Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Top of the restricted list of travellers into Saudi Arabia remains citizens of Israel, but
also includes people of Jewish faith from other countries. All visitors to Saudi must de-
clare their religion - those declaring 'Jewish' or 'none' will usually be refused a visa.
Any
evidence of travel to and from Israel will result in refusal of entry into Saudi. Saudi
immigration officials are fully aware of the land crossings into both Jordan and Egypt
from Israel. Entry stamps from either Egypt or Jordan's land border crossings with Israel -
Rafah (Egypt), Allenby Bridge and Aqaba (Jordan) - will usually result in a Saudi visa
not being issued in the first place, or if the visa does magically appear, then the unfortu-
nate traveller will probably end up being turned back at Saudi immigration. If you have
evidence of travel to Israel in your passport and intend to travel to Saudi Arabia in the fu-
ture use a brand new passport for your Saudi visa application.
For a full list of possible visa types, see
www.saudiembassy.net/services
.
VISA RULES
When planning your Saudi visa, remember to keep the following in mind:
»
A Saudi sponsor is necessary for any visit to the Kingdom, be it for business or tourism, and they are legally re-
sponsible for the conduct and behaviour of visitors whilst in the Kingdom.
»
Passports must be valid for a minimum of six months.
»
When applying for a visa, women under 30 years old must be accompanied by either their brother or husband,
who must also arrive in and leave Saudi at the same time.
»
Men and women are only allowed to travel together and are granted a visa to do so if they are (a) married (with
an official marriage licence) or (b) form part of a group.
»
It's not permitted for an unmarried couple to travel alone together in Saudi Arabia and doing so runs the risk of
arrest.
Hajj & Umrah Visas
For hajj visas there's a quota system of one visa for every 1000 Muslims in a country's
population. The system of administration varies from country to country but typically in-
volves an application processed by a Saudi-authorised hajj and
umrah
travel agency.
Every Saudi embassy has a list of authorised hajj and
umrah
travel agencies for that par-
ticular country.
Umrah
(any pilgrimage to Mecca that is not hajj) visas are granted to any Muslim re-
questing one (in theory) although if you are not from a Muslim majority country or don't
have an obviously Muslim name, you'll be asked to provide an official document that lists
Islam as your religion. Converts to Islam must provide a certificate from the mosque
where they went through their conversion ceremony.
