Umra Queries
My brother wants to come to Qatar from England along with my parents to visit me and then leave for a few days to go do Umra in Saudi Arabia during the last ten days of Ramadan.
He wants to drive my parents in my car to Saudi from Doha; Will he be allowed to do so? He has a driving license in England; will that be good enough for him to drive to Saudi while on a visit to Doha?
Will he be able to take his car into Makkah during Ramadan?
Is this a workable idea - especially if you compare with the options of leaving from Doha to Qatar by plane or by bus???
Really need to pass all this info to my brother and parents who want to plan this before applying for a visa to saudi from england.
Dear Sal
*Visitors can perform Umrah from DOHA-MAKKAH-DOHA but they must have atleast 3-4 months of validity of Visa.
*Get one more Re-entery visa from Immigration so they would be able to back to Doha after Umrah
*Even he has International Driving skills and License but the car should be on his owner ship which is not possible because of Residence permit of Doha
*How old your parents and Health conditions are they able to travel this much long journey consider the time,Distance and necessaties.
*I also came to knew Umrah for out siders of Saudi temporarily hold by saudi Governament
*You can get services from any HAMLA with adding extra re-entery visa
Good Luck
Dont hesitate to ask if any thing?
Well i don't think its possible for him come here and Drive your Car to KSA...If your going to KSA by Car it has to be on your name, or your on your compnay Name.
4. It appears that Saudi embassy in Qatar (I’m not sure about other countries) has changed some procedures due to which issuance of umrah visa is now taking around 2-3 weeks. You can only get the visa if you apply either this week or latest by next week.
As you can see from above, your idea is difficult to work out. What you can do is as follows:
1. Get umrah visas for your brother and parents from the country of their residence (e.g. UK if they are based in UK).
2. They should book their flights in such a manner so that if they are coming from London Heathrow, route shall be London Heathrow – Doha – Jeddah – London Heathrow.
In my opinion, this shall be most efficient and cost effective way for them to do umrah. Hope this helps.
This post is in two sections. Please read both:
This idea is difficult to work out due to following reasons:
1. The car needs to be either his name or a written approval from your side is needed for taking the car into Saudi Arabia.
2. I am not sure about the nationality of your brother and parents but they need Saudi Umrah visa for performing Umrah irrespective of their nationality. Umrah visa is issued separately for air and road travel. If you get a road visa, you cannot go by air and vise versa.
3. Saudi embassy generally stops issuing umrah visa during ramadan. So if you intend to go fro umrah, you have to apply for umrah visa well before start of ramadan.
I have a Malaysian friend who told me that it worked out cheaper, less complicated and much better for her to fly back to Malaysia and go from there. She said that the group all the nationalities together in Hotels and arrange times for their groups to go together to do the Haj and sightseeing etc. Hope this helps, don't know about the transit visa through Saudia Arabia.
I'm not sure but there seems to be many complications with this idea. First, visitors on visit visas can do Omrah either before they enter Qatar or on their way out to their home country or to another country. They can't do it during the visit. Second, to be able to drive from Qatar to Saudi, I think you need to have a residency permit in Qatar. A visit visa doesn't work. Third, they have to apply for a visa to Saudi which seems to be an issue these days based on other answers to this question. Finally, it's much better to go for Omra with a travel agency (some agencies specialize in Hij and Omra trips - they are called Hamla). They advise you on what to do and provide everything: visa, accomodation, flights (sometimes ground transportation from Qatar to Saudi) and many other services that will make life easy, specially that it's usually busy in Ramadan in Makkah. You can find the phone numbers of some of these agencies in Marhaba or call 180.
Best wishes.