 12
Your relocation roadmap
The whole move, turned into a step-by-step sequence.
Plus the toolkits
- ✓A tick-off 30-day landing checklist
- ✓A monthly budget planner
- ✓A bring-it-or-buy-it packing list
- ✓A glossary of the Arabic terms you'll hear every day
My mistakes already cost me money — so they don't cost you any.
There's a category of problem you only discover after it's expensive: the apartment issue I didn't check before signing, the document requirement that blindsides families at school enrolment, the tax that surprises almost everyone who lands with a phone in their pocket, the single setup decision that quietly dominated our upfront costs, and the fake websites that outrank the official ones on Google.
Every one of them is in the guide — what happened, what it cost, and exactly what I'd do differently.
What this guide is not.
It's not a promise that Egypt is right for your family — chapter 11 is a genuinely honest list of the frictions, and some families read it and rightly stay home. It's not legal, immigration or financial advice; rules change, and I tell you exactly which details to verify and with whom. And it's not a lifestyle fantasy. It's the paperwork, the prices and the patterns, from someone actually living it.
Egypt rewards the prepared and punishes the impulsive. This guide is about being the first kind of person.
Written on the ground, not from a studio.
I'm Faisal. I spent over a decade delivering cloud engineering for enterprise names in the UK, then moved my family of five from London to Cairo — and documented everything: the visas, the flat hunt, the school enrolments, the bills. This site is where I share that life. The guide is the organised, complete version of everything I've learned, current as of July 2026.
Questions
- Which version do I get?
- Edition 1, accurate as of July 2026, with all figures converted at the current exchange rate. If I publish a revised edition, everyone on the list gets it — that's the main reason to be on it.
- Is this only for Muslims?
- It's written first for Muslim families making hijrah — but the visa, money, housing and roadmap chapters apply to anyone moving to Cairo.
- What format is it?
- A designed 33-page PDF — readable on phone or tablet, and formatted to print cleanly if you prefer paper.
- Does it apply outside the UK?
- The process chapters apply to most Western passports, and all costs are in US dollars. The document-legalisation examples reference the UK (my route); the same chain applies via your own country's Egyptian consulate.
- What does it cost?
- Nothing. It's the complete guide, not a sample chapter — I'd rather it reached the families who need it than sat behind a paywall.
- What do you do with my email?
- I send you the guide, then the occasional note about life in Egypt and anything I'd want to know if I were still planning the move. One click unsubscribes, and I don't share or sell the list.
The move is easier with the map.
You can spend months piecing this together from forums, or read it in an afternoon from someone who has already made the move. Tell me where to send it.
Edition 1, July 2026
Want it mapped to your family?
The guide is everything I learned, written for everyone making this move. A consultation is an hour on your situation specifically — your budget, your kids, your timeline — and a plan you can act on when we hang up.
60 minutes · 1:1 · $97