Chicago – December 07, 2023
Saudi Minister of Haj and Umrah Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah on Wednesday said “We are here to make it easier for Muslims in India to go to Makkah and Madinah and have a great experience doing Umrah.”
“We are here to hear comments, and suggestions to enrich the experience and make it easier for Muslims in India to go to Makkah and Madinah and have a great experience doing Umrah and visit Al Madinah,” the Saudi Minister said.
The Saudi Minister of Haj and Umrah is on an official visit to India as part of a series of international tours aimed at showcasing Saudi Arabia’s unwavering commitment to serving Umrah pilgrims.
This visit aims to achieve significant advancements in streamlining procedures, enhancing services, and outlining comprehensive plans for hosting pilgrims and Umrah visitors, aligning closely with the outlined objectives of “Saudi Vision 2030”, as per an official release.
The minister said that during the visit “I had the pleasure to meet many different government officials including the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Minority Affairs. We had great discussions about the improvement of the surface to the Muslims going to Makkah and Madinah.”
The Saudi Minister said: “We have significantly improved the visa process. Now, the Umrah visa is usually issued in less than 48 hours and usually, it’s issued mostly in very few hours. We are working on the air connectivity to make sure we have more flights, more options, and lower costs. We are working on the visa process also not only for the Umrah visa we have other types of visas, visit visas, family visas, tourism visas, different kinds of visas that allow Indians to go to Saudi.”
He said: “Even non-Muslims can visit other cities in Saudi and use one of the visit or tourism visas to visit the kingdom.”
Speaking on the Saudi Vision 2030, he said it is a great strategy to improve services across the kingdom and provide better services for pilgrims.
