RIYADH, 30 July 2006 — The Kingdom has tightened rules for Pakistani nationals applying for entry visas to the Kingdom for visits, work, Umrah, Haj and business.
The Saudi Embassy in Islamabad has informed the Pakistani Foreign Ministry that Pakistanis should apply for their Saudi visas with machine-readable passports (MRPs) using Form B issued by the Pakistani Ministry of Interior, which indicates the members of a household with relevant data. The new rule will be effective from Aug. 15.
“The decision to implement new visa rules followed two meetings in Jeddah between officials of the two governments,” Retired Adm. Shahid Karimullah, Pakistan’s ambassador in Riyadh, told Arab News. The changes aim at decreasing the number of visa overstayers in the Kingdom, he added. While welcoming the new move, the envoy admitted that there was an increasing practice among Pakistani pilgrims of staying in Saudi Arabia beyond the validity of their visas. Many overstayers have unfortunately been implicated in various illegal activities, the ambassador said. Over the last 18 months, the Kingdom has deported 25,000 Pakistanis who had stayed illegally in the Kingdom after the expiry of their Umrah visas — 12,161 in 2005 and 12,834 in the first six months of this year. The ambassador said that the majority had entered the Kingdom on Umrah visas and had stayed in the country illegally to look for work.
To address the issue, Karimullah said his government would establish a committee under the supervision of the secretary for religious affairs; the committee will also include the federal secretary for the interior and the federal tourism secretary.
He said that both Islamabad and Riyadh had pledged to work together to address the problem. The ambassador said Pakistan had begun issuing MRPs three years ago and the process has been stepped up according to instructions from Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
The Pakistani Consulate in Jeddah currently issues MRPs for its citizens who have to renew their passports. The embassy in Riyadh will soon follow suit and a special team from the Pakistani Ministry of the Interior will come to Riyadh to assist with the MRPs.
According to Ali Awad Al-Aseeri, Saudi ambassador to Pakistan, the Kingdom has tightened entry restrictions for citizens from nine countries. No married pilgrim under the age of 40 will be permitted to travel alone to the Kingdom to perform Umrah from Pakistan, India, Egypt, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Somalia, Chad and Sudan.
The required form B will indicate the members of the family and their respective national identity card numbers as well as their civil status.
Al-Aseeri said that people who remain illegally in the Kingdom posed problems for the Saudi government and made it harder to accommodate legitimate Haj and Umrah pilgrims.
