The multiple entry Umrah visa announced by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah in July 2026 is valid for 365 days from the date it is issued, lets the holder enter the Kingdom more than once in that year, and caps the total time spent inside the country at 90 days across all of those visits combined. The 90 days are a running balance, not a fresh allowance each trip. For UK pilgrims who like short, repeated journeys rather than one long stay, that balance becomes the central planning number, alongside the Nusuk permit and service package that every visit still requires.
This guide explains what has been announced about the one year Umrah visa 90 days rule, how the balance is likely to behave across several trips, what has to be arranged before each entry, and how to book airport transport trip by trip without tying yourself in knots. It is written from the official announcements and guidance available in October 2026; the Nusuk platform remains the place to confirm the current rules before you commit to flights.
What exactly did the Ministry announce about the multiple entry Umrah visa?
On 20 July 2026 the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, through the Saudi Press Agency, announced a one-year multiple-entry Umrah visa. The key features reported from that announcement are: validity of 365 days from issuance; multiple entries within that period; a maximum cumulative stay of 90 days; a requirement to buy a service package from an approved provider through Nusuk for each visit; a requirement to hold an Umrah permit from the Nusuk app before arriving; and no entry during the Hajj season, defined as 1 Dhul Qidah to 13 Dhul Hijjah. The Ministry’s own notice on the Pilgrims Experience Program site adds that the visa is deactivated each time the holder leaves and reactivated for a later visit once the requirements for that visit are met, and that no package may run longer than the days left on the visa.
None of this replaces the long-standing position published on the Nusuk Umrah page, which states that Umrah has its own dedicated visa, that Umrah may be performed at any time of year, and that a visitor may perform Umrah more than once in a single year provided the regulatory procedures are followed. The new visa is best understood as a product that puts those principles into one document rather than a change to who may perform Umrah.
How does the 90-day cumulative balance actually work?
Think of the balance as a wallet that opens with 90 days in it on the day the visa is issued. Every day you spend inside Saudi Arabia is taken out of the wallet. Leave after ten days and you have 80 left; return for a fortnight and you have 66; and so on until the balance is empty or the 365 days run out, whichever comes first. The announcement, as reported, says that entry and exit records are used to track the remaining stay, which is why your passport stamps and the Absher or Nusuk records will matter more than any mental arithmetic.
Two practical questions follow. First, how are part-days counted? The reports do not say whether the day of arrival and the day of departure each count as full days. Until Nusuk publishes a worked example, assume the stricter reading and treat both as full days when you plan. Second, can the balance be stretched by leaving and coming straight back? Nothing in the announcement suggests that leaving resets anything, and the reported condition that a service package may not exceed the visa’s remaining days points firmly the other way.
Why the package length matters as much as the balance
Each visit needs a service package bought through Nusuk from an approved provider, and that package cannot be longer than the days left on the visa. In practice this means your hotel nights for the trip are checked against the balance before you travel, which is a helpful safeguard against accidental overstay. It also means a last trip that would tip you over the 90 days is likely to be refused at the package stage rather than at the airport.
Who is the one year Umrah visa 90 days model designed for?
The Ministry presented the new visa as a way to give pilgrims more flexibility in planning visits, and tied it to the digital services that now run through Nusuk from booking to departure. Read alongside its conditions, the one year Umrah visa 90 days model favours people who expect to come back more than once in twelve months and are comfortable organising each visit as its own small project.
It suits less well the pilgrim who will make a single trip. One visit still needs a package, a permit and a balance check, so the extra flexibility brings no benefit if it is never used. Families who travel only in school holidays may also find that two or three visits are the realistic maximum, which leaves a large part of the 90 days unused. If you are weighing it against other documents, our overview of the main Umrah visa routes sets out the alternatives; this article stays with the multiple-entry visa.
Do I still need a Nusuk permit for every entry?
Yes. The announcement is clear that an Umrah permit must be obtained through the Nusuk app before arrival, with the permit dates matching the approved service package. This is consistent with the Ministry’s own guidance in the Umrah and visit guide on haj.gov.sa, which states that all Muslim visitors, regardless of visa type, require authorisation to perform Umrah and to visit the Prophet’s Mosque, and that the Umrah permit is obtained exclusively through the Nusuk application.
For repeat visitors this changes the rhythm of planning. A single long trip needs one permit at the start. Three short trips need three separate permits, each booked against a specific date and time slot that lines up with the package for that visit. If you have booked Rawdah slots before, the process will feel familiar; our guide to the Nusuk Umrah permit and Rawdah booking walks through the app side.
When is the visa switched off, and what does reactivation involve?
The reported mechanism is that the visa is temporarily suspended after each departure and reactivated for future visits once the requirements for that visit are met. In plain terms, buying the next Nusuk package and securing the next permit is what wakes the visa up again. Until then the visa exists but cannot be used to board a flight or pass immigration.
This has an important consequence for anyone who likes to travel at short notice. You cannot simply see a cheap flight on a Tuesday and fly on the Thursday on the strength of a visa in your passport; the package and permit have to be in place first. Treat the visa as a pre-approval that still needs a per-trip activation, and build that step into every plan.
Which dates are blocked by the Hajj season rule?
The announcement states that the visa is not available for entry during the Hajj season, from 1 Dhul Qidah to 13 Dhul Hijjah. On the Umm al-Qura calendar used for official planning, that window for 1448 AH falls roughly from early April 2027 to late May 2027, with the exact Gregorian dates depending on moon sighting. The Ministry’s separate Umrah season calendar for 1448 also closes earlier for spring visits, so check both before planning a trip near the changeover.
If your visa is issued in, say, November 2026, the 365 days run to November 2027. Within that year you lose the Hajj window entirely for new entries, and you should expect the days just either side of it to be shaped by the season calendar. Repeat travellers who plan around the Islamic months already know this pattern; our explainer on how the Hijri calendar shifts booking timelines year on year shows why the Gregorian dates move forward by about eleven days each year.
Planning repeat Umrah trips from the UK: three patterns that fit the balance
The 90-day balance rewards deliberate planning. Below are three patterns UK pilgrims commonly consider; none is a recommendation, and each should be checked against your own leave, budget and the current Nusuk rules.
Pattern one: three medium trips
Three trips of roughly 25 to 28 days each would use most of the balance while leaving a small reserve for a flight delay or an extra night. This suits people with generous annual leave or flexible work who want to spend time in both Makkah and Madinah on each visit. The risk is that a long delay on the last trip could push you towards the limit, so keep the reserve genuinely spare.
Pattern two: a Ramadan stay plus short visits
A longer stay covering a good part of Ramadan might use 30 to 40 days, with the remainder spread across two or three short visits later in the year. This pattern front-loads the balance, so the later trips have to be short and precisely planned. Because the 1448 Umrah season closes in late March 2027, a Ramadan trip in February and March would also need to end before the season’s last departure date, whatever your visa balance says.
Pattern three: many short trips
Five or six trips of a week to ten days each spreads the year out and keeps each absence from work or school short. The administrative load is highest here, because every trip needs its own package, permit, flights and transport. The upside is that a cancelled or shortened trip costs you relatively few days from the balance.
A fictional example: how one family might manage the repeat Umrah trips visa balance
The household here is made up to show the arithmetic; it is not drawn from any booking. Imagine a couple in Leicester, both working, with no children at home. They obtain the multiple-entry visa in early November 2026 and plan three visits: twelve nights in late November, three weeks in the second half of Ramadan in February and March 2027, and ten nights in October 2027 before the visa expires.
Their first step is to write down the balance: 90 days. They treat each trip as arrival day to departure day inclusive, so the November trip counts as 13 days, leaving 77. The Ramadan trip is 22 days inclusive, leaving 55. The October trip is 11 days, leaving 44 unused. They deliberately keep a large reserve because the Ramadan trip falls close to the season’s last departure date and they want room to extend by a night or two if a flight is rescheduled.
For each trip they buy the Nusuk package first, then the permit, then flights, then transport. Their airport transfer is booked as a separate journey for each visit, so a change to one trip never disturbs the others. When their October flights move by a day, they contact the transport booking team to shift the pickup; only that one journey is affected.
What should I keep track of between trips?
Repeat travel generates paperwork that single-trip pilgrims never see. Keep a simple record of each trip’s entry and exit dates, the Nusuk package reference, the permit confirmation and the transport booking reference. If the balance shown on Nusuk ever disagrees with your own tally, the official record is the one that counts, and you will want your dates to hand when you ask about it.
Also keep an eye on passport validity. FCDO guidance states that your passport must have an expiry date at least six months after the date you arrive in Saudi Arabia, and a 365-day visa can easily outlast a passport that was already in its final year when the visa was issued. Renewing a passport mid-visa raises its own questions about transferring the visa, which Nusuk or the Saudi visa authorities, not a transport provider, can answer.
How does transport booking change for repeat short trips?
The main shift is from one large booking to a series of small, independent ones. Each trip typically needs an airport pickup on arrival and an airport drop on departure, with perhaps an intercity journey between Makkah and Madinah in the middle. Booking each journey separately means a date change on one trip never cascades into the others.
Payment and cancellation terms matter more when you are booking several journeys months apart. With Hajj & Umrah Taxi, cancellations made at least 48 hours before pickup receive a full refund, while cancellations inside 48 hours forfeit the deposit. For a repeat traveller that means a trip that falls through at the planning stage, for example because a Nusuk package is unavailable, can be unwound cleanly as long as you act promptly. Our article on what changes about transport planning for repeat Umrah visitors covers the broader habits that make this easier.
Match the transport dates to the permit, not the other way round
Because the permit dates have to match the service package, the package and permit should be settled before you book flights or ground transport. Arranging the transfer first risks a permit slot that lands on a different day, and our guide to realigning a transfer with a mismatched permit date explains the fix; with the multiple-entry visa the simplest cure is to keep the order of booking fixed for every trip.
Can I enter through Madinah on one trip and Jeddah on another?
The announcement names no particular port of entry for the multiple-entry visa, and the Ministry’s guide describes Umrah visa holders as free to travel between the Kingdom’s cities and regions while the visa is valid. Repeat travellers often alternate: Madinah first on one trip, Jeddah first on the next. That is entirely workable from a transport point of view, provided each pickup is booked for the correct airport and terminal.
For a repeat visitor the airport choice is also a safety question that has to be asked afresh each trip. As of 13 October 2026 the FCDO’s Saudi Arabia page advises against all but essential travel to Jeddah and to each Saudi airport other than Madinah’s Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International, as well as to Aseer, Riyadh, Najran and Jizan provinces, Taif and Dammam, with all travel within 10 km of the Yemen border advised against; Makkah and Madinah city are not listed. A Madinah-first visit fits that advice today, but your November trip and your spring trip may face different advice, and travelling against it can affect insurance.
What the announcement does not tell us yet
Several questions remain open as of October 2026, and this article does not try to answer them. The reports do not give a fee for the new visa, do not state when applications opened or will open through Nusuk, and do not say whether existing single-entry Umrah visas can be converted. They do not spell out how arrival and departure days are counted against the 90 days, nor what happens if a flight delay pushes a departure past the balance. For all of these, the Nusuk platform and the Ministry’s own channels are the places to check, and a reputable UK Umrah operator will be able to tell you what they are seeing in practice.
A second fictional scenario: the solo traveller who ran the balance tight
This scenario is also fictional. A man from Bradford obtains the visa in December 2026 and plans four trips of about three weeks each, intending to use almost the whole 90 days. His first two trips go smoothly. On the third, a strike disrupts his return flight and he stays two extra nights, which he had not budgeted for in his balance. When he comes to buy the package for the fourth trip, the available days are fewer than he expected and the package has to be shortened.
Nothing dramatic happens: the system does what it is designed to do, and his fourth trip is simply shorter. The lesson is that a 90-day balance planned to the last day leaves no room for the ordinary disruptions of long-haul travel. A reserve of several days protects the final trip, and a transport booking that can be amended without penalty when changed in good time protects the budget.
Checklist before each entry on a multiple-entry Umrah visa
- Confirm the days remaining on your 90-day balance using the official record, not your own count.
- Buy the Nusuk service package for this trip and check its length fits within the remaining days.
- Secure the Umrah permit in the Nusuk app with dates that match the package.
- Check that the trip does not touch the Hajj season window (1 Dhul Qidah to 13 Dhul Hijjah) or the published last-entry and last-departure dates for the Umrah season.
- Check passport validity: at least six months beyond your arrival date.
- Confirm your meningococcal ACWY vaccination certificate is still within its validity period.
- Read the current FCDO travel advice for Saudi Arabia, including the airport and city advisories.
- Book flights, then book each airport transfer as a separate journey with the correct terminal and flight number.
- Save every reference number in one place so the next trip is quicker to set up.
Booking transport for each visit
The multiple-entry Umrah visa turns one journey into a series, and a series of journeys is easier to manage when each leg is booked and confirmed on its own. Our booking team confirms each trip separately, you can see the live quote in the booking tool before you pay, and a journey cancelled at least 48 hours before pickup is refunded in full. If you are planning repeat trips over the coming year and want to talk through how to sequence the pickups, contact Hajj & Umrah Taxi and we will help you map the transport to your visa balance.
Sources reviewed 15 October 2026: the multiple-entry Umrah visa notice of 20 July 2026 on pep.gov.sa, with The National’s same-day report of the Saudi Press Agency release; Nusuk’s Umrah page (nusuk.sa); the Umrah and Visit Guide on haj.gov.sa; GOV.UK travel advice for Saudi Arabia, updated 13 October 2026. The visa fee, application opening date and exact day-counting method had not been published officially at the time of review; confirm current rules on Nusuk before booking. Photo: Nataliya Vaitkevich / Pexels.