Umrah Visa from Dubai: How UAE Residents Apply

How do you get an Umrah visa from Dubai?

You apply online, and for most people the visa you need is the Saudi eVisa rather than a dedicated Umrah visa. There is no embassy appointment and no agent visit required for the residency route.

Living in the UAE is what makes this straightforward. Saudi Arabia treats GCC residency as a qualifying route in its own right, so a resident of the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman can apply online even when their passport is not on the 66-country eVisa list. Your Emirates ID does the work your passport cannot.

The sequence is short. You confirm your nationality and residency, upload your passport and a photo, pay, and receive the approved visa by email. Most decisions come back in about five working days, though this stretches as the Umrah season gets busier. Applying three to four weeks before you intend to travel removes almost all of the risk.

Do you even need a separate Umrah visa?

Do you even need a separate Umrah visa?

Usually not.

On 5 October 2025 the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah confirmed that holders of all visa types may perform Umrah, naming “electronic tourist visas” among them (Saudi Press Agency). The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office says the same, listing “Umrah (outside the Hajj season)” among the purposes the visa covers.

In practice you choose it when you apply. We offer the visa in two forms, tourist only or tourist with Umrah. If you take the Umrah option we select it on your application, which adds no extra requirements and does not affect your approval.

A dedicated Umrah visa still exists and suits people buying a full package through an approved operator, but it is no longer the only door.our guide to performing Umrah on a Saudi tourist visa covers who qualifies and where the limits sit.

What is Nusuk, and do you need a permit?

Nusuk is the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah’s own platform. You use it to book Umrah packages, choose your timings, and reserve a Rawdah visit at the Prophet’s Mosque, which does need a booking.

You do not need a Nusuk permit on top of your visa. The Ministry describes the platform as being for those arranging Umrah directly, not as a requirement on every visa holder. Register on it anyway, because it is free, it is the official channel, and it is how timings and Rawdah slots are issued. Be cautious of anyone charging you for something the Ministry provides itself.

How much does it cost?

The amount depends on your nationality and the visa type you need, so we show you the exact figure before you pay rather than advertising one number that would be wrong for most people.

What you pay covers the Saudi government visa fee, the travel insurance element that forms part of the visa, and our service fee for preparing, checking and submitting the application. That insurance element is not full medical cover, and we do not issue a separate insurance certificate, because what we deliver is the visa itself. If you want comprehensive medical or travel cover for the trip, arrange it separately with an insurer.

It is worth knowing what you are comparing. A visa is not a package. Prices you see quoted in the thousands of dirhams are usually Umrah packages that bundle flights, hotels and transport. If you already have your flights and accommodation, the visa is the only thing you need from us.

How long can you stay, and how often can you go?

Up to 90 days in total across the year, not 90 days on each trip. The visa itself runs for a year and admits you as many times as you need within it.

This distinction catches people out, and it is the single most misreported fact about this visa. The FCDO puts it in one sentence: the eVisa is “valid for multiple entries, but only for 90 days in total across the 365 day period” (UK FCDO, retrieved 8 September 2026). Saudi Arabia’s own portal says only that the visa allows up to 90 days in the country, without spelling out how those days are counted, which is exactly how the confusion took root.

In practice, that means you can perform Umrah more than once in a year on the same visa. Two short trips of a week each barely touch your allowance. What you must not do is read it as 90 days per visit, plan a long stay on top of several shorter ones, and discover you ran out of days somewhere in the middle. Count cumulatively and keep a margin.

When can you not travel? The Hajj window

Umrah is not available on this route during the Hajj season, and the FCDO states the restriction plainly as part of what the visa covers.

The Hajj season moves each year because it follows the Islamic calendar, so there is no fixed set of dates to memorise. What matters practically is that the window closes ahead of Hajj and reopens afterwards, and that the weeks either side of it are the busiest and slowest for processing anything.

Two things follow. If your trip falls anywhere near the Hajj period, check the current position before you book flights rather than after. And if you are travelling in the run-up, build in more time than you think you need, because approvals slow down exactly when demand peaks.

Does your nationality change anything?

It can, and this is worth understanding before you apply rather than after a refusal.

Since February 2025, Saudi Arabia has restricted one-year multiple entry visas for business, tourism and family visits for nationals of Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen. Single entry remains available to them (Fragomen, 12 February 2025).

Read that list carefully, because what it names matters as much as what it omits. The restriction is described as applying to business, tourism and family visit visas. Pilgrimage is not among the categories named. That is a reasonable reading rather than a guarantee, and we will not pretend otherwise on a question this consequential.

What we can tell you is what we see in our own processing. Outcomes for those fourteen passports are not uniform. Some applications go through as expected, others come back restricted to single entry, and the pattern tightens noticeably as Hajj approaches. Two people of the same nationality applying two months apart can get different answers. So we check your nationality against the current position before your application goes anywhere, and we tell you which visa you can realistically be issued rather than taking your money and hoping.

What documents do UAE residents need?

Three things, and they are the same three whichever GCC country you live in.

You need a passport with at least six months of validity remaining from your intended date of entry, a recent passport-style photograph on a white background sized two inches by two inches, and a credit or debit card for payment. Your Emirates ID or equivalent residency must be valid, with enough time left on it to cover your travel.

That is the whole list for the residency route. There is no bank statement, no invitation letter and no hotel booking requirement. Where applications fail it is almost always the photograph or the passport validity rather than something missing, which is why we check both before submitting rather than after a refusal. When you are ready, you can start your application and see the exact amount before committing to anything.