The tourist visa allows you to stay for up to 3 months per entry, spending no more than 180 days/year in Saudi Arabia. If you leave the country past your visa period, you shall pay a penalty of SAR 100 per day.

Fathers name on the field

Many people have added father’s name on the field, this is mostly required for those, like myself who have it on their passport. For those who completed it and they are worried this is what was sent from the visa team to people.

Update: Many people since then have travelled with no issue.

Thanks for waiting and apologize for the delay, regarding your inquiry, the father’s name field is not required but if you fill it out and the visa is issued with the father’s name, there is no problem with that.
But it is important that the first and last names are correct and identical to the passport.

Umrah on Tourist Visa 

There have been rumours about people not being allowed on a tourist visa to do Umrah. This is false and it looks like sadly agents are spreading them as they lose money. 

Many people have been for Umrah on this visa so there is no problem if you worry about ihram just visit Medinah first. But as it is allowed I don’t see a problem and people have gone through Jeddah airport. 

There have been hundreds of people on Umrah with the tourist visa in Saudi. At the start, there were people who got refused entry although they had their visa approved online. They were in a group of 20 people and 5 didn’t go through. Was it their visa or something else we don’t know. Then many agents were saying people are not allowed on Umrah with a tourist visa. This is also false. People are going and it is stated on their site and this hasn’t changed. Recently there haven’t been any issues and we have many readers who have been on Umrah with the tourist visa.

Update: I personally went for Umrah in January 2020 and I will write about it separately but we had no issue entering the country. Everyone was friendly and knew what they are doing.

Visa Rejections

There was a wave of people being rejected for a visa, unfortunately, there is not much you can do, agents say you can apply for Umrah visa. 

Hotel reservations

Many countries when issuing visa ask for hotels. You don’t need to have them booked beforehand you need to just add the hotel, email and phone number. Once your visa is granted you can book them. If you are staying in both Makkah and Medinah then just do one of them. 

Vaccination 

The tourist visa doesn’t ask for vaccination for meningitis where the Umrah visa does. Many people have emailed me asking if it is needed. Personally, I would do it just to protect myself as Makkah is a melting pot. I think it’s a personal choice and of course, you don’t have to do it on a tourist visa. 

Umrah visa requires a vaccination by Saudi immigration, they don’t check them always, but if they do you should have it. You will not know until you actually arrive so nobody can tell you the answer.