Uploading a group: from permit PDFs to booking

By Rania Ali · Reviewed 2026-08-11

You have a stack of permit PDFs and a departure date. This guide walks the upload screen end to end — naming the group, choosing a guide, telling the system whether a multi-page file is one family or a roster of strangers, setting the date span, and confirming — with the two moments that cannot be undone marked where they happen, not in a footnote. The panel is Arabic and right-to-left; the screens below are shown as they are.

Before you start

You need three things: the permit PDFs, the group’s arrival and departure dates in Madinah, and enough credits — one credit per pilgrim. The upload wizard lives in the admin panel and moves through three numbered steps: الرفع (upload), المعالجة (processing), and المراجعة والتواريخ (review and dates).

Nothing is committed until the final confirmation. You can drop files, process them, look at the result and walk away: no group exists, no credit is spent, no permit is touched. Everything before the confirm button is free to get wrong.

Step 1: name the group, pick the guide

The group name (اسم المجموعة) is how this upload appears in your groups list, so name it the way your office already talks — «حافلة عمّان 3» is the field’s own example. You will be finding it again in a week among other groups; a route or a coach number beats "group 2".

The group guide (مرشد المجموعة) is the person who will carry the group’s roster link — typically whoever is on the bus. Pick a saved guide from «اختر مرشدًا», add a new one with «+ إضافة مرشد جديد», or choose «سأكون أنا المرشد» to keep updates on your own agency number. The guide is optional and can be sorted out later; do not let it hold up the upload.

Drop the permit files

Drop the PDFs into the upload area. The limits are printed on it: PDF only, up to 90 MB or 200 pages per upload. A file that is not a PDF will not get through: the file picker offers only PDFs, and a non-PDF dragged in is refused when the files are processed. Either way, export it as PDF from whatever produced it and try again. A stack over the size or page limit is not a problem either: split it across two uploads. Each upload becomes its own group, so name them «… — 1» and «… — 2» and move on.

Each uploaded file shows its name, its size, and — more usefully — what it will become: «7 صفحات — أي 7 أفراد», seven pages, meaning seven individuals. Read that line. It is the upload restated in people rather than files, and it is where a wrong choice shows up first.

One family, or a roster of individuals?

Below the files sits the question the whole upload turns on: «كيف يُقرأ ملف PDF متعدد الصفحات؟» — how should a multi-page PDF be read? The two answers change two real things: who is booked together, and who can see whose permit.

«كل ملف عائلة واحدة» — each file is one family. A PDF of up to four pages is one household: the platform tries to win the family a single shared appointment — men and women separately, because they are always seated apart — and if a shared slot cannot be won, each member is booked individually rather than left waiting. They share one link that any of their dates of birth opens. Right for an actual family; wrong for strangers, because sharing a link means seeing each other’s permits.

«كل صفحة فرد مستقل» — each page is an independent individual. For a combined roster scanned into one file: every person is booked separately, and each gets a private link that opens only their own permit. Nobody waits on anybody, and nobody sees anybody else’s document.

To tell which one this stack needs, ask where the file came from. One household’s permits saved together: family. An office scanner fed a pile of unrelated permits: individuals. If a “family” file runs past four or five pages the screen will question it, and switching the whole upload to individuals is usually the right answer.

Processing, and the pilgrim cards

Processing reads every page and extracts each pilgrim. The review step opens with three counters — المعتمرون (pilgrims), العائلات (families), الأفراد (individuals) — and a card per pilgrim: name, passport number, nationality, date of birth, and a status chip.

«تم التحقق من البيانات» means the details were read and verified against the permit — that card is done. «قراءة التصريح» means the permit is still being read; give it a moment. A card that stays on reading has a page the reader could not settle: remove it with the ×, fix the source — a straighter scan, a cleaner copy — and upload that pilgrim again. Do not confirm a card you never saw verify.

Check the counters against the manifest. Seven people on the bus and seven in المعتمرون is the cheap moment to catch a missing page — after confirmation it stops being cheap.

The dates: only the two edge days are constrained

The panel headed «متى يكونون في المدينة؟» — when are they in Madinah? — sets the span inside which every Rawdah appointment for this group will be booked. Four fields: the arrival date (الوصول), the departure date (المغادرة), the earliest hour they can attend (أبكر وقت يمكنهم الحضور فيه), and the latest hour they can attend (آخر وقت يمكنهم الحضور فيه).

This is the part that confuses people, so here it is flat: the two times bind only the two edge days. The earliest hour applies to the arrival day alone — no appointment before the coach has arrived. The latest hour applies to the departure day alone — no appointment after they have left. Every day between the two is fully open, at every hour, and the times you set do not touch it.

The screen says this back to you as you type, moving from «اليومان مفتوحان بالكامل. عيّن وقتاً لتضييق أحدهما.» (both days fully open) to «قُيّد يوما الوصول والمغادرة. وتبقى الأيام بينهما مفتوحة.» (the arrival and departure days are constrained; the days between remain open). All times are Saudi time — the hour the group is in Madinah, not the hour at home.

Set the earliest hour honestly. Landing at the airport is not standing at the Haram; only you know the drive and the hotel check-in in between, and the system adds no margin of its own.

Confirming: what locks here

Under the cards, the arithmetic is shown before you are asked for anything: المتاح (available) minus هذه المجموعة (this group) equals بعد التأكيد (after confirming). One credit per pilgrim.

The dialog «تأكيد هذه المجموعة؟» restates everything — the group name, arrival with «ليس قبل …» (not before), departure with «ينتهي بحلول …» (ends by), the pilgrim count, and the credit line — and then says the two sentences it exists for: confirming releases these pilgrims to start booking, and the span cannot be edited afterwards. A wrong date discovered later means cancelling the permits and uploading again.

So this is the moment to be slow. Check the two dates against the tickets, once, carefully. Before this button a mistake costs a click of «رجوع» (back); after it, a wrong span costs the group’s permits and a re-upload — along with any appointment already won on the way. The button is labelled with exactly what it does: «التأكيد وخصم 7 أرصدة» — confirm and deduct seven credits.

After confirming: the group page

Confirmation lands you on the group’s page. At the top, the share block — مشاركة (share), عرض QR (show QR), نسخ الرابط (copy link) — is how the roster link reaches the guide, and the guide’s card below it shows whether that link has been opened yet. That is worth a glance the day before travel.

Under it sit the group’s permits as a table: name, passport, gender, appointment, status. «الحساب جاهز» — account ready — means that pilgrim’s Nusuk account is set up and waiting. «يبحث عن موعد» — searching for an appointment — means the platform is watching for a slot inside your span. Neither asks anything of you: the statuses advance on their own, and this page is where you watch them do it.

When something is wrong

A wrong date, noticed before confirming: nothing has happened yet — the dates are edited in place on the review step, so correct them there and carry on. Noticed after confirming: the span cannot be edited, but the correction stays in your hands. Cancel any appointment already won («إلغاء الموعد» on the pilgrim), delete the group — it refuses while a live appointment stands and names the cancellation as the remedy — and upload again with the right dates. Only cancelling a permit itself at Nusuk has no button yet; for that, ask Rawdah. This is the expensive path, which is why the confirm dialog is the place to be slow.

Not enough credits: the confirmation is refused and nothing is touched — the screen says how many are missing (ينقص). Ask Rawdah to top up; the group stays where it is, and confirming succeeds the moment the credits arrive. A colleague confirming their own group first can consume the balance while your dialog is open — same refusal, same harmless retry.

A file refused: it is not a PDF, or it exceeds 90 MB or 200 pages. Convert it, or split the stack across more than one upload — each upload becomes its own group.

A pilgrim stuck on «قراءة التصريح»: remove the card, improve the scan, and upload that pilgrim again — alone if need be, as a small group of one. Do not confirm a card that never verified.

Frequently asked

Can the arrival or departure date be changed after confirming?

No. The span locks at confirmation, and the way out is a re-upload: cancel any appointment already won, delete the group from the panel — it refuses while a live appointment stands — and upload again with the right dates. Only cancelling a permit itself at Nusuk still goes through Rawdah, since that step has no button yet. This is why the confirm dialog restates both dates and asks you to look at them.

What do the two times on the dates panel actually restrict?

Only the arrival day and the departure day. The earliest hour trims the first day, the latest hour trims the last day, and every day between them stays fully open at every hour. All times are Saudi time.

What does the family-versus-individuals choice actually change?

Two things. A family is aimed at one shared appointment — men and women separately, and each member booked individually if a shared slot cannot be won — and shares one link that any member’s date of birth opens, so each can see the others’ permits. Individuals are booked separately from the start and each gets a private link that opens only their own. A file of unrelated people should always be read as individuals.

A pilgrim card stays on «قراءة التصريح» — what do I do?

Give it a moment; if it does not settle, that page could not be read cleanly. Remove the card, fix the scan, and upload that pilgrim again. Do not confirm a group containing a card that never verified.

My files exceed 90 MB or 200 pages. What now?

Split them across more than one upload. Each upload becomes its own group under its own name — «… — 1» and «… — 2» — and nothing else changes.

What happens if I do not have enough credits at confirmation?

The confirmation is refused with nothing touched: no deduction, no booking, no permit affected. The group stays where it is, the screen says how many credits are missing, and confirming succeeds as soon as they are added.

What do «الحساب جاهز» and «يبحث عن موعد» mean on the group page?

«الحساب جاهز» means that pilgrim’s Nusuk account is registered and ready. «يبحث عن موعد» means the platform is watching for an appointment inside the group’s span. Both advance on their own and ask nothing of you.