Who is eligible for a Rawdah permit
Eligibility for a Rawdah permit turns on two things: whether the pilgrim is Muslim, and what their status in the Kingdom is on the day they book. The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah names four groups. Past that, the detail varies by visa, by season, and by what Nusuk will accept against a particular record — so this guide is careful to say which parts are settled and which are not.
The condition that never varies
Entry to the Rawdah, and to the Prophet’s Mosque generally, is for Muslims. The Ministry’s own Umrah and visit guide states it plainly: all Muslim visitors, whatever visa they hold, need authorisation to perform Umrah and to visit the Prophet’s Mosque. There is no permit type for anyone else, and no version of this rule that bends.
The second fixed point is the channel. The permit is issued through Nusuk and nowhere else — the Ministry’s guide says booking a prayer appointment in the Rawdah is through the Nusuk application only, and the Ministry lists the service as free. Both facts belong in a discussion of eligibility, because much of what is sold as help with eligibility is somebody offering to sell a free thing they have no power to issue.
The four groups the Ministry names
The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah publishes the Rawdah permit as an e-service and gives its target group in four words: citizens, residents, visitors, and GCC citizens. That is the closest thing to an official answer to "who can book", and it repays a careful reading, because each of the four is a status rather than a visa.
Citizens and residents are identified by national ID or iqama through the Kingdom’s single sign-on. GCC citizens are named on their own, and they are not the same population as residents of GCC states: the first appears on the Ministry’s list and the second does not. Visitors are everyone else, and that is where the detail lives.
The same page lists what it calls terms of use: an account on the Nusuk platform, residence in the Kingdom, and a valid Umrah visa for visitors. Hold on to that third one. The next section is about it.
Visitors, and which visa
In October 2025 the Ministry announced that holders of all types of visa may perform Umrah while in the Kingdom, and named them: personal and family visit visas, electronic tourist visas, transit visas, work visas and others. That announcement is real, and it is what most published answers to "can I book on a tourist visa" are built on.
It is also not, on its face, a statement about the Rawdah. The Ministry’s own service page for the Rawdah permit still lists a valid Umrah visa among the terms for visitors. We could not reconcile the two from published sources, and we are not going to guess at it.
What can be said flatly is this. The test that settles the question is whether the pilgrim’s visa record links to a Nusuk profile and the Rawdah service then opens against it. Nusuk is the authority, and it answers in seconds. Link the visa before you promise anybody anything.
What the permit is bound to
A permit is issued to a person, not to a group or a booking reference. It carries a date and a time band, and the time bands are separate for men and women. Access is managed at the gate with visual screening and permit verification, which is where any mismatch between the permit and the person holding it comes to light.
It is bound to a year as well. In December 2025 the General Authority for the Care of the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques restated that a permit obtained through Nusuk is valid once every 365 days. That rule is current. The widely repeated claim that it was lifted in January 2025 is a misreading of an announcement about a separate instant route used near the Prophet’s Mosque, which has its own guide here.
One practical consequence follows. A permit spent on the wrong date, or booked against the wrong profile, is a year gone for that pilgrim. Eligibility is not only a question of who may book — it is a question of who still has an entitlement left to spend.
Children, and why we will not print an age
Children do hold permits. The Ministry’s open data on Rawdah permits counts them by age band, and the youngest band — under 20 — runs to tens of thousands of permits a month. A minor holding a permit in their own name is ordinary, and the general rule holds: a permit belongs to one named person, children included.
What we could not verify is a current minimum age. The figures that circulate trace back to a ministerial statement made in 2022, under a different app and a different capacity regime, and we found nothing recent that restates them. Nusuk’s own screens are the only place a specific answer exists on a given day.
So the honest instruction is the unsatisfying one. Do not plan a family trip around an age you read in a guide, this one included. Add the child in Nusuk and see what it does, and understand that gate staff screen visually and will form their own judgement about a small child on the day. A wrong number here sends a family to Madinah with a child who cannot go in.
For agencies: eligibility is an intake question
Every category above is knowable before a pilgrim leaves home, and none of it is knowable at the Rawdah gate at two in the morning. Passport, visa type, iqama or GCC nationality, and — the one most often missed — whether this pilgrim has already used a permit in the last 365 days. Those four belong on the intake form, beside the passport scan.
The last deserves a column of its own, because it is the only one a pilgrim can get wrong in good faith. Someone who prayed in the Rawdah on an Umrah eleven months ago is not eligible for an advance booking today, and will tell you they are.
RawdahPass books through Nusuk on behalf of licensed agencies, and the checks it can make are the checks Nusuk exposes: whether a profile verifies, and whether the service opens for that pilgrim. It cannot make an ineligible pilgrim eligible, and nobody — us included — can guarantee a permit or entry. What it removes is finding out in Madinah.
Frequently asked
Can I book a Rawdah permit on a tourist visa?
In October 2025 the Ministry said all visa types allow the holder to perform Umrah, naming electronic tourist visas among them. The Ministry’s own Rawdah service page still lists a valid Umrah visa among the terms for visitors. The reliable test is to link the visa in Nusuk and see whether the Rawdah service opens against it.
Can Saudi residents book the Rawdah?
Yes. The Ministry lists residents in the target group for the service, alongside citizens, visitors and GCC citizens. Residents sign in through the national single sign-on rather than against a passport and visa record.
Can a non-Muslim get a Rawdah permit?
No. The Ministry’s guidance is addressed to Muslim visitors, and there is no permit for anyone else. This is the one condition on the page with no exception to it.
Does my child need their own Rawdah permit?
A permit is issued to one named person, children included, and the Ministry’s own permit data covers pilgrims under 20. We could not verify a current published minimum age — the numbers in circulation come from older announcements — so check the child in Nusuk rather than relying on a figure from a guide.
How often can one person get a Rawdah permit?
Once every 365 days for a booking made in advance through Nusuk, restated officially in December 2025. A separate instant route near the Prophet’s Mosque works differently and is covered in its own guide.