Indians in Saudi Arabia: the 2026 guide to the iqama, family rules, rent, health cover, Indian schools, worship, Hajj and Umrah, and the 2026 attacks

Saudi Arabia is the second-largest home of overseas Indians in the Gulf after the UAE in the Ministry of External Affairs’ January 2026 table, and the one where the rules for a newcomer are most particular. Residence is tied to an employer’s sponsorship, the Friday–Saturday weekend runs the working week, there is no job-seeker visa and no public temple, and the Indian government keeps two missions in the Kingdom that split it by province. Almost every rule below is national, so this page is the national picture and the map to the rest of the site: the Riyadh guide has the capital’s districts, rents, metro and schools, the jobs guide sets out the work visa, Saudisation and pay in full, and the passport-renewal guide has the fees, the centres and the documents. This page summarises each one and sends you there for the detail.

About 2.75 million overseas Indians live in Saudi Arabia: 2,750,551 in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ (MEA) estimate for January 2026, made up of 2,747,551 Indian citizens living there and 3,000 people of Indian origin. The Embassy of India in Riyadh puts the community at approximately 2.74 million. The Kingdom’s own count is lower and older: the census of 10 May 2022 counted 1,884,476 Indian nationals, the second-largest foreign nationality after Bangladeshis (2,116,192), among 13,382,962 non-Saudis who made up 41.6% of 32,175,224 residents. The community section says what each figure counts and why they differ.

Two notes on how to read this page. Every rule and figure carries its date, because Saudi rules have changed fast — the labour law on 19 February 2025, the skill tiers in July and August 2025, the Riyadh rent freeze on 7 November 2025, the foreign-ownership law in January 2026, the passport fees on 1 July 2026, the family-visa concession on 6 October 2026. And 2026 has not been an ordinary year: a regional war that began on 28 February brought Iranian missiles and drones to Riyadh and the Eastern Province, and in October the Houthi movement attacked several of the Kingdom’s airports, with a missile strike on Riyadh’s on the 10th; the conflict section says what happened, what the Embassy advises and where to follow it.

The three counts

Three sources count Indians in Saudi Arabia, and they do not agree. The figure this site quotes is the MEA’s: 2,750,551 overseas Indians in the Ministry of External Affairs’ estimate for January 2026, of whom 2,747,551 are Indian citizens (non-resident Indians) and 3,000 are people of Indian origin who hold another passport. The MEA’s page does not say how it compiles the number. The Embassy’s bilateral brief, last updated on 22 October 2026, says the community numbers approximately 2.74 million. And the Kingdom itself counted 1,884,476 Indian nationals at its census, whose reference date was 10 May 2022.

The MEA’s figure is 866,075 higher than the census count, or 46% more, and it was made three years and eight months later. Growth since 2022, a different definition and a different method could each explain some of that, and no source we could open says which does. So use each for what it is: the MEA’s for “overseas Indians in Saudi Arabia” in 2026, and the census for “Indian nationals resident on 10 May 2022”. The census also gives the community’s shape: about ten men to every woman (1,712,780 men to 171,696 women, our arithmetic), where the Philippines’ 725,893 residents are mostly women. Demand for the missions’ passport services has grown too: they handled 191,625 passport services in 2023, 220,938 in 2024 and 239,167 in 2025, according to a tender notice of September 2026 that the Riyadh guide quotes.

A short history

The Embassy of India describes the ties between India and Saudi Arabia as centuries old and dates diplomatic relations to 1947. The workforce that makes up the community arrived with oil. Wikipedia’s account, which cites an academic study of 2012, says Indian migrant workers first came in small numbers from British India soon after oil was found in 1938, and that numbers rose sharply after the 1973 energy crisis and oil boom. Families came later, and the community’s own institutions date that: the Embassy of India School in Jeddah, now the International Indian School Jeddah, was founded in 1969 according to its own site; the Embassy of India School in Riyadh opened on 9 October 1982; Dammam’s school dates from 1982 on Wikipedia’s account; and Jubail’s Embassy of India School was founded on 30 November 1987, its own site says. Each began as an embassy school and is now an International Indian School.

Saudi policy has reshaped the community since. The Nitaqat quota system arrived in 2011, the monthly levy on each dependant in July 2017 (it started at SAR 100 and reached SAR 400 in 2020), the labour-mobility reform on 14 March 2021, and in 2025 and 2026 the Saudisation quotas that the jobs guide lists profession by profession. The Kerala Migration Survey shows the effect from one state’s side: it says the most preferred destination of Kerala’s emigrants shifted from Saudi Arabia to the UAE over its last few rounds, that Saudi Arabia held 16.9% of Kerala’s 2.2 million emigrants in 2023 against the UAE’s 38.6%, and that it accounted for 30.1% of the return emigrants from GCC countries, a high share that the report links to Saudi nationalisation policies. The report is a draft marked not to be quoted, so treat those shares as headline estimates.

Where people come from, and what they speak

No source counts Saudi Arabia’s Indians by home state. The Kerala survey is the one state count, and Wikipedia’s list, citing Arab News in 2016, names Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, with Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (Mint, 2017) and Gujarat (Times of India, 2020) as newer sources of migrants. The Embassy’s guidance on hiring nurses names six state agencies — NORKA Roots and ODEPC in Kerala, OMCL in Tamil Nadu, UPFC in Uttar Pradesh, OMCAP in Andhra Pradesh and TOMCOM in Telangana — which shows where one stream of professionals starts, and the labour ministry’s 19911 line takes complaints in English, Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Bengali, a fair guide to what is spoken in the queue.

Who the community is

It is a community of workers and professionals on employer-sponsored residence, not of settlers: for most workers the iqama is renewed year by year with the contract, and the sponsor-free permits are the Premium Residency categories. The Embassy lists about 6,300 Indian companies registered in the Kingdom, with US$3.21 billion invested in 2024, and names L&T, Tata Motors, Wipro, TCS, Shapoorji Pallonji and Tech Mahindra among those with a strong presence; the same community includes the 785,000 in domestic work and the drivers, electricians, welders and nurses the jobs guide describes. That mix shapes the community more than any statistic: its associations, schools and festivals are built around contracts that expire, a levy that makes families weigh each renewal, and parents who come on visit visas.

Nobody publishes how many Indians live in each region of Saudi Arabia. What the census does publish is every non-Saudi, region by region, and India’s two missions divide the Kingdom between them, so the table below puts those beside each other. It is an outline of where the foreign population is, not a count of Indians.

The regions the Embassy serves held 7,213,925 non-Saudis in 2022, 54% of the 13,382,962, and the regions the Consulate serves 6,169,037, 46% (our sums of the census cells). The census figures are the General Authority for Statistics’ tables as the GLMM programme reproduces them; the counters are from the passport-renewal guide, which lists every address and the days each is open.

The Riyadh region

The capital is where the work, the Embassy and the biggest Indian schools are. The census counted 8,591,748 residents in the region, 4,152,538 of them non-Saudis, and the Riyadh guide gives the city itself as 7,009,100. The old Indian streets are in Batha, with Al Malaz, Al Murabba and As Sulimaniyah beside them, and the three CBSE schools, the VFS counter and the Embassy are spread across the city’s districts; the Riyadh guide has every one. Factory and contracting staff live in employer housing near the industrial cities, and Al-Kharj, about 80 km south-east of the capital, is where a projectile struck a residential compound on 8 March 2026, during the Iran war. Median asking rents in Riyadh are the highest of the three big regions, SAR 34,000 a year for a one-bedroom in Kite’s October 2026 report.

The Eastern Province

The Eastern Region held 5,125,254 residents in 2022, 2,175,400 of them non-Saudis, 42%. Dammam, Al Khobar and Jubail are the province’s Indian centres, with the Indian schools, the passport counters and the employers: the jobs guide describes the oil, gas and petrochemical employers there — Aramco’s offices at Dhahran, its contractors, SABIC and the industrial city of Jubail — and says Dammam and Al Khobar are where most of those workers live. The Eastern Province is Embassy territory, and the community has pressed for its own consulate: Indians asked for one when the Minister of State for External Affairs visited from 5 to 8 September 2026, and he said it was under consideration, as the jobs guide records. The Indian Overseas Forum organised the Ambassador’s session in Dammam in April 2026, and the International Indian Schools in Dammam and Jubail are among the region’s anchors. Kite’s Eastern Province contracted rent was SAR 19,779 a year in the first quarter of 2026, the lowest of the three big regions.

The Makkah region

The region held 8,021,463 residents, 3,867,740 non-Saudis, 48%. Jeddah is its Indian centre: the Consulate General is on Tahlia Street, the International Indian School Jeddah has been open since 1969, and the Consulate’s site lists the Indian Haj offices in Makkah and Madinah. Makkah itself is closed to non-Muslims in its central area, and the Hajj and Umrah section covers the pilgrimage. Kite’s Jeddah contracted rent was SAR 24,473 a year in the first quarter of 2026, and its October 2026 median for a one-bedroom was SAR 33,000.

The west, south and north

Madinah, Asir, Jazan, Najran, Tabuk and Al Baha belong to the Consulate; Al Qaseem, Hail, Al Jouf and the Northern Borders to the Embassy. The VFS counters in the chambers of commerce at Buraidah, Hail, Sakaka, Madinah, Jazan and Najran are in effect a map of where the community is large enough to need a counter, and several open only on certain days or on tour. In the south, Jazan, Najran and Abha airports were attacked on 6 and 7 October 2026 in the Houthi campaign Al Jazeera describes, so people there should read the conflict section.

Workers’ accommodation

Many blue-collar workers live in accommodation the employer provides or pays an allowance for: the Embassy’s summary of the labour law makes the employer responsible for housing or a house-rent allowance and for food or a food allowance, as the contract provides. The address on the lease, or the camp the employer provides, decides which of the two missions serves you, so check the table above before you book a passport slot.

There is no Saudi equivalent of the job-seeker visa. An Indian lives and works in the Kingdom because an employer sponsors an employment visa, because a resident family member sponsors a family visa, or because he or she holds a Premium Residency; and the Embassy is blunt that on a visit, Umrah, Hajj or business visa nobody may work, and that people caught doing so are detained, fined, deported and barred from returning. The jobs guide has every step, fee and scam; this section is the map.

The employer’s visa in practice

The sequence is fixed and the employer drives it. Since 14 January 2025 the Saudi mission has required Indians’ professional and academic qualifications to be verified before any work visa, and tradespeople in listed occupations take the Skill Verification Programme test in India (the pass mark is 50% and the certificate lasts five years; NSDC said in August 2026 that nearly 3 lakh candidates had been assessed in 83 occupations). You take a medical at a GCC-approved centre booked through Wafid, give biometrics at the Saudi mission’s visa centre, and, if your passport is an ECR passport, clear emigration through eMigrate with the Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana insurance and a registered agent who may charge only a capped fee. On arrival there is a second medical, mandatory health insurance and the iqama, which the employer must issue within 90 days. The iqama is your identity in the Kingdom: without it you cannot open a bank account, buy a SIM or send money home. Renewals and exit visas run through the Interior Ministry’s Absher platform and its employer service Muqeem, and Saudi expiry dates follow the Hijri calendar, about 11 days shorter than the Gregorian year.

Since July 2025 HRSD has also classified every foreign worker’s permit as high-skilled, skilled or basic, from the Saudi occupation code, qualifications, experience, salary and age, and that tier follows you into the family rules, into Premium Residency and into how easily you change job, so check that the profession on the visa is the work you do. Contracts are documented on Qiwa; the Arabic text prevails in a dispute; probation is up to 180 days; and since October 2025 the wage clause of an authenticated contract can be enforced through the Justice Ministry’s Najiz platform when wages go unpaid for 30 days, with the Wage Protection System (Mudad) supplying the evidence. The scheme reached renewed fixed-term contracts on 6 March 2026 and open-ended ones on 6 August 2026.

The 2021 reform, and what the kafala debate left unchanged

For decades a foreign worker could not change job or leave without the sponsor’s consent. The Labour Reform Initiative, in force since 14 March 2021, lets a worker covered by the labour law change employer without the current employer’s consent when the contract expires, or during it after completing a year, on the notice period and the Qiwa procedure, and lets a worker request an exit and re-entry visa or a final exit through Absher or Qiwa without the employer’s approval. It left out domestic workers, who still need the sponsor’s consent. In October 2025 Indian and Gulf media reported that Saudi Arabia had scrapped the kafala system; Walk Free, on 24 October 2025, welcomed what it called a move to abolish it, while noting that some activists question whether the reforms go far enough and that implementation and enforcement are a challenge. Human Rights Watch’s dispatch of 19 May 2026 reports that UN experts urged Saudi Arabia on 29 April 2026 to effectively abolish kafala, and says its own research finds widespread abuse of migrant workers despite the 2021 reform and later ones. The Saudi authorities continue to defend the reforms. For a worker the practical position, as the jobs guide sets out, is that the iqama is still issued through an employer, an employer still files a transfer on Qiwa, and Premium Residency is the only way to live in the Kingdom without a sponsor.

Employers can still report a worker who stops coming to work as absent, the old “huroob”, which freezes the iqama and can end in a SAR 10,000 fine and a five-year ban; the 2025 rules narrowed it — a report needs an iqama valid for at least 60 days and no active contract, and a worker has 60 days after becoming “disconnected from work” to transfer, leave or sign a new contract. Keep copies of your contract, payslips and every message about pay, and register a dispute on MADAD or with the labour office before you stop work.

Saudisation, skill and the market in 2026

The Embassy lists posts reserved for Saudis that Indians should not accept: receptionists, security guards, clerks, cashiers, typists, HR and recruitment staff, mobile-phone shops and sales staff in women’s shops. On top of that, quotas now cover pharmacy (from 23 July 2025), technical engineering, accounting (22 October 2025), dentistry (27 January 2026), sales and marketing (19 April 2026), tourism (22 June 2026) and engineering (30 June 2026). The market itself is real but narrower: non-Saudi unemployment was 1.3% in the second quarter of 2026 (Trading Economics, as the jobs guide quotes it), while giga-project awards fell to US$4.5 billion in the first half of 2026 from US$14.3 billion in the whole of 2025 (MEED), and Riyadh is where the new work went.

Premium Residency

The sponsor-free route was widened to five categories in January 2024. Special Talent needs a contract with an approved employer, a bachelor’s degree, more than three years’ experience and a monthly salary of at least SAR 14,000 for researchers, SAR 35,000 for healthcare and scientific professionals or SAR 80,000 for executives; the others are Gifted, Investor (SAR 7 million), Entrepreneur (SAR 400,000 raised) and Real Estate Owner (property worth SAR 4 million, unmortgaged). The new categories cost SAR 4,000 once; holders and their families pay no expat or dependants’ levy, change jobs freely and need no exit and re-entry visa.

If something goes wrong

The labour ministry’s line is 19911, in five languages; a dispute starts at the labour office’s amicable settlement and goes to a labour court within 21 working days if unsettled; the Embassy’s welfare wing gives a free interpreter. The consulate section lists every number.

A Saudi job can be a family move, but only for some workers, and the visa is the cheapest part of it. The jobs guide has the full account; this is what a family needs to decide.

The levy: SAR 400 a month for each person

Every family member on your iqama costs SAR 400 a month, paid in advance when the iqama is renewed or an exit and re-entry visa is issued. The levy began in July 2017 at SAR 100 and reached SAR 400 in 2020, according to Arab News’ report at the start. It is yours to pay unless your contract says the employer does. For a spouse and two children that is SAR 1,200 a month, SAR 14,400 a year, on top of rent and school fees, which is why so many Indian families in the Kingdom weigh at every renewal whether the family stays. Premium Residency holders are exempt.

Who can sponsor, and the salary nobody publishes

Family sponsorship depends on two things recorded against your iqama, your profession and your salary. Professional and skilled titles normally qualify for a permanent family visa; some lower-skilled titles may be refused. Saudi Arabia publishes no single salary table: one expat guide updated in 2026 says the salary registered with GOSI must be at least SAR 3,500 a month, and another, from September 2026, tells applicants to prepare for SAR 4,000 to 6,000 or more depending on family size and profession. Treat both as reports, and treat a wage near the Embassy’s referral floor as unlikely to pass. The papers are an attested marriage certificate, children’s birth certificates and a degree attested to match the profession on the iqama, attested in India and by the Saudi mission, then by the Foreign Ministry in the Kingdom with an Arabic translation; guides put the permanent family visa fee at about SAR 2,000 a family.

What changed on 6 October 2026

On 6 October 2026 the Interior Ministry announced that skilled expatriates can bring eligible family members while their own work visa is still being processed, instead of waiting for an iqama, and complete the family’s residence formalities after arrival (Khaleej Times, as the jobs guide records). It covers spouses, sons under 25 and unmarried daughters. Whether your title counts as skilled turns on the tier recorded on your permit, so ask your employer.

Visits, health and schools

If the permanent visa is out of reach, a family visit visa lets a spouse, children and parents visit; work is forbidden on it. Dependants’ health cover depends on the contract (the health section has the rule), and admission to an Indian school needs the child’s and the parents’ iqamas, so a child on a visit visa generally cannot start (the schools section). The common order is for the earner to arrive first, pass probation, find a flat and a school place, and send for the family afterwards.

Saudi Arabia levies no income tax on earnings from employment in the Kingdom: PwC’s worldwide tax summary, reviewed on 29 July 2026, says income tax is not imposed on an individual’s earnings if they are derived only from employment in Saudi Arabia. Value-added tax is 15%, the rate since 1 July 2020 (PwC). What the payslip does not carry is a pension: foreigners get no Saudi pension, and the employer’s GOSI registration for every worker, of any nationality, covers occupational hazards only, at 2% of wages — a work injury pays full wages for 30 days and 75% for the rest of the treatment. What replaces a pension is the end-of-service award.

The end-of-service award

The award is half a month’s wage for each of the first five years and a full month’s wage for each year after that, calculated on your last wage. When the contract expires or the employer ends it, you are owed it for the time served. If you resign you get nothing under two years, one third for two to five years, two thirds for five to ten and the full award after ten. The employer must settle within a week when it ends the contract and two weeks when you do. On a last wage of SAR 6,000 after seven years the full award is SAR 27,000 (5 × 3,000 plus 2 × 6,000), and SAR 18,000 if you resign at that point. The jobs guide has the rules on probation, notice and leave.

Wages, banks and the first month

The Wage Protection System (Mudad) records every salary against its due date, which is the evidence a claim needs. A bank account and a SIM need the iqama; the Riyadh guide’s advice, which applies everywhere, is to keep an Indian number alive on a cheap plan for the bank’s one-time passwords. Money owed under an authenticated contract can be claimed through Najiz, as above, and the labour office handles the rest. The cost of a month is the housing and school fees this guide describes: a median one-bedroom in Riyadh is about SAR 2,800 a month and a family’s school fees come on top, which is why contracts on the Embassy’s referral wages, SAR 1,600 to 3,000 a month for most trades, normally add housing or an allowance.

Sending it home

Saudi Arabia’s share of India’s inward remittances was 6.7% in 2023–24, against 11.6% in 2016–17 and 5.1% in 2020–21, in the Reserve Bank of India’s sixth survey of remittances (RBI Bulletin, 19 March 2025); the UAE’s was 19.2%, the United States’ 27.7%, and the six Gulf states together about 38%. Remittances cost the fee plus the gap between the rate you are offered and the mid-market rate, and both depend on the day, so compare the rate you are quoted with a published mid-market rate before you send. India’s side of the trade is large too: the Embassy puts bilateral trade at US$41.07 billion in 2025–26.

The Indian side

No tax in Saudi Arabia does not mean no tax anywhere. India taxes by residential status: a stay of 182 days or more in a financial year makes you resident; an Indian citizen whose Indian income exceeds ₹15 lakh becomes a resident but not ordinarily resident after 120 days (with 365 days in the previous four years); and the same citizen is deemed resident, whatever the days, if not liable to tax in any other country — and a chartered accountant’s article of 5 May 2026 names Saudi Arabia among the zero-personal-tax countries to which that rule can apply. The same article says NRE interest is exempt while NRO interest is taxable. It is a commentator’s reading, not the Income Tax Act 2025, so ask a chartered accountant before you rely on it if your Indian income is large.

Buying property

A Saudi law that lets non-Saudis own property in designated zones has been in force since the start of 2026, and the Council of Ministers approved its implementing regulations and the zones on 23 June 2026, according to Greenberg Traurig’s note of 6 July 2026. A buyer needs a Ministry of Interior e-ID, a Saudi bank account and a local number, the disposal fee is 2% in Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah and Jeddah, and REGA publishes the zone map at saudiproperties.rega.gov.sa/zones, which we did not read, so check there before you assume a district is open. Premium Residency’s property category (SAR 4 million, unmortgaged) is the route to residence by ownership.

Rent is the largest line in a family’s budget and the one that varies most between regions. The national platform is Ejar, run by the Real Estate General Authority (REGA), which records leases: either party may register a lease that is not recorded, and the other has 60 days from the notice to object; if nobody objects, the recorded details stand. Leases renew automatically unless either side gives notice of non-renewal at least 60 days before expiry. A lease that is not on Ejar is the weakest position to be in if there is a dispute, so insist on a registered one. These rules are from the Riyadh guide’s reading of REGA’s regulations; the Riyadh guide has the districts.

The Riyadh rent freeze

Regulations issued on 25 September 2025 and in force from 7 November 2025 freeze rent increases for five years inside Riyadh’s urban boundaries. REGA says landlords cannot raise the total rental value of any residential or commercial contract, existing or new, and that a flat that was let and is now empty is fixed at the rent of its last registered Ejar contract. In Riyadh a landlord cannot refuse a renewal or make a tenant leave except in three cases: the tenant does not pay, the building has structural defects supported by an approved technical report, or the landlord or a first-degree relative needs the unit for personal use. A year on, residential rents were still rising 4.5% in August 2026 in an Asharq Al-Awsat analysis of GASTAT’s data, the slowest pace in more than three years. The freeze applies inside Riyadh’s urban boundaries; we did not look for equivalent rules elsewhere, so ask a Jeddah or Eastern Province landlord what applies to your lease.

What a flat costs

Two figures matter: the rent in contracts actually signed, which is lower, and the rent in listings. Kite, the rental platform formerly called Darak, publishes both.

Divide by twelve for the month: a one-bedroom is about SAR 2,800 in Riyadh, SAR 2,750 in Jeddah and SAR 2,300 in the Eastern Province on those medians. Kite’s Jeddah and Eastern Province pages do not say whether their bedroom medians are asking or contracted, and they list the districts with the most listings, not the Indian districts: in Kite’s Eastern Province list North Al Khobar is SAR 27,000, Al Thuqbah SAR 30,000 and South Al Khobar SAR 34,000, and in its Jeddah list Al Bawadi is SAR 30,000 and Al Nahda SAR 70,000. We found no 2026 rent index for the Indian districts of any city. The Cavendish Maxwell survey for the first quarter of 2026, which the jobs guide cites, found Dammam’s housing market still growing while Riyadh’s cooled.

Sharing and company camps

Single workers on the Embassy’s referral wages usually live in shared rooms or employer accommodation, which the contract normally provides or replaces with an allowance. A wage near the floor is unlikely to qualify for a family visa. Many families choose a flat by the school’s bus route, since the Indian schools run their own buses.

Scams and what to watch for

A flat advertised far below the district rate by someone who wants the deposit before a viewing; a lease that is never registered on Ejar; an agent who asks for a “visa fee” or a cash payment outside the contract. Pay by bank transfer against a written contract, see the flat first, and never hand over your passport or iqama for “registration”.

Health care for an Indian resident runs on the employer’s insurance. The regulator is the Council of Health Insurance (CHI), which the Council’s own site says was set up by Cabinet Decision No. 71 of 27/4/1420H, corresponding to 11 August 1999, to oversee the Cooperative Health Insurance System — it was formerly the Council of Cooperative Health Insurance — and which, under Cabinet Decision No. 85 of 28/01/1445H, is mandated to enforce mandatory health insurance. The Embassy’s summary of the labour law says the employer must provide health insurance for expatriate workers and lists it among the terms a contract must contain, and that the insurance is a prerequisite for the iqama, which is why a second medical follows arrival. The Embassy’s FAQ adds that the compulsory policy is very basic and does not cover treatment of serious ailments. That is the practical rule: the policy gets you a clinic and a hospital through its network, and it does not make a serious illness affordable.

Family cover

Since 10 August 2014 private employers have had to insure workers’ dependent family members too, BAL reported at the time, and the Jawazat refuses to issue or renew an iqama, issue an exit and re-entry visa or carry the record over to a new passport without proof of cover; Arab News had already reported in January 2013 that the Council was registering dependants and that their insurance was becoming mandatory. Employers are not obliged to insure the children of mixed Saudi–non-Saudi marriages. We found no official statement of how many dependants the employer must cover, and in practice offer letters differ on who pays and how many dependants are covered, so ask in writing before you accept. If your employer does not cover your family, the premium is a cost to set beside the SAR 400 levy.

The policies the Council publishes

CHI’s page lists a mandatory policy for residents and separate unified policies for visitors, tourists, Umrah performers, special residency holders and domestic workers. The Umrah policy is the Council’s mandatory insurance for Hajj and Umrah visitors, which covers emergency care through accredited providers; the Hajj and Umrah section says what else a pilgrim needs. We did not read the mandatory policy’s schedule of benefits, so check your employer’s policy document for the limits, the network and the co-payments before you need them.

Emergencies, medicines and leave

The Embassy’s list of emergency numbers is 999 for the police, 997 for an ambulance, 998 for the fire department and 993 for the traffic police. Carry the insurance card and your iqama; private hospitals bill what the policy does not pay. Do not assume an over-the-counter medicine from India is legal: the Embassy asks for a doctor’s report less than six months old, giving the diagnosis, the treatment plan and the generic and brand names of each medicine, translated into Arabic. Sick leave under the labour law is the first 30 days in a year on full pay, the next 60 at three-quarters and a further 30 unpaid.

Hospitals and support

The Riyadh guide names the Ministry of Health’s referral centre and the private groups for the capital; which hospital is in your network, and which has a doctor who speaks Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu or Hindi, is a question the community groups answer faster than a directory. If the first year is hard, the Embassy’s welfare wing and its 24-hour helpline take calls.

Indian families mostly use the CBSE-affiliated Indian schools. They are private, licensed by the Ministry of Education and cheaper than the international schools; there is no free school place for an expatriate child that we could confirm. Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Jubail each have an International Indian School, and Riyadh has two more Indian-curriculum schools; the Riyadh guide has the three in the capital, their fees and their admission rules.

We read the fee pages of IIPS-R and the admission rules of IISR and DPS Riyadh for the Riyadh guide, but not the fee pages of the schools in Jeddah, Dammam and Jubail: IISD’s site carries a fee structure and an online registration for 2026–27, and each school’s site has its own admissions page. Check them before you register.

The Ministry of Education’s rules

Admission follows the Ministry’s rules, and the schools say so. IISR’s admission page says the applicant must be Indian with a valid passport and iqama and that children on visit visas are not admitted; DPS Riyadh lists the iqamas of the student and both parents among the documents without which no admission is granted, with the previous school’s transfer of the child’s record on the Ministry’s Noor system. Ask each school which attestations it accepts for records from India before you leave. Indian school years run from April to March and the school week is Sunday to Thursday, since Friday and Saturday are the weekend.

The US State Department’s 2023 report adds that private schools must follow the government-approved religious curriculum: private international schools teach Saudi students and Muslim students of other nationalities an Islamic studies course, while non-Muslim, non-Saudi students may receive a course on Islamic civilisation or alternative coursework, one hour a week.

2026 disruption

The CBSE postponed the Class X and XII board examinations scheduled for 5 and 6 March 2026 in Saudi Arabia and six other countries in the region, and scheduled a second Class X examination for May, as the Riyadh guide records. On 11 October 2026, the day after the airport strike, Riyadh’s schools moved to remote learning for a week, and on 17 October the Ministry of Education extended it through 22 October for Riyadh and Diriyah, teaching on its Madrasati platform; we found no announcement beyond 22 October, so read your school’s circulars.

Universities and scholarships

The Embassy’s education pages list the scholarship schemes for Indian students, including one from the Saudi government, and a registration form for Indian faculty and students in Saudi universities. Ask the school or university which attestations it needs before you travel.

To drive in the Kingdom you need a Saudi licence. The Embassy’s employment FAQ says so in its first line on driving: a valid Saudi licence is required, and it is obtained after training and a test at an accredited driving school in the Kingdom. A worker assigned to drive must not do so unless the sponsor has arranged a valid Saudi licence and the vehicle has at least third-party insurance; in an accident caused by a driver without them, the Embassy says, the sponsor has no responsibility and the driver alone is held responsible for damage to life or property. Women have been allowed to drive since the ban was lifted on 24 June 2018, although the Embassy’s FAQ page has not caught up with that.

Can an Indian licence be converted?

We could not confirm it. The licence-issuance route on the government services portal has an exception for holders of a foreign licence: the portal’s listing, which we saw only as a search result because the page refused our request, says that a holder of a valid foreign or international licence recognised by the relevant department can skip the training and testing stages. Which countries are recognised is the question, and we found no official list that names India. Secondary expat guides say about 48 countries are on the list and that it includes the US, the UK, EU states, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the GCC states; none we found says India is. So treat the driving-school route as the default for an Indian licence holder and ask the traffic department, through Absher, before you assume an exchange. Those guides also say visitors can drive on a foreign or international licence for a limited time after entry and that newly arrived expat residents get only a short grace period; ask the traffic department how long, and do not drive a company or household vehicle in the meantime.

After an accident

The numbers to know are the Embassy’s: 993 for the traffic police for accidents with injury, Najm 920000560 for accidents without injury and 999 for the police. Do not move the vehicle until the police or Najm arrive, and do not sign any document you cannot read.

The metro, buses and the airports

Riyadh has had a six-line metro since December 2024, with a standard two-hour pass at SAR 4 and a Darb card at SAR 10, and the Riyadh guide has the lines and fares. The other cities are served by buses, taxis and ride-hailing apps; we did not research their fares. King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Jeddah and Madinah are the airports the Embassy’s advisories name, and in October 2026 two of them were attacked: King Khalid was struck by a missile on 10 October and reopened on 18 October with prior permission required for arrivals and departures, according to Airways as the Riyadh guide records, and Dammam’s was attacked on 21 October. Confirm any flight with the airline the day before you travel.

Saudi Arabia is not the UAE, and a newcomer from India or from Dubai should read the Embassy’s guidance before arriving. The rules below come from the Embassy’s pages, with the dress and alcohol notes as the Riyadh guide records them; the Riyadh guide has the longer version.

The working week and Ramadan

The weekend is Friday and Saturday; Friday is the weekly rest day in law and may be replaced by another day in a contract. The legal week is 8 hours a day and 48 a week, with overtime at 150%; in Ramadan it is cut to six hours a day and 36 a week for Muslim workers, and the Embassy’s summary does not extend that to others, so ask your employer. Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and Saudi National Day are fully paid holidays. During Ramadan the Embassy says nobody should eat, drink or smoke in public in daylight.

Dress, alcohol and medicines

The Embassy’s general-information page says women, foreigners included, must wear an abaya and cover their heads outside the home, and that men should not wear shorts or go without a shirt in public. The Riyadh guide records that this page has not caught up with a change: the Crown Prince said in 2018 that the law requires decent, respectful clothing for women and men alike, not a black abaya, and the rules for visitors since 2019 ask foreigners to dress modestly. Practice varies by workplace and district, so the safe course is loose, long clothing and asking colleagues. Alcohol is prohibited, and the Embassy warns that possessing or using it is punished sternly with jail, flogging and deportation. Bringing in narcotics or banned medicines is a serious offence.

Photographs, social media and protest

Do not photograph or film government buildings, airports, police checkpoints or industrial sites, and avoid photographing streets, public places and people, women especially, without permission, or posting such images. The Embassy warns that sharing or “liking” posts of a religious nature can be read as blasphemous or critical of the system, that circulating videos of workplace grievances is dealt with sternly, and that forming associations or unions, striking or protesting is banned and can end in arrest and deportation: work grievances go to the labour office and the labour courts. After the October 2026 attacks the Embassy also asked Indians not to circulate videos or news about them.

Public conduct

The Embassy’s page says gender segregation is practised in public places, that men and women who are not related do not interact in public, and that public displays of affection are not allowed. Entry to Makkah and Madinah is strictly forbidden to all non-Muslims. All expatriates are expected to respect the culture, customs and rules of the Kingdom, and the Embassy points newcomers to its own pages and to the Ministry of Human Resources for the rules on work and life.

There is no Hindu temple, gurdwara or Jain temple in Saudi Arabia that we could find. The reason is the law, not the size of the community. The Embassy of India’s guidance says the official religion is Islam and that the public practice of any religion other than Islam is prohibited. The US State Department’s 2023 report on international religious freedom says the government continued to prohibit the public practice of any non-Islamic religion, that non-Muslims and many Muslims whose practices differ from the government’s form of Sunni Islam could practise only in private, and that they remained vulnerable to detention, discrimination, harassment and, for non-citizens, deportation; it lists among the acts that the law bans non-Islamic public worship and the public display of non-Islamic religious symbols. This page does not recommend or discourage anyone’s practice; it reports what the sources say so that nobody is surprised by them.

The same report says that expatriate Christian congregations were able to hold large services discreetly and regularly without substantial interference; the prohibition covers every other faith too, so Sikh, Jain and Buddhist families are in the same legal position as Hindus. The Riyadh guide says how families keep the festivals at home.

How the festivals are kept

Families keep them in the flat: a lamp before a small Lakshmi–Ganesh altar, a video call with parents and a box of sweets for neighbours at Diwali, the Golu display in Tamil and Telugu households and Pooja Veppu in Malayali ones at Navratri, and a temple’s live-streamed aarti in India as darshan, as HinduTone’s Saudi guides describe it. The public programmes are the Embassy’s, and they are cultural, not religious: it held its third Pravasi Parichay festival in Riyadh from 28 October to 3 November 2025, with more than 1,000 artists from 20 states, and a ten-day Indian cultural festival at Suwaidi Park in November 2025 under the Kingdom’s Global Harmony initiative. The State Department’s account of less interference with private gatherings than public ones is the reason to keep gatherings small and private.

The 2026 calendar

Diwali in 2026

Diwali is not a public holiday in Saudi Arabia, and in 2026 it falls on Sunday 8 November, the first working day of the week, since the weekend is Friday and Saturday. Families therefore gather on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 November, with Dhanteras on the Friday, and keep the Lakshmi Puja on Sunday evening after work; HinduTone publishes the muhurat for Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Al Khobar. Making, possessing, selling or using fireworks needs a permit under the Explosives and Fireworks Law, and dealing in them without one can bring up to six months in prison and a fine of SAR 100,000, as this site’s Diwali page reports, so the lights are lamps and candles. The Embassy held a Diwali celebration in October 2024; we found no public programme for 2026 by 22 October. The Diwali in Saudi Arabia page carries what is announced, and the Saudi Arabia events page lists the Indian events members post.

The Saudi dates

Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and National Day are paid holidays; Ramadan changes working hours and opening times, and the Indian calendar bends around it.

Pilgrims are a second community of Indians in Saudi Arabia, and they travel on different rules from the work visa. The Embassy says India’s annual Hajj quota is 175,025 and that an average of 1.5 million Indian pilgrims perform Umrah each year.

Hajj

The Ministry of Minority Affairs coordinates India’s arrangements with the Haj Committee of India and the Consulate General in Jeddah, whose site lists the Indian Haj offices in Makkah and Madinah and carries the 2027 tenders for the pilgrims’ service package, medical supervision and buses. For Hajj 2027 (1448 H) the Ministry announced the policy after a review meeting on 18 June 2026, and the Haj Committee opened online applications on 22 June, through hajcommittee.gov.in or the Haj Suvidha app, originally to 20 July; it extended the deadline to 11.59 pm on Friday 24 July and called that the final extension (Siasat, 21 July). The quota is split 70:30, with 122,518 seats for the Haj Committee and 52,507 for private operators, which adds to 175,025; the top 20% of Hajj 2026’s final waiting list get preference; the 20-day short package continues, with Kolkata added as an embarkation point; and medical screening follows Saudi guidelines, so people with chronic medical conditions are not cleared (ETV Bharat, 23 June 2026). On 23 October the Committee’s site carried waiting lists, a medical-screening circular and a circular allotting 500 seats under the mehram category. Applications for Hajj 2027 are therefore closed; the Committee announces each year’s dates, so watch hajcommittee.gov.in for the next round.

A working Muslim has a paid-leave right for it: the Embassy’s summary of the labour law gives 10 to 15 days of paid leave once during service for Hajj, after two years’ service, for an employee who has not performed it. The Embassy also says that Hajj is not permitted on a family visit visa, and that on a Hajj or Umrah visa travel is restricted to the places of pilgrimage in Makkah and Madinah.

Umrah

Umrah is permitted on a family visit visa, the Embassy says, and its page says Umrah visas are issued by the Saudi Embassy in New Delhi and the Consulate in Mumbai, which may be out of date given the licensed-agent route below. The rules for 2026–27 are from a travel-booking site’s guide, updated on 8 September 2026, because the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah page we tried returned an error: the 1448 AH season opened on 31 May 2026, with the last visa issue date on 9 March 2027, the last entry on 23 March and the last departure on 7 April 2027; Indians cannot apply for a stand-alone Umrah visa directly on the Nusuk platform and must use a licensed agent; Nusuk is mandatory for booking the Umrah permit, entry to the Grand Mosque and Rawdah slots; a single-entry visa must be used within 30 days of issue and allows up to 90 days, and the visa cannot be extended; and the MenACWY meningococcal vaccine is required for pilgrims aged one and above. Treat every line as a report and confirm it with the agent and on Nusuk.

The Council of Health Insurance’s Umrah policy is mandatory for Hajj and Umrah visitors and covers emergency care through accredited providers. Use an agent licensed by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, and ask for the Nusuk booking reference before you pay.

Pilgrims and the 2026 attacks

On 15 September 2026 the Saudi-led coalition said air defences had brought down a drone south of Makkah before it entered the restricted airspace, and blamed the Houthis, who denied targeting the city; India’s official spokesperson said on 16 September that it was deeply concerned, calling the city particularly significant to Muslims across the world, and reiterated its condemnation of attacks on the Kingdom’s territory. The coverage we read reported no casualties. The airport attacks of October closed King Khalid International Airport after 10 October, and Air India, Air India Express, Akasa Air and IndiGo suspended Saudi flights until 17 October, according to the Embassy’s advisory of 13 October; the Embassy’s advice to all Indians in the Kingdom is to follow the Saudi authorities’ instructions and its own advisories. A pilgrim should confirm flights with the airline and the agent, not with forwarded messages.

Non-Muslims and the holy cities

Non-Muslims may not enter central Makkah or the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah (State Department, 2023), and the Embassy’s page says entry to Makkah and Madinah is strictly forbidden to all non-Muslims. A Hindu, Sikh or Christian family living in Jeddah therefore cannot treat the holy cities as a day trip.

Two separate conflicts reached Saudi Arabia in 2026, and what follows is dated and sourced as of 23 October 2026, from the Embassy of India’s own advisories and statements and from press reports. It stays consistent with the Riyadh guide’s safety section, which has the day-by-day account of the October attacks. The situation was changing from day to day, so read the Embassy’s pages before relying on any line.

The war that began on 28 February

The war between the United States and Israel on one side and Iran on the other began on 28 February 2026. Wikipedia’s account of Saudi Arabia in that war lists explosions in eastern Riyadh on the first day, missiles aimed at Prince Sultan Air Base and Riyadh’s airport on 1 March, drones aimed at the Ras Tanura refinery on 2 March and at the US embassy in Riyadh on 3 March, and interceptions near the Shaybah oilfield, Al-Kharj, Riyadh and the Eastern Province through March and into early April. On 8 March a projectile struck a residential compound in Al-Kharj. The Saudi Civil Defence first said an Indian and a Bangladeshi had died; the Embassy said on 9 March that no Indian had died, that one Indian national was injured and in a government hospital in Al-Kharj, and that its Community Welfare counsellor had visited him. The Embassy’s advisory of 8 March told Indians to remain vigilant, follow the Saudi authorities and its advisories, said its services and VFS were functioning normally, and gave the helplines. The CBSE postponed the board examinations of 5 and 6 March in Saudi Arabia, and by 11 April, on Wikipedia’s account, a fragile US–Iran ceasefire was in place; the latest dated item on that page is from 28 June, and we found nothing later on that front.

The Houthi attacks of September and October

The second conflict is on the Kingdom’s southern border. Al Jazeera’s explainer of 12 October says the attacks follow the collapse of a UN-brokered ceasefire between the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces that had largely held since 2022. On 15 September a drone was intercepted south of Makkah. On 6 October Jazan and Najran airports were hit; on 7 October Abha airport was hit and Riyadh’s airport was struck; on 8 October the coalition intercepted ballistic missiles heading for Riyadh and the Embassy issued an advisory; on 10 October a missile struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, killing at least 12 people and injuring more than 300; and on 11 October a second Riyadh attack killed one and the Houthis claimed an attack on Dammam’s airport. The Embassy said on 13 October that one Indian had died, with the funeral completed in Riyadh on 12 October, and that of the Indians injured four were in intensive care, four were in a ward and three had been discharged. On 21 October King Fahd International Airport in Dammam and Aramco’s Shaybah oil field in the Eastern Province were attacked; the Embassy’s statement of 22 October says one Indian national died and two were injured at Dammam airport and another was injured at Shaybah, and condemns the continued attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure. It does not name the attacker, and neither do we.

What the Embassy advises

The Embassy’s update of 13 October 1700 hrs advises all Indians in the Kingdom to remain calm and vigilant, stay indoors in an aerial attack, follow the instructions issued by the local authorities through official channels and refrain from circulating or reposting videos or news about the events. It says the Embassy, the Consulate in Jeddah and the outsourced passport and attestation services at VFS continue to function normally, and it opened a 24-hour control room (numbers in the consulate section). On flights, it listed Air India, Air India Express, Akasa Air and IndiGo suspensions to Saudi airports until 17 October, and said that Indians in an emergency could use flights from airports in Qatar and Bahrain, subject to those countries’ visa rules; visitors who overstayed because of cancelled flights were to be allowed to exit without fines, though anyone whose visa has expired should leave as soon as flights allow.

What changed for families and workers

• Schools. Riyadh’s schools moved to remote learning from 11 October and the Ministry extended it through 22 October.
• Flights. King Khalid International Airport reopened on 18 October with prior permission required; Air India’s, IndiGo’s and Akasa’s suspensions ran to 17 October, and we found no later notice. Confirm any flight the day before.
• Pilgrims and visitors. The Embassy’s advice applies to Umrah performers as to residents; the Hajj and Umrah section has more.
• Work. What an employer may ask during alerts is a matter for your contract and the labour office (19911); keep instructions in writing, and call the Embassy’s welfare wing if wages stop.

Where it stands

We found no reporting later than the Embassy’s statement of 22 October and the dated items above, and no ceasefire or settlement on the Houthi front. Treat the picture as ongoing, not settled. We make no judgement on whether anyone should move to Saudi Arabia now; the Embassy’s advisories are the guide, along with the Saudi civil defence’s alerts, which reach phones through the national early-warning platform. Keep your iqama and passport where you can reach them, a charged phone and a power bank, and a little cash, and register with the Embassy or the Consulate.

Two missions, split by province

Your mission is fixed by where you live. The Embassy of India is in the Diplomatic Quarter of Riyadh (B-1 Diplomatic Quarter, PO Box 94387, Riyadh 11693; headquarters hours 9.00 am to 5.30 pm, Sunday to Thursday, switchboard +966 11 488 4144) and serves Riyadh, the Eastern Province (Dammam, Al Khobar, Jubail, Al Hasa, Qatif, Hafr al-Batin), Al Qassim, Hail, Al Jouf and the Northern Borders. The Consulate General of India is on Tahlia Street in Jeddah (Villa 34, behind the National Commercial Bank, near Al Huda Mosque; telephone +966 12 261 4093; Sunday to Thursday, 8.30 am to 5.00 pm) and serves Makkah, Madinah, Tabuk, Asir, Jizan, Najran and Al Baha. The Embassy accepts only OCI and diplomatic visa files itself.

Passports: VFS, and a tender that closes on 26 October

Passports, attestations and police clearance certificates are lodged at VFS Global’s centres. India revised the fees on 1 July 2026: a 36-page adult re-issue is SAR 460, plus SAR 8 for the Indian Community Welfare Fund and VFS’s SAR 13, SAR 481 in all, and tatkal is SAR 919 before the extras. The passport-renewal guide has the full table, every centre, the documents, tatkal, children’s and lost-passport rules, and why an iqama makes renewal urgent. The arrangement is interim: on 28 September 2026 the Embassy floated a new tender for 15 consular application centres, seven in its jurisdiction and eight in Jeddah’s, for three years; bids close on 26 October 2026 and the award is planned for 27 November, so the operator could change, and until a notice says so VFS is the counter. Anyone selling you a slot is selling you your own queue: book through the Global Passport Seva portal and VFS’s booking page, as the passport guide explains.

The numbers to save

The welfare wings and MADAD

Each mission has a Community Welfare Wing and a Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendra that answers around the clock: it registers grievances, calls sponsors and agents, gives a free interpreter at the labour court, visits prisons and deportation centres and handles deaths. The Embassy’s open house, 9.00 am to 12.30 pm on working days, needs no appointment. Register any labour complaint on MADAD, the MEA’s grievance portal, with copies of your passport, iqama, visa and contract and your sponsor’s name and number. The Indian Community Welfare Fund pays, on a means-tested basis, for boarding for distressed workers, emergency medical care, the air ticket home and initial legal help. The jobs guide’s help section explains the labour courts and the settlement offices.

Register, and what to bring

Both missions keep a page where Indian nationals register: give your passport, iqama, sponsor and phone, so the mission can find you in an emergency. Keep scans of your passport, iqama, contract and the Embassy’s numbers on your phone.

Indian life in Saudi Arabia runs on WhatsApp. Expect groups for each district, each school’s parents, each hospital’s nurses, each company’s Indian staff, each state’s association, rooms to share and cricket teams. The groups are how Indian communities abroad have organised themselves for years, and this guide will not pretend otherwise.

What the groups are good at, and what they are not

They are fast: ask at nine in the evening which clinic takes your insurance, which school has a seat or whether the Al Khobar counter is open, and someone answers by ten. But you need to know someone to get the link; the links that circulate go stale; most groups show your phone number to every member; and the answers scroll away, so the same questions about the iqama, the levy and passport slots are asked every week. The groups are also where the scams start: the “free visa”, the visit-visa job that will be converted, the cheap room whose deposit is wanted before a viewing, the agent who sells a passport slot. And the Embassy’s warnings about posting apply to a group as much as to a feed: do not circulate videos of attacks, of workplace grievances or of religious content.

What Namaste Community adds

Namaste Community’s app and website have local groups, which are moderated and tied to a place, events near you, a directory of Indian businesses and Ask, where members answer each other’s questions. You can post under your name or anonymously. The groups for Saudi Arabia are at /groups/in/saudi-arabia; the Saudi Arabia events page lists Indian events across the country, with the Diwali page for the season; and the Saudi Arabia directory lists Indian businesses. The Riyadh guide says how to find the group for your area of the capital.

Your first week, in practice

1. Open the Saudi Arabia groups and join the general one and the one for your city, language or interest. Read before you post: the paperwork answers are usually there already.
2. Go to one event in your first fortnight — an Embassy cultural evening, a school function, a cricket net, a state association’s Onam or Pongal sadhya. It is the fastest way from “the Indian community in Saudi Arabia” as a phrase to three people whose names you know.
3. Ask the question you actually have, and say which city you live in, what your profession on the iqama is and whether your family is with you: the mission, the school, the rent and the insurance all depend on it.
4. When you have found your flat, your clinic and your grocer, leave a review or an answer for the next person from Kochi, Hyderabad or Lucknow.

If the group you need does not exist yet — a parents’ group in Al Khobar, a Telugu group in Jubail, a team short of a wicketkeeper — ask in the general group; someone is usually looking for the same thing.