Latest E-Visa for Umrah

by Ady Grewal Content writer

Every year several people have to postpone their arrangements to perform pilgrimage due to filling the quota of application. To keep in view the Saudi Government is really making sure to enter thirty-million pilgrims in the Kingdom for their 2030 Vision. And for that purpose, they have promised several changes to the current issuance of visa, which will help aid the process and make it easier for pilgrims to get their visas.

To issue the Umrah visa for those who had to send their passport to the Umrah agent, who then submitted it to the Saudi embassy for stamping and activation. The process took near 2-3 weeks.

Umrah E-Visa Issuance and Duration

Not only is the best news about the Umrah E-visa convenience of not having to send passport and spend money on couriers but also the fact that it takes about 24 hours to be active.

There are a few things which pilgrims need to remember.

• Umrah visa will be issued within 24 hours.

• If pilgrims have been previously in the past 2 Hijri Years they will have to pay the extra repeat fee.

• Pilgrims have to specify their travel dates for the Umrah visa, so please make sure pay attention.

• Pilgrim’s visa is valid for 15 days from issuance.

• Pilgrims can travel and stay in Saudi Arabia for 15 days without problems.

Few important things to remember!

1 Make sure the specify travel dates because the visa will be invalid. Umrah E-Visa makes it easier for them to track people and manage the flow of pilgrims. They can change the numbers allowed in and if pilgrims miss their dates they will have to apply again and pay the repeat fee.

2. Pilgrims can apply from any country even if they are not a national but have a residence permit. Yet, if pilgrims don’t, so they cannot apply for Umrah visa. For example, if you have the nationality of Pakistan living in Britain and have RP you are OK to apply. But, if you have a student visa you are not eligible to apply. Same is the case to Canadians in the US that are on other types of visas. If they have a Green card they are eligible to apply for Umrah visa from the US. If they do not have, so they need to find an agent in their country and just send them a scanned copy of their passport.

3. If pilgrims have been before the end of the two Hijri years then they will have to pay an extra 2000SAR per person but this is not taken by the agent but paid to Saudi. However, there are different umrah packages prices for different countries.

4. The pilgrims can stay in Saudi for 15 days without hesitation as their visa might be for 30 days but there have been cases where the pilgrims have been blacklisted from going again due to overstaying.

Therefore, pilgrims should not take any risk for a few extra days unless they plan not to go for several years. It has been noticed the marker from the Umrah agent, so it is not worth the risk.