Umrah in Ramadan 2027: the dates, the deadlines and staying connected

The dates, with the caveat that matters

Ramadan 1448 is expected to begin on Monday 8 February 2027 and run to 8 March 2027, with Eid al-Fitr around 9 March 2027. The Hijri calendar is lunar, so all of these dates can shift by a day on the moon sighting, with final confirmation coming only the evening before. Build a day of slack into anything you book against them.

The last ten nights, roughly 26 February to 8 March 2027, are the single busiest Umrah window of the year. If your trip lands there, everything below applies double.

The 1448 season deadlines

The Umrah season timetable was announced on 17 May 2026, and it is worth reading as a set of hard edges rather than guidance:

Milestone	Date
Umrah visa issuance and arrivals begin	31 May 2026
Nusuk permit booking opens	1 June 2026
Final day of Umrah visa issuance	9 March 2027
Final entry into Saudi Arabia	23 March 2027
Mandatory departure for Umrah visitors	7 April 2027

Note what the last three lines mean for a Ramadan trip: visa issuance ends on 9 March, right around Eid itself, and entry closes two weeks after that. A Ramadan 2027 Umrah sits near the end of the season, so there is far less slack than the calendar suggests if paperwork slips.

Your visa has a 30-day fuse

An Umrah visa is now valid for 30 days from issuance, reduced from the previous 90, so you need to enter Saudi Arabia within that window; once inside, you can stay up to 90 days. The practical consequence: do not apply months ahead "to be safe". For a Ramadan trip, the visa should be issued within the month before you fly, and the final issuance date of 9 March 2027 means late-Ramadan travellers have little room to redo a delayed application.

There is also a multiple-entry Umrah visa, launched 20 July 2026: valid for 365 days, with a cumulative stay of 90 days across visits. It suits people who go more than once a year, with one condition to plan around — every visit needs a package booked through a licensed provider and a fresh Nusuk permit each time.

The Nusuk permit is not the visa

A free Umrah permit, booked through the Nusuk app, is mandatory for everyone performing Umrah at Masjid al-Haram — and "everyone" is meant literally: tourist, visit and transit visa holders included. The visa admits you to the country; the permit admits you to the Umrah, and checkpoints around the Haram enforce the second one regardless of the first. During Ramadan, when demand for slots peaks, book the permit as soon as your dates are firm rather than on arrival.

One connectivity detail: Nusuk confirms registration with a code, and it accepts an international mobile number and offers email verification. A travel eSIM is data-only, so keep your home SIM in the phone, with data roaming off, for codes sent by SMS — or use the email route.

What Ramadan does to the networks

During the last ten nights, millions of people occupy a few square kilometres around the Haram, and every network there slows down. Local SIMs and roaming eSIMs ride the same Saudi networks, and no provider — ourselves included — can promise full speed in that crowd. Plan for it rather than around it:

• Coordinate your group by text and voice notes, not live calls; short messages get through when calls stutter.
• Download offline maps of Makkah and Madinah while you are still on a quiet connection.
• Agree a physical meeting point before entering the Haram, so losing signal does not mean losing each other.

On calling home: WhatsApp calls on Saudi local SIMs are officially restricted and work only intermittently; on a roaming eSIM they typically work, because the data is routed through an international gateway. The full, honest status is in our guide to WhatsApp calls in Saudi Arabia.

Data for a Ramadan Umrah

For a ten to fourteen day trip spent on messages, photos, maps and a daily voice call, 3 to 5 GB is comfortable. If your family expects a video call from the Haram every evening, plan on 10 GB or more — and accept that in last-ten-nights congestion, video will sometimes struggle whatever your allowance says.

Set the phone up at home, not at the airport

A February arrivals hall is the season at its fullest, which makes it the worst possible moment to be queuing at a SIM counter with a passport. The alternative: buy the plan on home wifi, install the profile, leave the line off, and switch it on when you land. Our Saudi Arabia eSIM plans start at €1.67, with 30-day options that cover a full Umrah trip.

A travel eSIM also involves no registration step at all — no fingerprint, no Absher, no counter; why that is, and what the official remote routes offer instead, is in our no-registration guide. For everything else — the counter procedure, device compatibility, keeping the profile safe — start with the main Umrah and Hajj eSIM guide.