The Chairman/CEO of Raudah Travels, Alh Abdulhadi has advised Hajj and Umrah travel agents in the country to control the rate of issuance of Umrah visas to pilgrims to prevent temporary locking up of the Umrah visa portal by the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Hajj and Umrah
“The Saudi Ministry has been enlightening us on how to process an Umrah visa. For example, a travel agent who has processed 200 Umrah Visa cannot be allowed to access another visa until part of those pilgrims have entered and exited Saudi Arabia. This was done to prevent overcrowding and to allow another agent to process visas within the approved limit for Nigeria
Many intending Umrah pilgrims will request you to process visas for them without stating when they intend to travel. After getting the visa, they sometimes put it inside their locker and such visa will be counted against the travel agents thereby preventing other agents from processing Visa especially once will reached the approve maximum limit.
We are currently having challenges processing Umrah visa for our pilgrims due to these problem and other factors, he said.
Abdulhadi, whose Company also operates from Niger, Mali said the Saudi Ministry of Hajj is determined to regulate Umrah and as such approved certain numbers of Umrah visas to each country during Umrah season ..
‘The Saudi Ministry of Hajj allocates 250 visas per day to Nigerian Umrah agents and as at today, we hardly utilized 100 due to the factors I described earlier”
He further calls for internal regulations by Umrah agents by asking their prospective clients questions before agreeing to process visas for them. For example, “asked the pilgrims when he/she will want to travel and requested that he join next available group from your schedule. If the intending pilgrim says he is not ready to travel, ask him/her to return when has a schedule for his journey. Such a measure, he said will sanitize the Umrah visa portal and will prevent a situation where the Saudi Ministry of Hajj will be locked up the portal for Nigerian Umrah agents.
However, another Hajj and Umrah Travels Operators informed Hajj Reporters that the rate at which Nigerian Umrah pilgrims stays back and refused to come back to Nigeria contributed to the Umrah Visa logjam.
“An officials of hajj ministry in Saudi Arabia informed me that Nigeria has the highest of Umrah overstayers and those who breached Umrah contracts and refused to return and that is why the Ministry sometimes has no option than to denied Nigerian Travels Agents Umrah Visa. The sources said.
