There is a viral claim on social media platforms concerning Saudi Arabia suspending visas for Indian citizens. Some users also claim the work visas have also been suspended. An account named Ironclad has posted a claim, stating “Saudi Arabia has suspended issuance of work visas for Indian citizens.”
Many other users on the social media platform X have circulated the same claim, you can take a look at them here, here and here.
Fact Check
The DFRAC team members lowered their attention span to investigate the tweet by searching some keywords on Google. We found a statement on ABP News published on April 7, indicating that Saudi Arabia has banned visas for travellers from 14 nations, including India.
The report said that visas from 14 countries are temporarily stopped for foreign nationals. The ban will be in place for family, business and Umrah visas as well. By the government’s decision, people from these countries can currently not apply for multiple entry visas, as the visas have been suspended temporarily. All visas for the country will now have a single entry only. This ban will stay in place only until mid-June, when Hajj ends. It’s possible that visa services will go back to normal once everything eases up after June.
The Government of India has rejected the claim that there is a Saudi visa ban; the news was reported in the Hindustan Times by sources from the Indian government. Many reports have shown that, in order to prevent the rush of Hajj, short-term visas are usually restricted temporarily. This episode involved suspending block work visas for 14 countries such as India.
The Indian embassy wrote on X, “Indian pilgrims join millions of other pilgrims today at Arafat to perform Wuquf-e-Arafat, the core of Haj” on 5 June.
Conclusion
Hence, DFRAC has confirmed that the claim found on social media does not match the facts. It has been 2 months since this news came out. Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian government has not made any official announcement about this.
