Effective December 5, the new regulations grant Indians a swift 48-hour processing time for a 96-hour stopover visa
In a significant move, Saudi Arabia has introduced a set of revamped visa rules, opening the doors for Indian citizens to visit the kingdom and perform Umrah on stopover, business, and tourism visas. Tawfiq Al Rabiah, the Minister of Hajj and Umrah for Saudi Arabia, announced these measures during his visit to New Delhi, with the aim of streamlining the pilgrimage process, as reported by thenationalnews.com.
Effective December 5, the new regulations grant Indians a swift 48-hour processing time for a 96-hour stopover visa. This visa enables pilgrims to undertake the Umrah and explore any city within the kingdom. Al Rabiah emphasized that the Umrah visa remains valid for 90 days, allowing holders to reside in and visit various Saudi cities.
India, with a Muslim population of 200 million among its 1.3 billion inhabitants, has witnessed a remarkable surge in the number of Umrah pilgrims. Al Rabiah disclosed that over 1.2 million individuals from India performed Umrah this year, marking a substantial 74 percent increase from the previous year.
In response to the escalating demand, both nations are set to enhance the number of direct flights to accommodate the growing influx of Indian pilgrims, as stated by Al Rabiah. Notably, more than 175,000 slots were allocated for Muslims from India to perform Hajj this year. Significantly, 47 percent of the pilgrims were women, with 4,000 women completing Hajj without a male companion—a notable shift in Saudi Arabia’s policy, allowing women over 45 to undertake the pilgrimage without a male guardian.
The Saudi Embassy in New Delhi emphasized that these changes align with Saudi Vision 2030, aiming to streamline procedures, enhance services, and establish comprehensive plans for hosting pilgrims and Umrah performers. Saudi Arabia is actively working towards creating a more accessible and welcoming environment for visitors in line with its long-term vision.
************************************************************************
Readers
These are extraordinary times. All of us have to rely on high-impact, trustworthy journalism. And this is especially true of the Indian Diaspora. Members of the Indian community overseas cannot be fed with inaccurate news.
Pravasi Samwad is a venture that has no shareholders. It is the result of an impassioned initiative of a handful of Indian journalists spread around the world. We have taken the small step forward with the pledge to provide news with accuracy, free from political and commercial influence. Our aim is to keep you, our readers, informed about developments at ‘home’ and across the world that affect you.
Please help us to keep our journalism independent and free.
In these difficult times, to run a news website requires finances. While every contribution, big or small, will makes a difference, we request our readers to put us in touch with advertisers worldwide. It will be a great help.
For more information: pravasisamwad00@gmail.com
