Saudi Arabia has stopped receiving applications for Umrah visas since Jun 17, the Saudi Gazette reports quoting the Makkah daily.
The kingdom’s Hajj and Umrah ministry will resume receiving applications for Umrah visas from Aug 16, Mohammed Bin Badi, CEO of the Saudi National Committee for ministry, was quoted as saying.
He said Umrah visas will be issued in five days and will be for a period not exceeding a month.
As many as 7,650,736 Umrah visas were issued this year with 7,393,657 pilgrims have arrived in the Kingdom, according to data provided by the ministry.
Most pilgrims — 6,550,520 — came to the Kingdom by air, while 707,955 entered by land and 135,182 arrived by sea.
The largest number of pilgrims are from Pakistan (1,657,777) followed by Indonesia (967,125), India (650,480), Egypt (539,045), Algeria (365,628), Yemen (338,618), Turkey (321,494), Malaysia (278,674), Iraq (277,571) and Jordan (216,165).
Developing Hajj and Umrah organizations and services are among the Kingdom’s top priorities as its Vision 2030 reform plan aims to attract more than 30 million Umrah pilgrims and provide them with better services.