Saudi Government New Rules and Regulations For Umrah

Umrah is a non-obligatory pilgrimage in Islam, but still every Muslim desire of performing it at least once in their lifetime. No Muslim wants to miss the opportunity to visit the house of the Allah and having a glimpse of the holy Kaaba. Due to the easy availability of low-priced Umrah and cheap Ramadan Umrah packages, every year lakhs of Muslims visit the Mecca and Medina to perform Umrah. However, the Saudi Arabia government has imposed some strict regulation on Umrah pilgrimage which has demotivated thousands of pilgrims from performing Umrah. These rules and regulations regarding Umrah were opposed and criticized by the people worldwide. At the same time, many people also appreciated this new initiative of the Saudi govt. from the safety point of view.    

Now let's discuss these regulations in detail.

• Umrah Visa Rule

As per the new Umrah visa rule implemented by the Ministry of Hajj, Saudi Arabia, pilgrims who undertook Umrah last year and are planning to visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina again this year for performing Umrah will have to pay extra SR 2000. However, the pilgrims who are visiting Saudi Arabia for the first time for performing Umrah are exempted from this fee and their fee will be paid by the Saudi govt. The pilgrims who are performing Umrah subsequently will be considered "repeaters" and hence will be charged this extra fee. Now the pilgrims will have to maintain a gap of at least two Hijri years in order to perform Umrah again. This decision of the Saudi govt. has negatively affected the pilgrims visiting Mecca subsequently for Umrah as well as Umrah operators offering cheap Umrah packages including flights and other facilities and has also discouraged the pilgrims from undertaking this pilgrimage.   

• Biometric Verification

The another regulation of the Saudi govt. mandates the biometric verification of each and every single pilgrim visiting Mecca for performing Umrah. Without the biometric verification, the people will not be able to submit their Umrah visa application in the Saudi Embassy. There are numerous Saudi government authorized firms in different countries which conduct biometric verification of the pilgrims preparing for the Umrah and the validity of this biometric is three months. It means, if the pilgrim does not visit Saudi Arabia for Umrah within the three months of biometric, then he/ she will again have to conduct their verification. The motive behind beginning of this initiative is to increase the safety and security of the people performing Umrah. Besides, it has also increased the extra expenditure associated with the Umrah.

• Tax Increment on Umrah Pilgrimage

As per the Saudi govt. another rule, the tax increment has tripled the cost of performing Umrah for the pilgrims. The pilgrims will now have to pay 5 to 10% extra on the Umrah packages. This raised tax has increased the difficulties of the Umrah pilgrims by making it way more costlier than before. This tax increment is bothering the pilgrims especially the middle class ones. This measure of the govt. has negatively affected the Umrah pilgrims as well as the sales of Umrah packages as people are finding it extremely costly to pay SR 2000 for every subsequent visit.