Online Biometric Verification To Be Mandatory For Hajj Pilgrims: Religious Ministry

According to the latest reports, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony recently held an important meeting on the use of ‘The Saudi Visa Bio-Application’. During the meeting, it was briefed that online biometric verification would be mandatory for Hajj pilgrims this year as well.

Online Biometric Verification Would Be Mandatory For Pilgrims

In one of the presentations, the officials of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and representatives of the Etimad Office informed that the Hajj pilgrims will be able to use this application through their smart cellular phones. The point worth mentioning here is that there will be only three easy steps including:

• Taking selfies
• Scanning passports
• Scanning fingerprints with the help of the mobile camera

The fingerprints biometric facility is claimed to be available free of charge from the Etimad Offices across the country according to the officials. In addition, the religious affairs ministry’s spokesperson Muhammad Umar Butt even elaborated that the instructions for using this mobile app would be available on the ministry’s website and social media as well.

Let me tell you that the hand or finger-handicapped persons will have to upload a computerized medical certificate from the authorized doctor. It is quite clear that the biometric mobile application had been further simplified.

Reports claim that the meeting was presided over by the joint secretary Hajj and attended by the Hajj Wing officers together with representatives of private Hajj operators. Earlier in February, the Ministry also decided to allocate a 25 percent special quota in the Government Hajj Scheme for the pilgrims who will deposit dues in dollars.

According to officials, the intending pilgrims, depositing dues in dollars, will be exempted from the balloting under the new Hajj policy. Almost 22,400 pilgrims will be able to benefit from the ‘Sponsorship Scheme’ introduced by the ministry to increase the current foreign exchange reserves in the country. The Hajj expenses can also be submitted through foreign remittances in dollars this year.

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