Umrah and Hajj: what is different

The short answer

When each one happens

Umrah can be performed at any time of the year except the Hajj period. The Hajj rituals are performed at the three Holy Sites — Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah — from the 8th to the 13th of Dhul Hijjah each year.

The two cannot overlap, and the Saudi visa system enforces that: the multiple-entry Umrah visa is not activated from 1 Dhul Qi'dah to 13 Dhul Hijjah. If you hold an Umrah visa, you are not in Makkah for Hajj.

For 1448 AH, the Umm al-Qura calendar expects 1 Dhul Hijjah on Friday 7 May 2027, the Day of Arafah on Saturday 15 May 2027, Eid al-Adha on Sunday 16 May 2027 and 13 Dhul Hijjah on Wednesday 19 May 2027. These are expected dates; the month begins on the sighting of the crescent.

What is actually done

Umrah has four pillars, and Nusuk presents the rite in exactly these four steps: Ihram, Tawaf, Sa'i, and Halq or Taqsir, the shaving or shortening of the hair. That is the whole of it. How to perform Umrah walks through each one.

Hajj takes place over those days at sites Umrah never touches. Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah are the three Holy Sites where the Hajj rituals are performed from the 8th to the 13th of Dhul Hijjah. Arafat lies about 10 km from Mina, 6 km from Muzdalifah and 20 km from the Grand Mosque, on the road towards Taif.

The Day of Arafah, 9 Dhul Hijjah, is the centre of it. The Sunnah for a pilgrim standing at Arafah is not to fast: Umm al-Fadl bint al-Harith sent a cup of milk to the Prophet while he was riding his camel at Arafa, and he drank it. The chapter heading on that hadith is explicit. For everyone not there, fasting that day is what the Prophet recommended. The Day of Arafah has both hadith in full.

Two completely different routes in

For Umrah, a Sri Lankan passport holder cannot use the Saudi tourist eVisa and there is no visa on arrival. The route is an Umrah visa arranged by a licensed operator, with a service package from an approved provider on Nusuk and an Umrah permit issued through the Nusuk app before arrival. The visa guide covers it in full.

For Hajj, Sri Lanka runs its own system. hajjsrilanka.com is the official government Hajj portal, operated by the Department of Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs, describing itself as "One portal for registration, status tracking, and sacred guidance under the Government of Sri Lanka."

How Hajj works in Sri Lanka

Making arrangements for the Sri Lankan Muslim community to undertake Hajj is an explicit function of the Department of Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs, which sits under the Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs. The Department maintains registration and data of Hajj pilgrims, receives refundable deposits and repays them.

Above it sits the Hajj & Umrah Committee: five members appointed by the Minister, with the Director of the Department automatically a member, each serving a one-year term. Its duties are negotiating Sri Lanka's pilgrim quota with the Saudi government, evaluating and selecting tour operators, monitoring service quality, and negotiating airline ticket prices for the Hajj season.

Hajj 2027 (1448 AH)

• Registration is open through hajjsrilanka.com/reg. The processing fee is Rs. 5,000 per person, non-refundable.
• Eligibility: Sri Lankan Muslim, aged 15 or above as at 09 March 2027, and must not have performed Hajj in 2026.
• The deposit is Rs. 750,000. Selected applicants were given until 30 September 2026 to contract with an approved tour operator; those who miss the date pass their slot to the next candidate on the waiting list.
• Each approved operator may take a maximum of 100 pilgrims. The portal publishes the list of 98 approved Hajj travel operators for 1448/2027, and the Department states it will not be responsible for dealings with agents not on that list.
• Pilgrims are told to register only through the official online system, not through travel operators, sub-agents or intermediaries. Dealings through brokers are strictly prohibited.

We are not publishing the opening and closing calendar dates of the registration window, because the Department's original dated notice could not be retrieved. Check the portal itself.

The difference in cost

A mainstream 10 to 12 day Sri Lankan Umrah package was listed at roughly LKR 350,000 to 490,000 per person in September 2026, with a market average around LKR 372,000 to 390,000.

For Hajj 2027, the deposit alone is LKR 750,000, plus a non-refundable Rs. 5,000 processing fee, before the operator's package price. In other words, the deposit is larger than a whole Umrah package at the top of the range.

That is the honest comparison and it is as far as we will take it. We have no verified figure for the full Sri Lankan Hajj package price, so we are not going to estimate one. What Umrah costs from Sri Lanka has the Umrah side in detail.