Umrah from Australia for Pakistani passport holders

The short answer. Australia is the longest journey of any family we arrange for, and that single fact should shape the whole trip: the routing, the arrival day, and how many nights you book. Plan the first day as a rest day rather than a performance day. We file the visa from Pakistan, and in a number of countries it can also be filed locally, so tell us your residency first.

The journey is the planning problem

From Sydney, Melbourne, Perth or Brisbane you are looking at a long haul with at least one connection, and the day it produces is longer than most people picture when they book.

Three consequences, and they are the reason this page exists:

Plan the arrival as a rest day. Not a sightseeing day and not an ambitious first Umrah. Everybody performs better on the second day, and older travellers very much so.

Book enough nights. A short trip from Pakistan is a reasonable idea. The same short trip from Australia spends too much of itself travelling. Ask us what the shortest sensible length is from your city rather than assuming.

Ask whether the journey is on one ticket. On one ticket a missed connection is the airline's responsibility and the bags are checked through. On two separate tickets it is yours to solve in a transit airport, possibly in Ihram. This is the single most useful question an Australian traveller can ask.

Land only, usually

Because the flight dominates the budget and your routing options are your own, many Australian travellers buy their own ticket and take the visa, the hotels and the ground arrangements from us.

Tell us which you want, because a land only quote and a full package quote are not comparable numbers, and comparing one against the other is how people decide an honest agency is expensive.

Where the visa is filed

We file from Pakistan. In a number of countries it can also be filed where you live, so both routes exist and the right one depends on your residency and sometimes on your status within it. Say where you are resident before you pay anybody.

The overview is in Umrah packages for overseas Pakistanis, and the direct question in can overseas Pakistanis book through a Pakistani agency.

The hours actually work in your favour

Australia is ahead of Pakistan rather than behind it, so your evening is our afternoon and your morning is our morning. In practice this is the easiest overseas time difference we deal with.

Tell us your city and we will call at an hour that suits you. Most of it runs on WhatsApp, which also leaves you a written record of everything agreed, and that record is worth as much as the convenience.

Dates, and the Australian calendar

Your constraint is the school terms, which do not line up with the northern holidays, and that is genuinely useful: the weeks you are free are often not the weeks the close hotels are full.

Avoid Ramadan unless Ramadan is the point, because it is the most expensive and most crowded time to be near the Haram. In a quiet month the same money puts you much closer, and on an Umrah the walk to the Haram is the day itself.

Ramadan Umrah packages, December and winter Umrah and choosing a hotel near the Haram.

The passport question

Many Pakistani families in Australia hold two passports, or an Australian passport and a NICOP. Settle before booking: which document are you travelling on, and is every record spelled the way that document spells it?

Send a scan of the one you intend to use. Umrah is not quota bound and no nationality is barred. Hajj is different, and it is set out in Hajj from abroad for overseas Pakistanis.

A family travelling from two countries

Parents from Karachi, children from Sydney or Melbourne, everybody wanting the same hotel and the same days. Usually arrangeable, almost never arrangeable late. Give us both sets of dates at the start, and say if the two halves must share a room.

Paying us from Australia

• To the registered company, against a receipt. Never a personal account,

whatever reason is given.

• Everything in writing first, in one message you keep. Ours is on the

cancellation and refunds page.

• Ask us what we can accept from Australia before you send anything.
• Check the licence, not the logo:

how to verify an Umrah travel agency.

What to ask, in one message

• From my city, what is the shortest sensible trip length?
• Is the journey on one ticket?
• Which hotel in Makkah, by name, and how many minutes to the Haram?
• How many share the room at this price?
• Nights in Makkah, nights in Madinah?
• What is not included, and what are the cancellation terms?

Before you commit

Passport expiry for every traveller, the vaccination with the waiting period started early, names spelled identically across documents, and an answer on which items need a physical original. The order of operations is in Umrah booking from abroad with a Pakistani passport.

Ask us

Tell us your city, which passport each traveller will use, your dates and the ages. We will tell you the sensible length, the routing questions to settle, and what the package leaves out. Our departures are on the Umrah packages page.