The Nusuk App: What It’s For and How to Book Permits

Prices and rules on this page last verified: 23 August 2026

You cannot perform Umrah without a permit, and the only place to get one is Nusuk — the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah’s own platform. It is free. Anyone charging you for it is either reselling something the Saudi government gives away, or harvesting your passport and payment details.

This guide covers the account, the Umrah permit, the Rawdah permit, and the failure points that actually catch people out. Where the official sources are silent or contradict each other, we say so rather than filling the gap with guesswork.

Quick answers

What is the Nusuk app for?

It issues the free government permits you need as a pilgrim — the Umrah permit, the Rawdah permit and access to the Two Holy Mosques. It also carries maps, live crowd density, prayer times and Haramain train tickets. Four different things are called “Nusuk” and only the app issues permits.

Do I need an Umrah permit from Nusuk?

Yes. The permit is free, issued against approved capacity, and entry is barcode-gated — being turned away without one is real, not theoretical.

Can I apply for an Umrah visa on the Nusuk app?

No, and this trips up nearly every first-timer. International registration asks for a visa number, not just a passport, so the visa has to come first. Visas are sold on the separate umrah.nusuk.sa shop, not in the app.

How do I book an appointment on the Nusuk app?

What people call an appointment is the permit slot. Choose Issue Umrah Permit, add companions, pick a date — the calendar shows Gregorian and Hijri — then pick a time slot. Green slots are quieter, red slots are peak. Choose green if you have any flexibility. Full sequence below.

What is the Nusuk QR code?

When a permit is issued, the confirmation screen gives you a permit number, a reservation number and a QR code. That code is what is scanned at the gate, so have it ready before you arrive rather than hunting for it in a crowd.

How do I get a Rawdah permit?

Also free, also in this app, but the rules are genuinely confusing — there are two separate routes with different limits. We cover it properly on the Rawdah permit page.

First, the four things called “Nusuk”

Most confusion starts here. These are separate products and only the first one issues your permit.

The app is published by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah itself, co-developed with the Saudi Data and AI Authority. It launched in 2020 as Eatmarna and was renamed Nusuk in September 2022. As of May 2026 the Ministry reported 51 million users across 190+ countries and more than 130 digital services.

Step 1: get your visa first

This trips up nearly every first-timer. Nusuk’s international registration asks for a visa number — not just a passport. So the order is:

1. Get your Saudi visa
2. Register on Nusuk
3. Book your permit

Not the other way round. You cannot set the app up in advance and slot the visa in later.

The good news is that it does not have to be a dedicated Umrah visa. Since October 2025 any valid visa permits Umrah outside Hajj season — the ordinary tourist eVisa included. The US State Department lists tourist eVisa, Umrah visa and transit visa as all qualifying. Our visa guide covers which route applies to you.

Step 2: create the account — and the five ways it fails

You will need: visa number, passport number, date of birth, nationality, mobile number, email. Then a password, terms acceptance, and an SMS one-time code.

Registration is where most people lose an afternoon. These are the documented failure modes, drawn from pilgrims reporting them on travel forums and app store reviews:

1. The visa number versus border number trap

The number beginning 48 is your border number. It is not your visa number and it will not work. If you took a visa on arrival, the number from the self-service machine begins 88; the one issued at the passport control desk begins 98. Mixing these up produces error 10010016, “incorrect information”, which tells you nothing useful.

2. Your phone number must match the visa application

One pilgrim spent days on this: the number entered into Nusuk was different from the one registered against the visa. The app does not tell you that is the problem.

3. Passport transcription

A capital I typed as a lowercase l is enough to fail. Check character by character against the passport, not from memory.

4. The one-time code does not arrive

OTP delivery failures were reported by users in the UK, Germany and Belgium over consecutive days. Check your spam folder first — that fixed it for several. Email verification is the single largest complaint category in aggregated problem reports.

5. Companion verification is slow

Adding family members to your account has been reported taking eight days or more to verify. If you are travelling as a group, register everyone the day your visas issue, not the week you fly.

Step 3: book the Umrah permit

The permit is mandatory for everyone — citizens, residents and visitors alike. The mechanism is request-then-approve: you ask for a slot, and the authorities grant it against approved capacity.

1. Open the app and choose Issue Umrah Permit from the services menu
2. Select your own account, and add companions if you are booking for family
3. Pick a date — the calendar shows both Gregorian and Hijri
4. Pick a time slot. Green slots are less crowded; red slots are peak. Choose green if you have any flexibility
5. Read and accept the instructions
6. The confirmation screen gives you a permit number, a reservation number and a QR code

In Ramadan, you get one Umrah — and it is enforced in software

The Ministry is explicit: no permit is issued for a second Umrah during Ramadan. The app returns the error “To give everyone the chance to perform Umrah, the lesser pilgrimage can’t be repeated in Ramadan.” Build your itinerary around one, not two.

Step 4: the Rawdah permit

The Rawdah permit is booked in this same app, and it is the step people get wrong most often. The short version: there are two routes. An advance permit, bookable from anywhere, once every 365 days. And Instant Path, repeatable through the year but only bookable once you are physically in central Madinah. Guides that tell you “once a year” and guides that tell you “no limit” are each describing one of these and ignoring the other.

Entry timings differ for men and women, entry is via Makkah Gate 37, and the official allocation inside is ten minutes — often less in practice. The full picture, with the timings table and the sourcing, is on our dedicated page: the Rawdah permit — once a year, or as often as you like?

At the gate

Entry is barcode-gated and refusal without one is real. Have the QR code from your confirmation screen ready.

In August 2025 Saudi Arabia made the Nusuk app zero-rated — usable without consuming data — in partnership with stc, Mobily and Zain. Rawdah permit issuance, Haramain tickets, maps and the AI assistant all work without an active data plan.

Travel sites advise screenshotting your permit as a backup. Do it — but as a personal record. No Saudi source says a screenshot will be accepted at the gate, and we are not going to tell you it will.

We could also find no published procedure for what happens if a QR code fails to scan. What we did find were pilgrims describing being turned away by technical failure, compounded by language barriers at the gate. Arrive early enough that a failure is recoverable.

Anyone charging you for a Nusuk permit is not legitimate

This is worth being blunt about, because the fraud is substantial and it targets British pilgrims in particular.

The US State Department states that Nusuk is the only official platform, that third-party agents cannot be used, and that doing so risks deportation, detention, fines or a ban on future visits. The Saudi Ministries of Hajj and Umrah and of Interior state the permit is issued exclusively through Nusuk, with fines up to SAR 20,000 for unauthorised entry, a ten-year ban for expatriates, and up to SAR 100,000 for anyone assisting.

In the UK, City of London Police recorded £195,752 in reported Hajj fraud losses in 2025 — a 30% year-on-year rise — while noting that only around 3% of victims report at all. Their fraud lead has asked specifically for early reports of fake Nusuk lookalike sites so they can take them down.

If you hold the new one-year multiple-entry Umrah visa

Announced 20 July 2026: 365 days validity, 90 days cumulative stay, applied for through Nusuk. Two conditions matter.

• Each visit requires buying a service package from an approved provider on the Nusuk platform.
• It cannot be activated during Hajj season — 1 Dhul-Qi‘dah to 13 Dhul-Hijjah.

In August 2026 the Ministry had to issue a clarification, because people assumed the visa alone was enough: holding a valid multiple-entry visa is not sufficient for subsequent Umrah visits — each trip needs its own service booking and its own fresh Nusuk permit. Budget for both, every time.

What the app is genuinely bad at

The app is actively maintained and rated 4.6 on the App Store — though 4.4 on Google Play in the US and 3.8 in the UK, which tells you something about the international experience. The recurring complaints, in order of frequency:

• Rawdah slots permanently showing “Soon”. The most common complaint by a distance. There is no notification when slots open, so pilgrims describe checking every ten to twenty minutes. The waitlist exists partly to address this — use it.
• Login and one-time-code failures — the largest single category of problem reports.
• Crashes after updates, including on the day of a booked visit.
• Language. Despite 35 listed languages, users report the app defaulting to Arabic with no visible toggle.
• Occasional data errors, such as incorrect voluntary prayer timings after an update.

The sequence, in order

1. Get your visa.
2. Register on Nusuk the day it issues — not at the airport. Register everyone in your party at the same time.
3. Book your Umrah permit as soon as the calendar opens. Choose a green slot.
4. Book Rawdah from home, deliberately. It is your one guaranteed visit of the year, and a no-show costs you the year.
5. Buy a local Saudi SIM or eSIM.
6. In Madinah, use Instant Path for any further Rawdah visits, and join the waitlist.
7. At the gate, arrive 30 minutes early. Screenshot your permit as a backup you hope not to need.

What we could not verify

Saudi Arabia’s own Nusuk sites are JavaScript applications that return no readable content to research tools, and the government services portal blocks automated access. Several things we would like to have confirmed from a primary source, we could not:

• That the permit is officially free. No Saudi government page we could read states a price. No official fee is published anywhere. Every fee-charging third party is by definition unofficial — but we could not read the government service record that would settle it outright.
• The exact advance booking window for Umrah permits.
• The maximum number of companions per booking, and whether every adult needs their own account.
• The official procedure if a QR code fails at the gate.
• Whether screenshots are accepted as a fallback.
• Whether zero-rated app access works on foreign roaming SIMs or travel eSIMs.
• How far ahead Rawdah slots are released, and whether it changes in Ramadan.

Sources

• Saudi Press Agency — Rawdah instant booking and waitlist (27 January 2025)
• SPA — Rawdah permits, timings and 365-day rule (5 December 2025)
• General Authority for the Care of the Two Holy Mosques — Nusuk services
• SPA — permit request and approval mechanism
• SPA — one-year multiple-entry Umrah visa (20 July 2026)
• SPA — Nusuk services and user milestones (22 May 2026)
• US State Department — Hajj and Umrah travel
• Council of British Hajjis — fraud warning
• Saudipedia — the Nusuk app