Saudi Arabia: Travel Document Guide

Saudi Arabia is considered a difficult country to visit unless you are a Muslim going there for a pilgrimage. Muslims can get "haj" and "umrah" (pilgrimage) visas while others can get a visitor’s visa or transit visa. To get a visitor’s visa (i.e. business visa) you will need a formal invitation telex from the company or Saudi individual sponsoring you. An invitation is actually an acknowledgement that your sponsor has obtained a visa on your account and that authorization to issue this visa has been sent to the Saudi embassy in a particular city close to you.

The 24 or 48-hour transit visa is for people passing through Saudi airports. This is issued by the Saudi embassy after you have shown them your airline tickets and convinced them that you have no alternative but to stop in Saudi Arabia.

People driving between Jordan and either Kuwait or Yemen are usually issued a three-day transit visa. People driving between Jordan and Bahrain or UAE, often get a seven-day transit visa. Non-Muslims should especially check their visa carefully as it may concern restrictions concerning the route you are allowed to take through the kingdom. From the first of Ramadan (month of fasting) every year, Saudi embassies in Muslim countries issue only "haj" (pilgrimage) visas until about till three months.

Though there is no longer a ban on giving visas to people who have an Israeli stamp on their passport, the guards at the frontier may not be aware of this new rule. An Important point to note is that all official business in Saudi Arabia is conducted according to the Muslim Hijra calendar and not the western one. A one-month valid visa is for a Hijra month and not the Gregorian month, so if you follow the western calendar you may have overstayed your visa by a day or two and that could get you into serious trouble.

Foreigners living in Saudi Arabia need permission from their sponsors to travel outside of the city in which they reside. In practice this is only necessary for travel between provinces. Foreigners (only Muslims) on a visitor’s visa can travel anywhere in the kingdom using their passport.

You have to get a site permit for every single site that you visit such as fort, ruins or an archaeological site. The Department of Antiquities office at the Riyadh Museum issues all permits. Permits for the Eastern Province outside the Al-Hasa oasis can also be obtained from the Regional museum of Archaeology and Ethnography in Dammam.

Resident foreigners have to bring their "iqama" or residence permit, and if the travel involves a trip outside the province to another where they do not reside, they have to get a travel letter. People who are on a visitor’s visa require only their passport for visiting another province. But you may be required to get a permit from the local branch of the Antiquities office once you are in this new place.