Director General of Passports (Jawazat) Lt. Gen. Sulaiman Al-Yahya has unveiled a study being carried out by the General Directorate of Passports in cooperation with concerned agencies to open all land crossings to arrivals to the Kingdom, underlying readiness of the Kingdom to receive whatever number of pilgrims during this year's Hajj as part of the efforts exerted in partnership with all concerned agencies to facilitate the performance of rituals in a manner that saves pilgrims' time and efforts. Al-Yahya underscored ongoing efforts to improve arrival procedures, including the introduction of electronic and biometric registration services to identify pilgrims and accelerate their entry to the Kingdom. Participating in a session on the "quality of pilgrims' arrival and reception services", organized on the sidelines of the Hajj Expo 2023, Al-Yahya said, in a panel discussion moderated by the Deputy Minister of Hajj and Umrah, Dr. Abdelfattah bin Suleiman Mashat, that the Kingdom, with its leadership's support, is ready to receive whatever number of pilgrims and Umrah performers thanks to the strong digital infrastructure. Fully realizing the distinctiveness of the pilgrims, Al-Yahya said that the Saudi Passports has assigned employees speaking 14 languages to be stationed at the land and sea border crossings to welcome arrivals to the Kingdom and facilitate their entry procedures. He also praised the electronic track for domestic pilgrims in facilitating procedures electronically, including exception requests, highlighting the importance of electronic data in drawing lessons and estimating capacity, to ensure smooth movement.
