Nusuk app and Rawdah permit: how to book, step by step

What Nusuk is, and what it replaced

Nusuk is the official platform of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Hajj and Umrah↗, launched on 26 September 2022 as a single gateway for pilgrims to both holy cities. It replaced Eatmarna, the older app that handled Umrah and Rawdah permits through the pandemic years, and it now sits alongside Tawakkalna, the government services app that Saudi residents already use for identity and health records.

For an international pilgrim, Nusuk does three jobs that matter. It issues the Umrah permit that gets you into Masjid al-Haram to perform Umrah. It issues the Rawdah permit for Masjid an-Nabawi in Madinah. And it can book extras such as hotels, Haramain High Speed Railway tickets, and since late 2025, Zamzam water delivery to your home country. The platform reported more than 51 million users across over 190 countries by March 2026, which tells you how much competition there is for the scarce part: Rawdah slots.

You can download Nusuk free from the Apple App Store or Google Play, and the same account also works on the web at nusuk.sa↗. Install it at home, not after landing in Jeddah. Setting it up properly takes a few days because of how it links to your visa, which is the first trap most people fall into.

Setting up the app before you fly

Nusuk ties your account to your passport and your Saudi visa. The app cannot find your visa until the visa exists in the Saudi system, and pilgrims regularly report a lag of 24 to 48 hours after the visa is issued before the app recognises it. If you try to register the same day your visa arrives and get a vague error, waiting a day is usually the fix rather than anything you did wrong.

Registration uses an email one-time password rather than a Saudi phone number, so you do not need a local SIM to create the account. Several pilgrim guides report that Gmail addresses receive the code more reliably than Outlook or Hotmail ones, where the message can land in a junk folder or arrive late. Use an email you can actually open on your phone, because you will need it again if you reset a password while travelling.

Every adult needs their own Nusuk account. A husband cannot hold a Rawdah permit for his wife on his own profile, and a parent cannot use one QR code for a grown son. Very young children traveling with a parent generally do not need their own permit, while older children are added to the family's bookings with their own passport details. The exact age threshold has shifted over the years, so check it in the app when you add each traveler.

The Umrah permit for Masjid al-Haram

Your visa gets you into Saudi Arabia. The Umrah permit gets you into Masjid al-Haram to perform Umrah. They are separate, and holding an Umrah visa does not remove the need for the permit. The permit is free, and no agent, hotel or travel company can sell it to you; if anyone tries to charge for it, that is a warning sign about who you are dealing with.

Booking it is simple compared with the Rawdah. In the app, choose the Umrah permit service, select Masjid al-Haram, pick a date and a time window, and confirm. Nusuk generates a QR code that staff can scan at the entry points to the mataf area. Most pilgrims book theirs for the day they arrive in Makkah, timed for a couple of hours after they expect to reach the hotel, leaving room for a delayed bus from Jeddah.

The app generally allows one active Umrah permit at a time. Pilgrims who want to perform more than one Umrah during a stay usually book the next permit after the first one has passed. Outside Ramadan and the weeks around Hajj, availability is rarely the problem. During Ramadan, slots can appear only a few days ahead, so check the app daily from about ten days before your arrival.

The Rawdah, and why it needs a permit at all

The Rawdah, also called Riyad ul Jannah, is the area of Masjid an-Nabawi between the Prophet's minbar and his house, where he is buried. A hadith describes it as a garden from the gardens of Paradise, and praying there is one of the most longed-for moments of any visit to Madinah. Inside the mosque it is marked by a lighter green carpet, distinct from the red carpet around it.

The space is small, a little over 300 square meters by most measurements, and the number of people who want to pray in it on a single day runs into the hundreds of thousands during busy seasons. Before the permit system, reaching it meant hours of pushing through packed crowds, and the elderly and women often never got close. Timed permits replaced that with short, staffed entry windows.

The result is fairer but scarcer. A slot gives you roughly thirty minutes inside, enough for two rakat and personal duas, and staff move groups along when the window ends. Knowing that in advance helps; pilgrims who arrive expecting to stay as long as they like are the ones who leave feeling rushed.

How to book a Rawdah slot, step by step

The booking itself takes under two minutes once you find an open slot. The hard part is finding one, which the next section covers. Do a dry run of these steps a few days before slots for your dates are likely to open, so that when they do appear you are not learning the menus under pressure.

Your Rawdah booking must fall on a day you will physically be in Madinah, so check your itinerary carefully. Many packages spend four or five days in Madinah, which gives you a decent window. Pilgrims on short stays of two days have far fewer chances and should watch the app more closely.

When slots open, and how pilgrims actually get one

Nusuk does not publish a fixed release schedule, which is why so much advice online contradicts itself. What pilgrims consistently report is a larger weekly release, commonly around Thursday or Friday, covering dates roughly one to two weeks ahead, plus smaller releases through each day as other pilgrims cancel. During Ramadan the window shrinks to about three to five days ahead.

The practical consequence is that checking once a day at a random time rarely works. People who succeed tend to check repeatedly over a few days, at the top and half of each hour, and in the quiet hours of the Saudi night. Saudi Arabia runs on Arabia Standard Time, UTC+3, all year with no daylight saving, so a pilgrim in New York is seven hours behind in summer and eight in winter.

Switching dates helps more than switching times. If Tuesday is full, Wednesday may have openings, and booking any slot in your stay beats waiting for the perfect one. Some pilgrims also report an on-site option that offers same-day slots when you are physically near the mosque with location services enabled. It is not guaranteed, so treat it as a backup rather than a plan.

Men's and women's visits: times, gates and the day itself

Men and women visit the Rawdah at different times, and the permit tells you which gate to use. Pilgrim reports commonly place the men's entry around Gate 37 and the women's entry around Gate 25 of Masjid an-Nabawi, but gate numbers have changed with renovation work before, so trust the details on your permit over anything you read, including this guide.

Women's windows are usually split into a morning period after Fajr and a later period at night, while men's slots tend to run late at night into the early morning. The specific hours you see in the app depend on the date and season. Whatever your slot, arrive at the gate about thirty minutes early. Queues form well before each window, and staff check QR codes before letting each group through.

Late arrival is the most common way to lose a permit. Entry is tied to the slot on the QR code, and if you miss it you generally cannot join a later group; you have to rebook, which may not be possible during the rest of your stay. Charge your phone fully, keep the permit open on screen before you reach the queue, and do not rely on a connection inside a crowd of thousands.

The 365-day rule, and the confusion around it in 2026

For several years the rule has been one Rawdah permit per person every 365 days. It was introduced to spread access across the millions who visit each year, and it is why repeat visitors, Madinah residents and frequent Umrah travelers often find the app refuses them a second booking.

In 2026 you will find guides online that say this limit has been relaxed and others, updated in the same months, that say it still applies. We have not found an official Ministry announcement that settles it, and the app itself is the only reliable answer for your account. If Nusuk lets you book, the limit does not apply to you. If it refuses with a message about a previous visit, it does.

The practical advice is the same either way: assume your one booking may be your only one for the year, and do not book a slot you are not certain you can attend. A missed slot can count against you just as an attended one would.

Fixing the Nusuk errors pilgrims hit most

Most Nusuk problems fall into a handful of patterns, and almost none of them need a travel agent. Work through the likely cause before assuming your visa or booking is wrong, and if the app keeps failing, try the same account on the web version in a browser, which sometimes succeeds where the app does not.

Keep screenshots of every permit as a backup, but do not treat them as a replacement. Gate staff scan the live QR code in the app, and a screenshot is only useful to show a supervisor if the app refuses to load.

Data, SIM cards and keeping Nusuk working

Nusuk needs internet for everything that matters: logging in, watching for slots, confirming attendance and displaying a live QR code at the gate. That makes your phone connection part of the booking, not an afterthought. A pilgrim watching for Rawdah slots on hotel Wi-Fi that drops every few minutes is competing at a disadvantage against everyone else refreshing on mobile data.

There are three usual ways to get data in Saudi Arabia. Home roaming works immediately but is expensive on most plans from the US, UK or Pakistan. A local SIM from STC, Mobily or Zain is cheap, but buying one at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah or Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz Airport in Madinah usually means a passport check and a queue after a long flight. A travel eSIM installed before you leave avoids both, and it means Nusuk is online from the moment the plane lands, which is when many pilgrims first need to show an Umrah permit.

STC generally has the strongest coverage inside and around both holy mosques, where tens of thousands of phones compete for the same towers at prayer times. Current plans, prices and network details are on our Saudi Arabia eSIM guide, with notes specific to Madinah and Makkah.

Etiquette inside the Rawdah

The thirty minutes inside go quickly, so decide beforehand what you want to do with them. Most pilgrims pray two rakat, then spend the rest of the time in personal dua. Writing down the names of people who asked you to pray for them saves you from trying to remember them in the crush.

Staff keep the groups moving, and they will ask you to make space for others when the window ends. Leaving calmly when asked is part of the visit; the people waiting outside have often tried for days to get their slot too. Avoid filming inside, keep your phone on silent, and give the elderly and people in wheelchairs room near the front.

If this is your first pilgrimage, our complete first Umrah guide covers the rituals in Makkah and the order of a typical trip, and our Umrah cost guide for US pilgrims breaks down what the whole journey costs.