Umrah from the USA for Pakistani passport holders
The short answer. From America the flight is the dominant decision, not the package. It is the longest single line in your budget and the longest part of your day, which is why a great many US travellers buy their own ticket, often on miles, and take the visa, hotels and ground arrangements from us. We file the visa from Pakistan, and in a number of countries it can also be filed locally, so tell us where you are resident first.
Start with the flight, not the package
From the US the fare and the routing decide more than anything an agency controls. So decide in this order:
- What can you actually get from your own airport, and on what routing?
- Is the whole journey on one ticket? On one ticket a missed connection is
the airline's problem and your bags are checked through. On two separate
tickets, a delay on the first leg is yours to solve.
- Then price the Saudi end.
That is why land only suits so many American travellers: the visa, the hotels and the ground arrangements from us, with the ticket bought by you. Tell us if that is what you want, because a land only quote and a full package quote are not comparable numbers.
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 is answered in can overseas Pakistanis book through a Pakistani agency.
The passport question
Many Pakistani families in America hold two passports, or hold a US passport and a NICOP. 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 actually present, and two passports do not always spell a name identically. Send a scan of the one you intend to use.
Umrah is not quota bound and no nationality is barred, so a second passport does not close any door. For Hajj the answer is different and we set it out in Hajj from abroad for overseas Pakistanis.
The time zone problem, and how we solve it
Nine or ten hours of difference means a working day in Karachi is the middle of your night. Two things follow.
Tell us your city and your hours. We will call when it suits you rather than when it suits the office.
Run it on WhatsApp. Most of our American families do the whole thing in writing on WhatsApp, which also leaves you with a record of everything that was agreed. That record is worth as much as the convenience.
Ask one more question up front: if something goes wrong while I am in Saudi Arabia, who do I call, and what hour is that number answered?
Dates, and the American calendar
The quiet months buy the close hotels. Ramadan and the school holidays buy the far ones.
In practice the American peaks are the winter break, spring break and the summer, and if your dates can move even a fortnight off a holiday it buys more hotel than raising the budget does. On an Umrah the walk to the Haram is the day itself, several times over.
December and winter Umrah, Ramadan Umrah packages and choosing a hotel near the Haram.
A family travelling from two countries
Parents from Karachi, children from Houston or Chicago, everybody wanting the same hotel and the same days. Common, usually arrangeable, almost never arrangeable late. Give us both sets of dates in the first conversation.
Paying us from America
- To the registered company, against a receipt. Never a personal account,
whatever reason is given.
- Everything in writing first, in one message you keep: hotels by name, the
room, the nights, the exclusions, the cancellation terms. Our terms are on the
cancellation and refunds page.
- Ask us what we can accept from the US before you send anything.
- Check the licence, not the logo:
how to verify an Umrah travel agency
Before you commit
- Passport expiry for every traveller, children included.
- The vaccination with the waiting period, started early.
Umrah health and vaccination requirements.
- Which documents need a physical original rather than a scan?
- Which hotel in Makkah by name, how many minutes to the Haram, and **how
many share the room** at this price?
- Nights in Makkah against nights in Madinah.
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, the ages, and whether you want land only or the flight included. We will price exactly that and say plainly what it leaves out. Our departures are on the Umrah packages page.