Visa Rule Changed: This country has changed its visa policies, which will affect 14 countries including India. Saudi Arabia has suspended multiple visa entry indefinitely. This change has been made in view of Hajj.
Visa Rule Changed: Saudi Arabia has changed its visa rules, which will affect 14 countries including India. The changed visa rules have come into effect from February 1, 2025, under which passengers coming from these countries will get only single entry visa to enter the Kingdom. Saudi has changed its visa rules so that people coming to the country with long-term visas cannot perform Hajj unauthorizedly.
People who have multiple entry visas of Saudi Arabia perform Hajj unauthorizedly without Hajj permit during Hajj, which increases the crowd in the holy city of Mecca. This increases the headache of Saudi officials.
With a single entry visa, a person can enter a country only once, whereas a multiple entry visa is a long term visa that allows the visa holder to visit that country multiple times.
Which 14 countries will be affected
The 14 countries that will be affected by the change in Saudi Arabia’s visa rules are Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen.
Saudi Arabia has indefinitely suspended the one-year multiple entry visa for people coming from these countries for tourism, business and to meet family, as part of the change in its visa rules.
All these 14 countries are the countries from where most people go to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia for Haj pilgrimage or Umrah.
Major changes in Saudi’s visa policy-
As per the changed rules, tourists coming from the affected countries can only apply for single entry visa. This visa will be valid for 30 days and tourists can stay in Saudi for a maximum of 30 days. However, Hajj, Umrah, diplomatic and residence visas will not be affected by this change.
Saudi officials say that multiple visa entry was being misused. Some passengers were coming to the country on long term visas and later staying for unauthorized periods to perform Hajj or work in Saudi.
Step had to be taken in view of the crowd in Hajj
Saudi Arabia takes strict steps to control the crowd in Hajj. For this, it has fixed Hajj quota for every country. The number of Muslims from the country that gets the quota, go to Mecca for Hajj every year.
In recent years, crowd in Mecca during Hajj has remained a big problem because many people go for Hajj without Hajj permit. Last year, more than 1,200 pilgrims died due to scorching sun and heat during Hajj. Most of the dead were unauthorized pilgrims who could not take advantage of the Hajj preparations made by the Saudi government due to lack of permits and died due to heat.
Saudi Arabia was criticized a lot due to the death of such a large number of pilgrims, in view of which the Kingdom has started preparations to prevent any such accident in this year’s Hajj. In this sequence, multiple entry visas have been suspended to stop unauthorized pilgrims during Hajj.
The Saudi government hopes that with the change in visa rules, only authorized pilgrims will be able to perform Hajj, which will reduce the crowd in the city and everyone will be able to take advantage of the arrangements made to avoid the heat.
Saudi officials have described the suspension of multiple-entry visas as temporary. It is not yet clear how long this suspension will continue.
