No Furoda Hajj Visas This Year, Public Urged to Beware of Scams on Social Media

Jakarta - Deputy Minister for Hajj and Umrah of Indonesia, Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak, has emphasised that the Saudi Arabian government is not issuing furoda Hajj visas this year. “There are none, so this year Saudi Arabia is not issuing furoda Hajj visas. Clearly, the only legal visa is the Hajj visa,” said Dahnil at the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah office in Thamrin, Central Jakarta, on Thursday (9/4/2026). Therefore, Dahnil reminded the public to be vigilant against Hajj departure offers that appear on social media. To prevent this, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, together with the Indonesian National Police, has established the Task Force for Preventing Illegal Hajj, which is tasked with addressing all forms of modus operandi for non-procedural or illegal Hajj departures. Dahnil stressed that currently, by regulation, there are only two official channels for Indonesians to perform the Hajj pilgrimage: regular Hajj and special Hajj. “Hajj definitely involves queuing in our current context; the longest wait now is 26 years, whereas previously it was up to 49 or 48 years. For special Hajj, the longest is around 6 years,” he said. He stated that the term “T-zero Hajj” is a scam tactic that lures pilgrims with promises of immediate departure without queuing. “So, whether regular Hajj or non-regular, it’s special Hajj. There is no T-zero Hajj,” said Dahnil. According to Dahnil, the long waiting lists for pilgrim departures are inseparable from the continuously increasing number of registrants each year. Therefore, the government is studying the possibility of implementing a model similar to a direct ticket purchasing system from the quota allocated by Saudi Arabia. “So, we are given a quota of 200,000 by Saudi Arabia. Then we set the price, and there will be no queuing. Each person books directly, and whoever gets it departs,” he said.