Umrah from the UAE for Pakistani passport holders
The short answer. The UAE is the easiest country in the world to go for Umrah from. The flight is short, it runs constantly, and a long weekend is genuinely enough, which is why many Pakistanis working in the Gulf go more than once. That short flight also means the local market is competitive, so compare it honestly against us rather than assuming either side is cheaper. We file the visa from Pakistan, and in a number of countries it can also be filed locally, so tell us your residency first.
What the short flight changes
Everything about how you should plan it.
A short trip is sensible here. From Australia or America a short Umrah wastes itself on travelling. From the Gulf it does not, which is why a long weekend works and why people repeat it.
Flight cost stops dominating. The hotel becomes the biggest decision rather than the fare, and the hotel is the trip: on an Umrah you walk to the Haram and back several times a day. Choosing a hotel near the Haram.
You can go more than once. So spend sensibly on the first one rather than treating it as the only chance.
Compare the local option honestly
We would rather say this than have you discover it. The UAE has a large and active Umrah trade of its own, and for a short trip from Dubai or Sharjah a local operator is a real alternative worth pricing.
Compare it properly, which means comparing the same things:
- The hotel by name in both quotes, and the minutes to the Haram.
- How many share the room at each price. This is where quotes stop being
comparable fastest.
- Nights in Makkah against nights in Madinah. Shifting nights to Madinah is
the oldest way to make a package look cheap.
- What is excluded in each.
What is included in an Umrah package.
Where the visa is filed
We file from Pakistan. In a number of countries it can also be filed where you live, and the UAE is a place where the local route is commonly used.
Both are real. Which is right for you depends on your residency and your status within it, so tell us where you live and what your visa situation is before you pay anybody. If you are mid renewal and cannot be without your passport, say so first, because that one fact can decide the route by itself.
The overview is in Umrah packages for overseas Pakistanis.
Why Gulf based Pakistanis come to us anyway
To meet family travelling from Pakistan. This is the main one. Parents and brothers flying from Karachi, you flying from Dubai, everybody wanting the same hotel and the same days. One office holding both halves is doing one job rather than two, and it is almost never arrangeable late.
Give us both sets of dates and both arrival times at the start, and say if the two halves must share a room.
To arrange the Pakistani half entirely. Many Gulf workers are paying for parents to go from Pakistan while they go separately, or not at all. Tell us that plainly and we will build it that way.
Because somebody can walk into the office. There is usually a relative in Karachi who can come to Saddar if something needs sorting.
Dates
Ramadan is the busiest and most expensive time to be near the Haram, and the Gulf's proximity means a great many people have the same idea. If your dates can move off Ramadan and off the school holidays, the same money puts you considerably closer.
Ramadan Umrah packages and December and winter Umrah.
The passport question
Settle before booking: which document are you travelling on, and is every record spelled the way that document spells it? The ticket, the visa and the hotel must match the document you present. 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.
Paying us from the UAE
- 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 the UAE before you send anything.
- Check the licence, not the logo:
how to verify an Umrah travel agency
What to ask, in one message
- 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?
- Is this land only or flight included?
- If family are flying from Pakistan, are we in the **same hotel on the same
days**?
- 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 emirate, your residency position, your dates and who is flying from where. We will tell you which route we would use, whether the two halves of the family can be put together, and what the package leaves out. Our departures are on the Umrah packages page and WhatsApp is how most of this gets done.