Saudi Arabia has changed its visa policies given Hajj, which will affect 14 countries including India. Saudi Arabia has suspended multiple visa entry indefinitely. This change has been made given Hajj.

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 a 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 pilgrimage unauthorizedly.

People who have multiple entry visas from Saudi Arabia perform Hajj without Hajj permits, which increases the crowd in the holy city of Mecca. This increases the headache of Saudi authorities.

A single-entry visa allows a person to enter a country only once, while 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 visa policy-

According to the changed rules, tourists coming from the affected countries can only apply for a single entry visa. This visa will be valid for 30 days and tourists can stay in Saudi for a maximum of 30 days. However, Haj, Umrah, diplomatic and residence visas will not be affected by this change.
 

Saudi officials say that multiple visa entries were being misused. Some passengers were coming to the country on long-term visas and later staying for unauthorized periods to perform Haj or work in Saudi.

Steps had to be taken given the crowd at Haj.

Saudi Arabia takes strict steps to control the crowd in Haj. For this, it has a fixed Haj quota for every country. Every year, Muslims from every country go to Mecca for Hajj as per the quota given to that country.

In recent years, crowding in Mecca has been a big problem during Hajj because many people go for Hajj without a Hajj permit. Last year, more than 1,200 pilgrims died due to the scorching sun and heat during Hajj. Most of those who died were unauthorized pilgrims who, due to lack of permit, could not take advantage of the Hajj preparations made by the Saudi government and died due to heat.

Saudi Arabia was criticized a lot due to the death of such a large number of pilgrims, given that the Kingdom has started preparations to prevent any such accident in this year’s Haj. In this sequence, multiple entry visas have been suspended to stop unauthorized pilgrims during Haj.

The Saudi government hopes that with the change in visa rules, only authorized pilgrims will be able to perform Haj, 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.