LONDON: There is a new smartphone app that is going to launch for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims, making their lives more accessible, and through this app, they can directly apply for visas to enter Saudi Arabia. It is also now available in the UK.
The ‘Saudi Visa Bio app’ allows applicants to register their biometric data before travel directly and saves them from visiting visa issuance centres. On their arrival, they have to just arrive in the kingdom, and they just have to match their data with the information stored on the app, which speeds up the broader control process.
They launched this app last year, and it was launched by Foreign Minister ‘Prince Faisal bin Farhan‘ and is in line with the directives of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to offer the best possible services and facilities for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims.
BY this app, Saudi Arabia has become the first country in the world to allow the registration of biometrics via smartphones for the issuance of electronic visas.
The service was created in cooperation with several government agencies, including the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Presidency of State Security, the National Cybersecurity Authority, and the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority.
The launch of the app was held in the presence of the Saudi Deputy Ambassador to the UK ‘Hassan Al-Jamee’ and the Head of the Consular Department at the Saudi Embassy Ammar Al-Ammar.