Visit Visa Stopped till End of Hajj Season 2015

Every year around the Ramadan time the government of Saudi Arabia stop issuing visit visa online through Ministry of Foreign Affairs – MOFA website. This year also, the many of the readers have given feedback that they were unable to get visit visa from around date 17th May, 2015. Many people were getting the below message when they applied for visa online:

نـأمل تعبئة طلب جديد بعد انتهاء موسم الحج

which means that “We hope to issue you visa when you make a new application after end of Hajj season”. The Hajj season is considered over by end of mid Muharram, that is around 25 October, 2015.

Same thing happened last year in 2014. In fact, in 2014, in addition to stop issuing of new visit visas, the jawazat had was renewing the visit visa only till end of Shaban. And the visitors had to leave Saudi Arabia before Ramadan. However, after the start of Ramadan, they relaxed the rules for renewal.

Visit Visa Renewal

This year, however, there seems to be problem in renewals of visit visas. Just yesterday (8th June, 2015), one of our fellow expatriate informed me that he was able to renew visit visa for another 3 months.

However, if the authorities still allow renewal later  or they will restrict as Hajj comes near cannot be said.

Getting Visit Visa through alternate procedure

Though this year also, many people are getting rejected of visit visa application, however, one of our readers has confirmed that he got the visit visa for his parents after being rejected 3 times online through MOFA. The fourth time he applied for Visit Visa through Istiqdam and got it. To read his story, see True Experience: How I got Visit Visa from Istiqdam after getting Rejected 3 times Online

Also you can read the procedure for applying for Visit Visa through Istiqdam here.

If you were able to get visa, share your experience so that others may benefit.