There has been confusion over the new rule introduced by the Saudi Arabian Hajj Authority which obligates any person wishing to do ‘Umrah a second time in consecutive hijri years, to have to pay the second time a sum of 2000 Saudi Riyals (approximately £400) so here’s some clarification:

• If you just want to simply know whether you will have to pay a fee for performing ‘Umrah, enter your passport number here into this checker and it will tell you immediately

• How this is calculated is that if you do ‘Umrah in consecutive Hijri years then you will face a charge on the second time you apply for a visa. So that means if you did ‘Umrah at the beginning of a Hijri year, you would have to actually wait virtually two full years before you can do ‘Umrah again without a new fee.
• For example, if you did ‘Umrah in December 2016 which would correspond to the third month of the Hijri calender Rabee al-Awwal 1438, you would have to not only let 1438 finish but also 1439 before you could do ‘Umrah again in the new year of 1440, so the earliest would be the first month of 1440 which would correspond to mid-September 2018.
• Another example: if you did ‘Umrah in Ramadhan 2017 (1438 Hijri, corresponding to May 27th 2017), then you could do ‘Umrah again in mid-September 2018 at the beginning of 1440 Hijri because you have allowed a full Hijri year to go in between (1439) without performing ‘Umrah.
• This also means however that if you get a new UK passport since the last time you went on ‘Umrah, you could avoid having to pay the 2000 Saudi Riyal fee. Yet, please use the checker link above with your new passport just to be sure.

This is a fee collected by the Saudi authorities and has nothing to do with the travel agents. There have been increases across the board in all costs from the Saudi side including new levies on hotels, a new VAT tax of 5% on everything in the Kingdom, and more all as part of their new 2030 Economic Vision.