Saudi Arabia has imposed a visa ban on citizens of 14 countries including India and Pakistan.

Aiming at the upcoming Hajj pilgrimage, in order to ensure crowd management and security, the issuing of visas for Umrah, business and family visits to citizens of these countries has been temporarily suspended.

India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt and other countries are included in the visa ban list. According to the news, this ban will continue until the middle of June after the Hajj of 2025. 

Among the 14 banned countries are Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen.

According to Saudi authorities, Umrah visas will be granted only until April 13, 2025 (Chaitra 30, 2081). After that, new visas will be issued to the citizens of the countries on this list only after the completion of Hajj .

This decision of the Saudi government is said to have been taken in consideration of excessive crowd management and security measures during the Hajj period.