Pilgrims, good news! Applications for the Hajj are reopening.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Religious Affairs declared that applications for the government Hajj program’s remaining quota will once again be accepted.

The ministry made this choice in an effort to guarantee that the entire quota is used and to prevent sending any seats back to Saudi Arabia that are not used.

On a first-come, first-served basis, an extra 5,000 pilgrims will be allowed to apply starting next week.

These applications will be accepted during a designated timeframe; the ministry is now considering a proposal to restrict the submission period to five days.

Under the Hajj program, the government had previously received 81,500 applications; the decision to accept additional pilgrims is intended to provide those who were unable to reserve a seat in the first round of applications a chance.

To further streamline the procedure and guarantee efficiency and justice, no lottery will be held for the new applications, in contrast to the previous one.

Officials stressed that this action is meant to guarantee that no chance to bring pilgrims to the Holy Land is missed, in addition to optimizing the quota distribution.