Can you perform Umrah on a tourist eVisa in 2027? According to the Saudi authorities’ own published pages as reviewed in October 2026, yes, outside the Hajj season. The Visit Saudi eVisa portal lists Umrah (excluding Hajj) among the permitted purposes of the one-year multiple-entry eVisa, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah’s English guide states that tourist visa holders can perform Umrah and visit Madinah, and Nusuk’s Umrah pages say holders of visit, tourist and work visas may perform Umrah. The FCDO’s pilgrimage advice for UK nationals says the same in its own words. This guide explains what Umrah on a tourist eVisa involves for a UK pilgrim, where the Nusuk permit still applies, where the Hajj-season exclusion bites, and why your ground transport has to be arranged differently from a package pilgrim’s.
What do the official sources actually say in October 2026?
Start with the Saudi side. The Visit Saudi eVisa portal describes the eVisa as a one-year, multiple-entry visa allowing visitors to spend up to 90 days in the country, for tourism-related activities “and Umrah (excluding Hajj)”, and lists the United Kingdom among the eligible countries. The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah’s English Umrah guide says plainly that “Tourist visa holders can perform Umrah and visit Madinah”. The Nusuk Umrah pages state that holders of visit, tourism or work visas may perform Umrah, while noting that during the Hajj season entry to Makkah is reserved for Hajj pilgrims.
Now the UK side. The FCDO’s pilgrimage advice, as published in October 2026, says that for Umrah outside Hajj season you can apply for an e-visa or an electronic visa waiver, and that Hajj requires its own visa. Its entry-requirements page, as published on 13 October 2026, lists the e-visa as valid for 365 days from issue with 90 days in total across that period.
Taken together, the official position in October 2026 is consistent: a UK national on a tourist eVisa may perform Umrah outside Hajj season, needs a Nusuk permit to enter the Haram, and may not perform Hajj on it.
How this sits with earlier guidance on this site
Readers who have used this site before may remember our guide on why a visit or tourist visa was not treated as valid for entering Makkah. That article was written from the UK guidance available at the time and reflected a hard line that many UK pilgrims had been given by agents: pilgrimage means an Umrah visa, full stop.
The sources we reviewed in October 2026 describe a more permissive position outside Hajj season, and it is that current, officially published position we set out here. The underlying caution in the earlier guide remains sound in two respects: Hajj is never permitted on a tourist eVisa, and during the Hajj season non-pilgrims are excluded from Makkah regardless of the visa they hold. Treat the two articles as a before-and-after rather than a contradiction, and treat the Saudi portals as the final word on the day you travel.
Is the tourist eVisa the same as an Umrah visa?
No. The eVisa is the online tourist visa issued through the Visit Saudi portal and bought by the traveller directly. It is a general visitor document on which Umrah happens to be a permitted activity, not a pilgrimage visa sold through an Umrah company. That difference, rather than any detail of validity, is what shapes the rest of this article.
Because no Umrah company or external agent sits behind it, nobody files hotels or transport on your behalf, nobody adds you to a group arrival plan, and nobody checks your dates against the pilgrimage calendar. If you want those things done for you, a pilgrimage visa through a licensed operator is the better fit. Our guide to the Umrah visa categories available to UK travellers compares the pilgrimage routes; this article stays with the eVisa.
Is the Nusuk permit still required on a tourist eVisa?
Yes. The permit is tied to entering the Grand Mosque for Umrah, not to the visa you arrived on. In the Ministry’s guide, an eVisa traveller must secure that permit before heading for Makkah or the Haram at all; the guide describes it as a dated, timed reservation made in the Nusuk app and says any second Umrah needs a fresh Nusuk appointment of its own. Praying in the Rawdah in Madinah needs a separate permit as well.
In busy seasons the guide advises “being satisfied with one Umrah”. For a tourist eVisa holder planning a trip in Ramadan 2027, that is the realistic assumption: one permit, one Umrah, timed to your arrival.
The permit date has to line up with your arrival transfer and your hotel, which is where independent planning becomes real work. Our step-by-step on booking the Nusuk Umrah permit and a Rawdah slot covers creating the account, adding companions and choosing a slot.
When is Umrah on a tourist eVisa not allowed?
The exclusion is the Hajj season, and it has two layers. The first is Makkah itself: Nusuk states that during Hajj, entry to Makkah is reserved for Hajj pilgrims under organised arrangements. The second is getting there: according to the FCDO, people who were not Hajj pilgrims have in past seasons been refused boarding on flights into Jeddah, Madinah and Taif around Hajj, and a Hajj visa may be demanded at check-in.
Neither Nusuk nor the FCDO prints a start and end date for that closure on the tourist side. The Ministry’s own Umrah calendar for 1448 requires Umrah-visa pilgrims to have left by 30 Shawwal, 7 April 2027, and Hajj itself is expected in mid-May 2027, subject to moon sighting. An eVisa holder should therefore plan to finish Umrah before early April and not plan to return to Makkah until the post-Hajj season has visibly reopened on Nusuk.
Expect the practical closure to start earlier and finish later than any date suggests, as airlines and checkpoints adjust ahead of Hajj. Hajj itself is never available on a tourist eVisa; the Ministry’s guide, Nusuk and the FCDO all say a Hajj visa is required.
Why a tourist eVisa changes your ground transport completely
A pilgrim on a standard Umrah visa usually travels on a package whose operator has contracted hotels and transport through the Ministry’s systems before the season starts. A tourist eVisa holder sits outside that arrangement: there is no mandated package, no coach waiting at Jeddah, no operator’s ground plan.
That freedom comes with every leg becoming your responsibility: airport to hotel in Makkah or Madinah, Makkah to Madinah or back, the airport run home, and any ziyarah days. The Ministry’s guide has a short, clear instruction on how to do that: use licensed options only and “avoid unlicensed transport vehicles”. The Nusuk pages list the alternatives for Makkah arrivals, including the Haramain high-speed train from Jeddah airport or Jeddah city to the Makkah station at Rusaifah, with shuttle buses onward.
Our arrival guide for Jeddah airport to Makkah walks through what a pre-booked private transfer looks like for an independent pilgrim: a named driver, a meeting point at arrivals, the hotel address in the booking, and a buffer around the flight time.
Checkpoints and what to carry on a tourist eVisa
Vehicles entering Makkah pass checkpoints, and the permit system means officers may ask for proof that you are entitled to enter during busy periods. Carry your passport, a copy of your eVisa, and the Nusuk permit on your phone with a screenshot saved in case of poor signal. Make sure every passenger in the vehicle has a permit for a slot that makes sense against your arrival time.
A pre-booked driver will know the checkpoint routine and will expect a pause at the barrier; what a driver cannot do is argue a passenger through without the right documents. That is why we ask for permit times when you book an eVisa journey into Makkah.
Keep your meningococcal ACWY certificate with you too. The FCDO says Hajj and Umrah pilgrims need it, dated at least ten days before arrival; whether or not anyone checks it at an eVisa border, you are performing Umrah and should meet the pilgrim health requirement.
A fictional couple from Glasgow plans Umrah plus Madinah on an eVisa
Consider a fictional couple from Glasgow, not real customers, who want ten days in Saudi Arabia in late November 2026: Umrah in Makkah, three nights in Madinah, and a day in Jeddah’s old town before flying home. No package fits that shape, so they apply for tourist eVisas through the Visit Saudi portal, book their own hotels, and read the Ministry’s Umrah guide from end to end.
Their first job is the Nusuk permit, which they book for the morning after they land so that a delayed flight does not cost them the slot. Their second is transport: a private transfer from Jeddah airport to their Makkah hotel for the arrival evening, a Makkah to Madinah transfer four days later with a stop at a mosque their driver knows, and a Madinah airport run at the end. They give us the flight numbers, the hotel names and the permit time, and nothing else is needed from them.
When the airline moves their outbound flight to later in the day, they tell us the new arrival time and keep the same permit, because it was booked for the next morning. The trip works because the independent pieces were booked in the right order: visa, permit, hotels, then transport, with slack between them.
A fictional business visitor adds Umrah to a Riyadh trip
Now a fictional British consultant, again not a real customer, who holds a tourist eVisa for a conference in Riyadh in early December 2026 and wants to perform Umrah on the way home. She checks the dates against the Hajj-season exclusion and finds December is well clear. She books a Nusuk permit for a weekday morning and a flight from Riyadh to Jeddah the afternoon before.
Because she is alone and arriving late, she books a private transfer from Jeddah airport to a Makkah hotel for that night and a return to the airport after Umrah the next day. The driver’s name and number are in her confirmation, and she has told us she will be travelling in ihram on the outbound leg and wants a quiet journey.
Her lesson is that the tourist eVisa suits exactly this kind of mixed trip, provided the Umrah leg is treated as a pilgrimage leg: permit first, licensed transport, documents to hand, and no assumption that an airline or hotel will arrange the ground logistics.
Insurance, FCDO advice and an independent eVisa trip
The FCDO notes that the e-visa includes a health insurance element and recommends considering additional travel insurance. For a pilgrimage leg, that additional cover matters, because Umrah is physically demanding and Makkah hotels are not where you want to discover a policy gap.
No operator will flag safety advice for you, so read the FCDO’s Saudi Arabia travel advice yourself. As of 13 October 2026 it covers, among other places, the city of Jeddah and every Saudi airport bar Madinah’s Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International, together with Aseer, Riyadh, Najran and Jizan provinces, Taif and Dammam, where it advises against all but essential travel; it advises against all travel within 10 km of the Yemen border, and does not name Makkah. For our fictional consultant, that would put her Riyadh conference and Jeddah connection inside the advisory, which is exactly the kind of detail an eVisa traveller must spot unaided.
Travelling against FCDO advice can invalidate insurance. Your passport must also be valid for at least six months from the date you arrive, and the eVisa’s 90-day limit counts every visit in its year, so keep a note of the days you have used.
Arriving via Madinah instead of Jeddah on an eVisa
The October 2026 FCDO position has a practical consequence for eVisa holders, who choose their own airports. If the advice against all but essential travel to Jeddah and to airports other than Madinah is still in force when you book, the obvious response is to fly into Madinah, spend your Madinah nights first, and travel to Makkah by road or by the Haramain high-speed train for the Umrah leg. Nusuk lists the train and licensed road transport as ways of reaching Makkah.
That routing changes two things you must plan yourself. First, your Nusuk Umrah permit should be booked for a day after you reach Makkah rather than for arrival day, because the Madinah-to-Makkah leg is a separate journey with its own buffers. Second, the Miqat for a Makkah-bound traveller leaving Madinah is Dhul Hulaifah, so ask your scholar how and where to enter Ihram on that leg; the Ministry’s guide says pilgrims make Ihram from the nearest Miqat in the direction they travel from, and leaves the detail to the pilgrim’s own guidance. A private transfer booked from Madinah to Makkah can include a stop at the Miqat mosque if you ask for it at booking.
Your departure needs the same thought: flying home from Madinah after Umrah in Makkah means a Makkah-to-Madinah airport leg timed against the flight, and a final re-read of the FCDO page in case the airport list has changed either way.
Ramadan 2027 on a tourist eVisa: what to expect
Ramadan 1448 is expected to begin around Monday 8 February 2027, subject to moon sighting. For an eVisa holder it is the most permit-constrained period of the year, and nothing about the eVisa gives priority access: you compete for the same Nusuk windows as every package pilgrim, without an operator watching the app for you.
Hotels near the Haram are contracted heavily by Umrah companies for the month, so an independent traveller may find the nearest available rooms further out than expected. Road access to central Makkah is also managed more tightly, which means your driver may set you down further from the Haram than at quieter times. Plan your permit before your hotel, your hotel before your transfer, and keep your first evening free in case the arrival runs late.
If you are combining Ramadan with other parts of Saudi Arabia, put the Umrah leg first. Business meetings and sightseeing can move by a day; a Ramadan permit window, once lost, may not reappear.
Tourist eVisa versus an Umrah visa: which should a UK pilgrim choose?
Choose the Umrah visa route, through a licensed, ATOL-protected operator as the FCDO recommends, if you want someone else to align visa, hotel, permit and transport, if you are travelling in a group with mixed needs, or if you are not confident navigating Nusuk and Saudi hotel bookings yourself.
Consider the tourist eVisa if your trip is genuinely mixed, pilgrimage plus other cities, or if you are an experienced repeat visitor who prefers to book each piece directly. You will do more work and carry more risk, but you are not bound to a package shape.
Whichever you choose, we make no claim about which visa the Saudi authorities will approve for you; eligibility decisions belong to them. Our guide on Umrah on a Saudi transit visa covers the third route, for pilgrims passing through on a stopover.
Tourist visa Umrah permit and transport checklist
- Confirm on visa.visitsaudi.com and gov.uk, on the day you book, that the eVisa still permits Umrah for UK nationals.
- Finish Umrah before early April 2027 and wait for Nusuk to show the post-Hajj season before planning a return.
- Book your Nusuk Umrah permit, and a Rawdah permit if going to Madinah, before you travel; one Umrah in busy seasons.
- Carry passport, eVisa copy, Nusuk permit (with an offline screenshot) and your ACWY certificate.
- Arrange every ground leg yourself with licensed transport; there is no package coach.
- Give your transfer provider flight numbers, hotel names and the permit time.
- Keep a running note of days used in the Kingdom across the eVisa year.
- Re-read FCDO travel advice and your insurance wording before paying.
Saudi eVisa Umrah 2027: the short version
Outside Hajj season, the Saudi authorities’ published position in October 2026 is that a UK tourist eVisa holder may perform Umrah with a Nusuk permit, and the FCDO says the same. Hajj is excluded, Makkah is closed to non-pilgrims during the Hajj period, and every piece of ground transport is yours to arrange. Do that with licensed providers, in the right order, and the eVisa becomes a flexible way to combine Umrah with the rest of a Saudi trip.
If you would like the airport, intercity and ziyarah legs booked as private transfers around your permit time, contact Hajj & Umrah Taxi with your flight details and hotels and we will confirm a vehicle for each leg.
Sources reviewed 15 October 2026: Visit Saudi eVisa portal (visa.visitsaudi.com); the English Umrah Guide and 1448 AH season calendar from the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah (haj.gov.sa); Nusuk Umrah pages (nusuk.sa/umrah); GOV.UK foreign travel advice for Saudi Arabia, covering its summary, entry requirements and pilgrimage pages. Visa eligibility and permitted activities are decided by the Saudi authorities and can change; this article describes the published position on the review date and makes no guarantee about any individual application. Photo: Nataliya Vaitkevich / Pexels.