Saudi Visa for GCC Residents: Who Qualifies in 2026

Can GCC residents apply for a Saudi visa?

Yes. If you hold valid residency in one of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states, which are Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia itself, you can apply for a Saudi visa online. You do not need to travel to an embassy, and you do not need to be a citizen of one of the countries on Saudi Arabia’s standard eVisa list.

This is the part that confuses most people. There are two separate routes into the Kingdom. One is based on your passport, and it is open to citizens of the 66 eligible countries. The other is based on your residency, and it is the one that matters if you are an expat living in the Gulf. Millions of people in Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE hold passports that are not on the 66-country list, yet they can still apply online because of where they live.

Does your profession still matter?

No, and this is the single biggest piece of outdated information on the internet about Saudi visas.

Until 2023, GCC residents had to hold an approved profession to qualify. Long lists circulated showing which job titles were accepted, and drivers, housemaids, labourers and watchmen were routinely excluded. Plenty of websites still publish those lists today.

They are wrong. On 9 March 2023, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Tourism, Ahmed Al-Khateeb, announced that the profession requirement had been abolished. The Saudi Press Agency reported the change, and it was confirmed shortly afterwards by the immigration advisory firms Fragomen and Deloitte, both of which stated plainly that all GCC residents are eligible regardless of profession.

So if you drive for a living, work in construction, or are employed in a household, you qualify on exactly the same terms as an engineer or a doctor. If a website tells you to check your job title against a list, that page has not been updated in over three years.

What do you need to qualify?

The requirements are short. You need a residency permit valid for at least three months, whether that is a Kuwaiti Civil ID, a Qatar ID, an Emirates ID, an iqama, or a Bahraini or Omani residence permit. You need a passport valid for at least six months. You need to be at least 18 to apply independently, and younger travellers are included on a parent or guardian’s application.

Beyond that, the document list matches any other Saudi tourist eVisa application, which means a clear scan of your passport photo page, a recent passport-style photo on a white background, and a payment card. Our Saudi Arabia tourist visa requirements guide covers the full checklist and the photo specification in detail.

Does your nationality matter?

For the GCC route, your residency is what qualifies you, not your passport. That is the whole point of the route, and it is why so many Indian, Pakistani, Filipino and Bangladeshi residents of the Gulf can apply online even though those nationalities do not appear on the standard 66-country list.

There is one honest caveat. A small number of nationalities may still be directed to an embassy or a visa centre rather than the online system, even when the applicant holds Gulf residency. Rules on this are applied by the Saudi authorities and are not always published clearly. If that applies to you, holding a valid US, UK or Schengen visa may open a visa on arrival route instead. If you are unsure which option fits your passport, contact our team before you pay for anything, and we will check your situation first.

How long is it valid, and how long can you stay?

The visa is commonly issued as a multiple-entry visa valid for 365 days, so a single approval covers a year of travel and you can enter the Kingdom more than once without applying again.

The maximum stay is 90 days, but be careful how you read that figure. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office states that the eVisa is valid for multiple entries but for 90 days in total across the 365-day period, rather than 90 days on each separate trip. Saudi Arabia’s own portal says only that the visa allows travellers to spend up to 90 days in the country, without spelling out how those days are counted.

Most visa websites tell you it is 90 days per visit. We are not comfortable repeating that, because if the cumulative reading is correct, following it could put you in overstay. Check the conditions printed on your own approved visa before you travel, and ask us if anything on it is unclear.

Can you perform Umrah on it?

Yes, outside the Hajj season.

We offer the one-year multiple entry visa in two forms: tourist only, or tourist with Umrah. If you choose the Umrah option, we select it on your application, and you can then perform Umrah at any point during the year apart from the Hajj period.

Choosing it adds nothing to the documents you provide and does not affect whether your application is approved. It simply enables the pilgrimage on the visa you are already applying for. Our guide to performing Umrah on a Saudi tourist visa explains the timing and the seasonal restrictions in more detail.

Can your family and household staff travel with you?

Yes, and this is worth knowing because almost nobody explains it. Every traveller needs their own visa, including children and including domestic staff, and the abolition of the profession rule means household employees qualify in their own right.

In practice that means a family travelling from Kuwait or Qatar with a nanny or a driver is submitting several applications rather than one. We handle multi-applicant families regularly, and getting the details consistent across every application is the part that most often causes delays, so it is worth having all the passports and residency documents in front of you before you start.

How to apply

The process takes three steps. Choose your visa and enter your travel, passport and residency details. Upload your documents and photo, then pay securely online. Your approved visa then arrives by email as a PDF.

Our specialists check every application before it goes in, which matters here more than most people expect, because mismatches between the name on a passport and the name on a residency permit are a common cause of delay. When you are ready, start your application, and you can track your application status online at any point afterwards.