Nusuk

Nusuk verification is mostly automated but borderline cases route to manual review. Allow 24 to 48 hours. If still pending after 72 hours, re-upload a clearer scan with the vaccine name, date, batch number, and practitioner stamp all clearly visible. Yellow Card hand-written entries are accepted if legible; computer-printed certificates are preferred. Contact Nusuk support through the in-app chat if the wait exceeds 5 days.

The five-Hijri-year cooldown is enforced strictly for residents and citizens. There is no appeal path unless you qualify under a specific exemption (mutawwif role, religious school programme, certain charitable allocations). The earliest re-application is in the fifth Hijri year after your last Hajj — calculate carefully against the Hijri calendar, not the Gregorian.

The gate scans the QR code against the booked time slot — early arrival outside the slot window can be refused if the gate is at full capacity for the current slot. Wait at the assigned holding area until your slot starts. If the gate's scanner fails, the security supervisor can manually verify by entering your Iqama or passport into the handheld terminal.

Activation is automatic 7 days before the Hajj entry date for issued permits. If the card is still inactive at 5 days out, check that the Hajj permit shows as 'confirmed' in the Permits tab (not 'pending payment' or 'pending verification'). Contact the approved travel agency that issued the package — they have admin tools to push activation through. As a last resort, contact Nusuk support via the in-app chat or the Ministry of Hajj helpline 1966.

Card payment is the default for international pilgrims; SADAD only applies if you are paying from within Saudi Arabia. Switch the payment method on the application to international card (Visa or Mastercard) and complete the SAR 535 charge. If card payment fails, the issuing bank may have flagged the transaction as suspicious — contact the bank to authorise Saudi government payments, then retry.

Contact the Saudi Ministry of Hajj international affairs office through Nusuk's complaints channel — the 14 approved agencies are regulated and the Ministry has direct contact channels. For agency disputes happening abroad before the Saudi-side stage, your home-country consumer protection authority may have jurisdiction. Many countries also have a Hajj affairs office (e.g., UK's Hajj Ministerial Steering Group) that intermediates between pilgrims and agencies.

Hajj 1447 AH falls in late May to early June 2026 (Gregorian) and the application timelines follow the established pattern: Saudi resident and citizen applications open through Nusuk in early Shawwal 1447 (around mid-October 2025); international applications open from the 14 approved travel agencies in each home country around the same time, with applications typically required to be submitted 4 to 6 months before Hajj. The international permit allocation is finalised by the Ministry of Hajj 2 to 3 months before the Hajj season, and visa issuance peaks in Rabi al-Awwal to Rabi al-Thani 1447 (October to November 2026 for Hajj 1447 in May 2026 — note the Hijri calendar drifts earlier each year relative to Gregorian). Plan the visa, accommodation, and travel arrangements at least 6 months out. For residents and citizens, the five-Hijri-year cooldown rule is enforced at application time.

Yes, since 2024 — Saudi Arabia opened Umrah eligibility to all visa holders, including standard tourist visas (eVisa from 65+ countries) and family visit visas. The change removed the previous strict separation that required a dedicated Umrah visa. Holders of any valid Saudi visa can perform Umrah; the only practical change is that they still need the Nusuk-issued permit for Masjid al-Haram entry during enforced periods (Ramadan, Hajj season) and for any related religious site that requires advance booking. The dedicated Umrah visa remains the cheapest and simplest route for pilgrims travelling specifically for Umrah, but it is no longer the only route. Note the Hajj rule is stricter: Hajj for international pilgrims still requires the dedicated Hajj visa through the approved travel agencies.

Open Nusuk > Permits > Rawdah Al-Sharifah and the available slot window appears — typically a rolling 30-day forward window. Choose date, time slot, and entry gate. The booking is instant; the permit is added to your Nusuk wallet with a QR code. Slots release in waves throughout the day and clear within minutes for prime times (after Fajr, after Asr). Less popular slots (late night, mid-afternoon) are usually available with a few days' notice. Each user is allowed one Rawdah permit per Hijri year — once used, no further permit can be issued until the next Hijri year. If you miss the booked time slot, no replacement is issued — plan Madinah transit with buffer for prayer times, security checks, and gate queuing. Men and women have separate visiting periods with separate permit pools.

The Umrah visa is single-entry, valid for 90 days from issue, permits up to 90 days stay, costs SAR 535, and is issued through Nusuk directly to the pilgrim — no mandatory tour package bundling for international pilgrims (some flexibility allowed). The Hajj visa is single-entry, valid for the specific Hajj entry window (typically 4 to 6 Dhul Hijjah for arrival, mandatory departure by 10 Muharram), costs SAR 300 base plus the bundled package cost (SAR 15,000 to SAR 100,000+), and is issued only through one of the 14 approved Saudi travel agencies holding the home-country Hajj quota. Hajj visa pilgrims cannot enter the Kingdom outside the permitted window even with a valid visa, while Umrah visa pilgrims can enter any time within the 90-day validity window. Overstay penalties are also different: SAR 100,000 fine plus 5-year visa blacklist for either, but Hajj overstay also triggers travel agency penalties that affect the agency's quota for subsequent years.

Yes — children of any age are eligible for the Umrah visa, including newborns. Apply for each child as a separate Nusuk application linked to a parent's account; the child's passport bio page and any required vaccination certificates are uploaded. Children under 12 do not require the meningitis vaccination but yellow fever rules still apply for at-risk origin countries. The fee per child is the same SAR 535. Some Saudi travel agencies offer family packages with discounts for children's accommodation and transport. The five-year Hajj cooldown rule applies to children too — once a child has performed Hajj, they cannot return for another Hajj within the same five Hijri year window.

For Saudi residents and citizens, the rule is one Hajj per five Hijri years per person, enforced at the Nusuk application stage by reading the prior Hajj record from the central database. If you performed Hajj in 1444 AH (2023), the earliest you can apply again is for Hajj 1449 AH (2028). Limited repeat-Hajj slots are sometimes available through specific allocations (mutawwif positions, religious-school programmes, certain charitable allocations) but these are rare and discretionary. International pilgrims are not bound by the five-year rule at the Saudi-side application but their home-country Hajj quota and the approved travel agency's allocation may impose their own restrictions — many home countries operate waiting lists that effectively impose a longer cooldown.

The mandatory Saudi requirement is the meningococcal ACWY vaccine (commonly Menveo or Nimenrix), administered within the past 3 years and at least 10 days before arrival in Saudi Arabia. Most countries have the vaccine available through travel medicine clinics, GP surgeries (often by appointment, sometimes private-pay), and pharmacy walk-in services (UK: Boots Travel Clinic, US: CVS MinuteClinic, Australia: travel doctor networks). Cost varies — typically GBP 50 to GBP 90 in the UK, USD 100 to USD 150 in the US. After vaccination, you receive a paper or digital certificate; upload a clear scan to Nusuk. The certificate must show the vaccine name, brand, date of administration, batch number, and the practitioner's stamp. Hand-written entries on the WHO Yellow Card are accepted if legible. Without the certificate, the Umrah visa cannot be issued.

The digital Nusuk Card is the access token at every checkpoint during the Hajj days. Physical use cases: (1) entry to Mina on 8 Dhul Hijjah at the security perimeter — scan the QR code on the Nusuk Card; without an active card, entry is refused. (2) Boarding the Mashaer metro from Mina to Arafat on 9 Dhul Hijjah — the Nusuk Card is the metro ticket equivalent. (3) Mashaer bus access from Muzdalifah back to Mina on 10 Dhul Hijjah — same authentication. (4) Re-entry to the Mina tent assigned to your group — each tent has a checkpoint reading the Nusuk Card to confirm you belong to that group. (5) Emergency response — the Saudi Red Crescent and Hajj security use Nusuk Card data to locate and communicate with a pilgrim in distress. The card is software-based on the Nusuk app — a dead phone battery is the leading cause of access denial during Hajj. Bring a power bank and consider a backup phone with the Nusuk login active.

No — Umrah visa fees (SAR 535) are non-refundable once issued, regardless of whether the pilgrim travels or not. Cancellation is possible (and recommended if plans change, to clean up the record for future applications) but the fee is forfeited. If the visa is cancelled before the entry date, it does not count as an overstay and the pilgrim's clean record is preserved for future Umrah applications. If the pilgrim simply does not travel without cancellation, the visa expires after 90 days; this also does not count as an overstay but may slow down future applications as the unused visa pattern is logged. For Hajj packages, the refund rules depend on the approved travel agency's terms — most agencies allow partial refund of the package cost (not the visa fee) up to 90 days before Hajj, declining toward 100% non-refundable in the final 30 days.

If the agency you have paid is not one of the 14 approved Saudi travel agencies for international Hajj, the Hajj visa will not be issued no matter what the agency promised. The first step is recovering the payment from the agency under your home-country consumer protection laws — this often requires a written demand letter and may need legal action; some agencies disappear with the funds and recovery is difficult. The second step is finding an approved agency with remaining quota for your home country — published on nusuk.sa and updated each Hajj season. Approved agencies typically sell out 3 to 6 months before Hajj for their lower-tier packages; premium-tier packages remain available closer to Hajj but at significantly higher prices. The Ministry of Hajj maintains an anti-fraud public awareness campaign each year warning against unaccredited agencies, but enforcement against the agencies operating abroad is limited.

Ramadan 1447 AH falls in February to March 2026 (Gregorian). Permit issuance opens on Nusuk approximately 7 to 14 days before the start of Ramadan. Open Nusuk > Permits > Masjid al-Haram, select the night and prayer time, confirm. Slots for the last 10 nights (especially the 27th, the most likely night of Laylat al-Qadr) clear within minutes of release. Less critical nights and non-peak prayer times (afternoon Asr prayers) typically have slots available with a day or two notice. Each permit specifies the date, prayer time, and sometimes a specific section of the mosque. Permits are issued one at a time per user and reissued after each completed visit. Pilgrims without a permit during enforced periods are turned away at the security checkpoints surrounding the mosque — the perimeter is enforced from 24 hours before Iftar through Suhoor on peak nights.

Yes — for the majority of the year (outside Ramadan, Hajj season, and announced peak periods), residents and citizens can perform Umrah at any time without a Nusuk permit. Simply travel to Makkah, complete the rituals at Masjid al-Haram, and depart. The Nusuk permit requirement applies only during enforced peak periods to manage crowding. The Masjid al-Haram entry permit (separate from the Umrah permit itself) is reintroduced during Ramadan, the days around Hajj (typically 1 to 12 Dhul Hijjah), and announced national or religious holidays. Outside these windows, residents and citizens have full free access to Makkah and the mosque. International pilgrims always need the Umrah visa to enter Saudi Arabia in the first place but, once inside, the Umrah ritual itself does not require a separate Nusuk permit outside enforced periods.

Yes — UK passport holders (and the other 65+ countries eligible for the Saudi eVisa) can perform Umrah on the standard tourist eVisa since the 2024 rule change. The eVisa is multi-entry, valid for 1 year, allows 90-day stays, and is issued through visa.visitsaudi.com (not Nusuk) for around USD 80 to USD 120 depending on processing speed. The eVisa does not require meningitis vaccination at the Saudi visa stage but the vaccination is still mandatory at the airport on arrival for any pilgrim heading to Makkah or Madinah — bring the certificate. Once inside Saudi Arabia, register on Nusuk with the eVisa and the passport to book any required Masjid al-Haram permits during peak periods. The eVisa route is cheaper than the dedicated Umrah visa (SAR 535) for repeat Umrah travel but slightly more expensive for a single trip — most one-off Umrah pilgrims still choose the dedicated visa for simplicity.