British, Irish and European Union travellers always need a visas to travel to Saudi Arabia. Only citizens of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates can travel to Saudi Arabia without a visa. Check on this page if you need a visa to travel to Saudi Arabia.

You can easily apply for the visa for Saudi Arabia with a simple online application form. On e-Visa.co.uk you can complete your application form in English. You do not need to make an appointment at the embassy or the consulate.

Apply for your visa for Saudi Arabia here

Are you travelling to Saudi Arabia for a stopover? You will only need a visa if you leave the transit area or you stay at the airport for more than 12 hours. If you leave the transit area because you need to re-check your luggage for another flight, for instance, you will need a visa. The e-visa that you can apply for on this website allows you to travel to Saudi Arabia for a transfer.

Apply here for a transit visa

If you are travelling with a Saudi airline, like Flynas or Saudia and you have a transfer in Saudi Arabia you may be eligible for a free transit visa, also known as stopover visa. You can only apply for this visa when you book your flight. Unlike the normal e-visa, this transit visa does not include Saudi health insurance.

The Saudi Arabia visa is valid for one year from the moment it is granted. You can travel to the country multiple times during the visa validity period. Bear in mind that the visa does not allow you to stay in the country for a year. The maximum length of stay is 90 days which you can spread over multiple stays.

After 90 days, you will no longer be able to stay in Saudi Arabia with this visa. You will need to apply for a new one. Applying for a new visa is only possible once the current visa has expired. You cannot stay in the country for more than 90 days in a year with two different visas.

Apply for a tourist visa for Saudi Arabia

It is not possible to extend nor the validity period nor the maximum length of stay of the Saudi Arabia visa. If you want to stay in Saudi Arabia for longer than 90 days during a one-year period, you should contact the Saudi Arabian embassy or consulate and apply for a visa there.

You need to visa for Saudi-Arabia you must meet a number of requirements to be eligible to apply for the Saudi Arabia visa. These requirements refer, among other things, to your nationality, your travel destination and the duration of your stay.

1.Passport requirements
To be eligible to apply for a Saudi Arabia visa, you must have a British or Irish passport, or a passport issued by an European Union country or Switzerland. Other non-European countries, like the US, Japan or China are also eligible for the e-visa.

You can only apply for a Saudi Arabia visa with a regular passport. An ID card, an emergency passport, a refugee passport or an official/service passport is not accepted. If you have an official or service passport, you can obtain a visa through the embassy. However, this procedure takes longer than an e-visa application. Thus, applying for the online visa is recommended, if possible.

Bear in mind that your passport must be valid for at least 6 months upon arrival in Saudi Arabia. If your passport will expire soon, you are advised to apply for a new passport before starting the visa application process. Please note that you may only travel to Saudi Arabia with the passport you used to apply for your visa.

2. Requirements relating to your travel destination
The e-visa allows you to travel to Saudi Arabia for various purposes. You may visit friends or family, go on a tourist trip, take a business trip, go on umrah and make a transfer. The e-visa, does not entitle you to work for a Saudi employer or be paid by a Saudi organisation. You cannot study in Saudi Arabia either, if you only have an e-visa.

The e-visa does allow you to travel to Saudi Arabia for the Umrah. However, it does not entitle you to participate in the Hajj. For this, you need a special Hajj visa, which you can only apply for through a specialised travel agency. e-Visa.co.uk We are unable to assist you in obtaining a Hajj visa.

Bear in mind that some Islam holy sites are only accessible to Muslims. If this is not your case, you will not be allowed to enter the holy city of Mecca, for instance. Since 2019, non-Muslims have been allowed to visit Medina. However, entering the Prophet's Mosque in this city is only possible for Muslims.

Apply now for your e-visa

3. Conditions regarding your arrival in Saudi Arabia
Upon arrival in Saudi Arabia, you must produce your visa to Saudi customs officials. You are advised to print your visa and keep it together with your passport during your trip. Furthermore, you may be requested to prove that you have enough financial ressources to cover your stay in Saudi Arabia.

Before applying for your visa, you must have already booked your accommodation in Saudi Arabia or arranged an address with friends/family. The e-visa allows you to stay in Saudi Arabia for a maximum of 90 days. If you want to stay longer, you need to apply for a different type of visa through the embassy.

4. Requirements regarding the relating to the traveller's conduct
If you apply for a visa for Saudi Arabia, you must commit to complying with Saudi laws and regulations. If you have ever been deported from Saudi Arabia or another country member of the GCC (Gulf cooperation council alongside Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates), you cannot apply for an e-visa.

If the Saudi customs suspect that you don't meet all the requirements, you may be denied entry to the country.

Apply now for your Saudi Arabia visa

No, if you apply for an e-visa via e-Visa.co.uk you don't need to make an appointment at the embassy or the consulate. If you have a regular passport, you can simply submit your application on this website. Only if you have a diplomatic or service passport and your want to apply for a Saudi Arabia visa will you need to make an appointment at the embassy or the consulate.

More about the Saudi Arabia e-visa application process.

You can only apply for the Saudi Arabia e-visa if you have a regular passport. If you are holding a different type of travel document, such as an ID card, an emergency passport or a refugee passport, you will not be able to obtain a visa for Saudi Arabia. However, if you have a diplomatic or service passport, you can apply for a visa for Saudi Arabia, but only through the embassy or the consulate.

You can apply for the Saudi Arabia visa via the simple application form on this website. These are the main steps of theonline application procedure:

1. Complete the application form
First, fill in your contact details on the application form, including your mobile phone number, address and email address. You must also communicate your first overnight address in Saudi Arabia, as well as the purpose of your trip. After this, you can add travellers to the form.

You can apply for visas for several people simustaneously using a single application form. Bear in mind, though, that all travellers must belong to the same travel group and have the same destination and overnight address. You must fill in some important personal details for each traveller, the most important being the passport details. Copy these carefully from the passport. Your visa will only be valid visa if you fill in the passport details correctly.

2. Make your payment
After completing the application form, you will be asked to double-check the data you have entered. Please do so thoroughly and pay particular attention to your passport details. Once this is done, you will be able to pay for your visa application with one of several common online payment methods: credit card, Google Pay, Apple Pay or PayPal.

3. Upload your ID photo
To complete the visa application, you must provide an ID photo for each traveller. You can easily upload them to your personal status page. You don't need to provide a professional ID photo. A self-taken photo or selfie is also accepted, as long as the traveller is standing in front of a plain background and looks straight into the camera with a neutral expression. Head coverings are only permitted for religious reasons.

4. Obtain your visa
After you have successfully submitted all the ID photos correctly, your visa application will be processed. The approval time for a Saudi Arabia visa is on average 21 days. If you need your visa urgently, you can submit an urgent application. Urgent applications are usually approved within 14 days. Please note that these are average delivery times. Applications may always take longer than average to approve, for example due to problems in the immigration service's systems or a random manual check.

Once the inmigration services approve your visa application, you will immediately receive an email and a text message. Download and print your visa and take it with you on your trip to Saudi Arabia.

Submit your visa application here now

In order to apply for a Saudi Arabia visa you will need the passport details of all travellers for whom you are applying for a visa. Your contact details must also be indicated on the application form. e-Visa.co.uk will need this information to contact you and keep you updated about the status of your application.

Besides the passport details, each traveller must provide an ID photo. It doesn't need to be an official ID photo. A self-taken photo or selfie is sufficient, as long as the traveller looks at the camera with a serious, neutral expression and stands in front of a plain background.

At the moment of submitting your application for a Saudi Arabia visa you don't need to have booked your flight yet. However, you must already have arranged your accommodation. You must introduce on the application form the address of your first night's stay in the country. This does not have to be a hotel. You may also communicate the address of friends or family if you plan to stay with them.

A British passport number is solely made up of digits. This means that the letter O can never appear in a British passport number. It will always be the number 0.

If you are you submitting your application for a visa for Saudi Arabia through e-Visa.co.uk?, we will always be checked that you did not accidentally switch up the letter O and the number 0. We will always correct this kind of mistakes straight away, so you can still travel without any problems.

If you submitted your Saudi Arabia visa application a different website, this error will probably not be corrected, so your visa could be invalid. You cannot modify your passport number. You will need to apply for a new visa.

The visa for Saudi Arabia costs £124.95. This price includes consular fees amounting to 402.21 SAR and service charges amounting to £44.78. The consular fees are charged by the Saudi immigration service for reviewing and processing applications. The service fees are those you pay to e-Visa.co.uk for their services which include, among other things, the verification of submitted applications, a 24/7 customer service and an online application form with clear exaplanations.

You can also select a number of additional services on the application form, like urgent delivery or CO₂ compensation. If you select “urgent delivery”, your application will be processed faster. This will incur an additional charge of £17.50 per visa. The average processing time for urgent delivery is 14 days, as opposed to the 21 days for a regular application. These delivery times are averages. A visa application can always be unexpectedly delayed due to disruptions in the e-Visa.co.uk or the immigration service's informatic systems. The immigration services may also carry out random checks, which may result in an application taking longer to process. This also applies to urgent applications.

Finally, you can also opt for the the “CO₂ compensation”. With the CO₂-compensation the CO₂ emissions from your trip to Saudi Arabia will be (partially) offset. The cost of CO₂ compensation depends on the country from which you are travelling to Saudi Arabia.

Apply for the visa now

As soon as your visa application has been approved, you will receive an email and a text message. You will then be able to download your visa from your personal status page. You are advised to print out your visa and keep it with your passport during your trip to Saudi Arabia.

Once you have filled in the application form, paid the cost and submitted all the necessary documents correctly, your application will be processed. From this moment, the average processing time is 21 days. If you have submitted an urgent request, the average processing time will be 14 days.

In exceptional cases, the processing time can be longer. This also applies to urgent applications. If an application is subject to a random check, or if technical problems come up, the processing time may be significantly longer. e-Visa.co.uk Unfortunately, we are unable to expedite such requests.

Here you will find an explanation of the application procedure.

It may happen that an application takes longer than average to process. This may be due to random checks conducted by the immigration services. The inmigration services or e-Visa.co.uk can also experience technical problems. As a result, an application may take longer than usual to process. It can also happen that only one traveller from a group application is selected for random checking. This does not mean that this traveller's application has a greater chance of being refused.

If you have you been waiting for more than 21 days on your visa, or you are leaving for Saudi Arabia within a few days, contact the e-Visa.co.uk customer services. Our support department can check the current status of your request and, if necessary, advise you on what to do next.

If you have made a mistake when filling in the application form and you have not submitted your ID photo yet, you are on time to make corrections. To do so, please contact the support department at e-Visa.co.uk.

If you have you completed the entire application form, you have paid the fees and you have submitted all the documents, it is usually no longer possible to make any changes. Fortunately, this is not always necessary. If you made a mistake regarding your contact details, you can always contact our support department in order to change them, even if your application is already being processed. e-Visa.co.uk will only use your contact details to keep you informed about the status of your visa application.

Does the mistake regard your expected arrival date? This is not a problem. The Saudi Arabia visa has a validity period of one year. During this year, you may travel to Saudi Arabia multiple times. It doesn't matter on which day you arrive, as long as it falls within the one-year validity period.

Have you discovered a mistake on your visa? Unfortunately, it is not possible to correct errors on a visa that has already been issued. If the mistake concerns your passport details, such as your name, passport number or expiry date, your visa will not be valid and you will need to apply for a new visa for Saudi Arabia in order to travel to the country.

Apply for a new Saudi Arabia visa

No, you cannot extend the validity period of the Saudi Arabia visa. You can use the Saudi Arabia e-visa to travel to the country for a maximum of one year. The maximum stay of 90 days cannot be extended. If you want to stay in Saudi Arabia for longer you will need a different type of visa which you can apply for through the embassy or consulate.

Yes, you can apply for a visa for someone else, even if you enter your own contact details. However, you must know the passport details and an ID photo of the traveller for whom you are applying for the visa. Of course, you will need the consent of the person concerned.

It is also possible to apply for visas for multiple travellers simultaneously using a single application form. To do this, click on the “Add a traveller” button in the application form. Once you have completed the application form, this person must also confirm that all the information entered is correct and complete.

If you are applying for a visa for a minor, a parent or another person with parental authority must confirm that the information provided is correct and complete.

Check this page for more information about the application procedure.

Visa applications for Saudi Arabia can sometimes be rejected. However, it is not always easy to determine the reason. The Saudi immigration service does not explain the reason for rejection. Normally, a visa rejection has to do with one of the following reasons:

• You have filled in the application form incorrectly (intentionally or not).
• The ID photo that you have provided doesn't meet the requirements.
• You do not meet all the Saudi Arabia e-Visa requirements.
• The Saudi immigration service suspects that you pose a risk to public order in the country.

If you know that your application has been rejected due to an error in the application form or because the submitted ID photos did not fulfill the requirements, a new application might be approved. If you don't know why your application has been rejected, there is no point in submitting a new application. Probably, a new e-visa application will also be rejected. In such a situation, you are advised to contact the Saudi Arabia consulate or embassy. You may be eligible for a different type of visa that will allow you to travel to the country.

Submit a new visa application

All minors must in all cases have a valid passport and their own visa to travel to Saudi Arabia. The information in the frequently asked questions and answers on this page applies to travellers of all ages, including babies and children.

Is a minor travelling without both parents or persons with parental authority? Then the child must bring a notarized Arabic-language consent letter from he absent parent(s) with them throughout the entire journey. This letter must be signed by both parents or by the person or persons with parental authority. It is recommended to bring a copy of the passport of the person with parental authority.

You always need a valid visa to travel to Saudi Arabia, but this is never a guarantee to be admitted to the country. Saudi customs officials can decide on the spot whether travellers can enter the country. If customs officials suspect that you do not meet all the visa requirements, you may be denied entry to Saudi Arabia. In practice, this happens very rarely. Most travellers with a valid visa can enter the country without any problems.

Even if you are not a Muslim, you can travel to Saudi Arabia safely. However, you must comply with local laws and customs. Possession or consumption of alcohol is forbidden. Please also be mindful of public physical contact with persons of the opposite sex. This may result in a fine.

Please note: only Muslims are allowed to travel to the holy city of Mecca and enter the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. The Saudi religious police strictly enforces this rule. You risk a heavy fine or even deportation if you violate these rules.

The e-visa for Saudi Arabia does not allow you to participate in the Hajj. However, you may participate in the Umrah, although not during the Hajj season. If you want to participate in the Hajj, you will need a Hajj visa, which can only be obtained through a specialised travel agency or tour operator.

You can bring medicines to Saudi Arabia, but in some cases a medicine declaration is required. This must be signed by a doctor. You find more information about this at gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/saudi-arabia/health .

In most cases, there are no compulsory travel vaccinations for Saudi Arabia. It is generally recommended that you arrange vaccinations against DTP (diphtheria, tetanus, polio) and hepatitis A and B. If you travelling from a country where with a high risk of yellow fever or polio, they you must be vaccinated against these diseases. If you are going to Saudi Arabia for the Umrah, you must be vaccinated against meningitis.

Important: this information has not been written by a doctor. Always seek advice from your GP before travelling.

The application form gives you the option to offset part of the CO₂ emissions of your outward and return journey from Saudi Arabia. If you choose this option, you will pay a surcharge that will be entirely invested in VCS-certified climate projects. VCS is one of the most reliable certifiers of climate projects and calculates exactly what investment is needed to store or save a certain amount of CO₂ emissions. . e-Visa.co.uk invests your CO₂ compensation surcharge in projects that develop sustainable energy sources, for example. The amount of the surcharge you pay for CO₂ compensation is calculated based on the CO₂ emissions of direct flights in economy class. Read more about CO₂ compensation via e-Visa.co.uk.

A significant amount of personal data is processed on this website. This includes passport numbers, national insurance numbers, and ID photos. Of course, this data is handled with the utmost care.

e-Visa.co.uk guarantees that your data will be protected in accordance with the applicable (EU) privacy regulations (GDPR). Both technical and organisational precautions have been taken to this end. Your data will only be processed via secure connections and stored in encrypted form. Data will also be deleted immediately if it is no longer necessary to store it. The privacy policy of e-Visa.co.uk was designed and tested in collaboration with Taylor Wessing, an internationally renowned law firm.

Your personal data will only be processed in the course of carrying out your request. In this case, applying for a visa for Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, the processing of personal data always involves risks. In order to apply for a visa for Saudi Arabia, personal data must be shared with (various) government agencies. The Saudi immigration service ultimately decides whether your application will be approved. e-Visa.co.uk cannot influence these government agencies and what they do with your data. In the privacy policy read more about this topic.