Do US citizens need a visa for Saudi Arabia?

The eVisa is a one-year, multiple-entry tourist visa. Applications are typically approved within minutes to a few hours, and approval rates for US applicants are high. There is no embassy appointment and no passport to post.

On price: it is in the region of 500 riyals, roughly 130 dollars, and the figure includes the compulsory medical insurance. We are not printing an exact number because current sources disagree, quoting different amounts for the online and on-arrival routes, and the portal carries the live one. Whatever it says there is the answer. Apply directly, never through a third-party site charging a service fee on top.

This is the one thing on this page worth checking yourself, because getting it wrong means overstaying. The Visit Saudi portal describes a one-year multiple-entry visa allowing tourists to spend up to 90 days in the country. Most travel sites paraphrase that as 90 days per visit. At least one detailed guide states the opposite, that the total combined time in the Kingdom across the visa's validity cannot exceed 90 days.

Those are very different rules for anyone planning repeat trips. If your plans involve more than 90 days total in a year, confirm the reading on the portal or with the Saudi embassy before you commit. Extensions can be requested through official channels but are discretionary rather than guaranteed.

Saudi Arabia requires visitors on a tourism visa to hold tourism health insurance, and it solves that for you by bundling a policy into the visa fee. That is a real benefit: emergency stabilisation in Saudi Arabia is broadly provided regardless of ability to pay, but continuing care is not free for foreigners, so having cover matters.

Be clear about what it is not. The bundled policy is medical. It does not cover trip cancellation, flight disruption or the sort of losses that a Level 3 advisory makes relevant, and those are the risks worth thinking about on a Gulf trip right now. If you want that, it is a separate purchase, and buying it after an advisory is already public generally will not cover cancelling because of the advisory.

The tourist eVisa covers Umrah for Muslim travellers outside the official Hajj season, which removed a lot of paperwork that used to require a specialist agent. Hajj itself needs a dedicated visa arranged through approved agencies via the Nusuk platform, and there are dated windows each year when tourist visa holders cannot enter Makkah.

For non-Muslim visitors, Makkah and Madinah are not open, and that is worth building into an itinerary rather than discovering at a checkpoint. Everywhere else, from AlUla to Jeddah to the Empty Quarter, is open to all visitors.

Common questions

Quick answers.

More on Saudi Arabia

The little money things nobody warns you about.

• Cash or card in Saudi Arabia?Saudi Arabia went card-first fast. Cards and phone payments cover almost everything in the cities, the riyal does not move, and the 15% VAT is the one number worth planning around.
• Do you tip in Saudi Arabia?Not obligatory, and not the US convention. Service is often charged for already, and where it is not, a small amount in cash is welcome rather than expected.
• Taxis, apps and the metro in Saudi ArabiaSaudi cities are vast and built for cars, so getting around is mostly apps. Riyadh is the exception now, because its new metro is absurdly cheap and reaches the airport.
• The Saudi VAT refund, and the step everyone missesShort answer: Saudi Arabia charges the highest VAT in the Gulf and, unusually for the region, gives it back on shopping. The scheme works, but it starts at the till rather than at the airport, and that is where most claims are lost before they begin.