- Russia and Saudi Arabia launch visa-free travel on May 11, 2026, for stays up to 90 days.
- The deal covers ordinary, diplomatic, and service passports for tourism, business, and transit purposes.
- Excluded activities include employment, study, and permanent residency, which still require specific visas.
(RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA) — Russia and Saudi Arabia will implement a visa-free travel agreement on May 11, 2026, allowing citizens of both countries to enter, stay in and leave each other’s territory without a visa for up to 90 days per calendar year.
The agreement covers citizens holding valid diplomatic, special or service, or ordinary passports from either country. It allows travel either continuously or cumulatively within the 90 days limit.
Russian and Saudi travelers will be able to use the arrangement for tourism, business trips, guest visits, cultural, scientific, economic and sports events, and transit. The regime does not allow employment, study or permanent residency, and separate visas will still be required for those activities.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced the effective date on April 6, 2026, after domestic procedures were completed and the two sides exchanged notifications. The agreement takes effect 60 days after those notifications.
Representatives of both governments signed the deal in Riyadh on December 1, 2025. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak was among those involved in the signing.
The measure marks a change in travel rules between the two countries. Russian citizens had previously needed e-Visas or visas on arrival for stays of up to 90 days in Saudi Arabia.
Under the new arrangement, citizens of Russia and Saudi Arabia will be able to cross borders without first obtaining visas if their travel fits the permitted categories. Entry, stay and exit all fall within the scope of the agreement.
Eligible passport holders from both sides will use the same framework. That includes diplomatic travelers, holders of special or service passports, and people traveling on ordinary passports.
The agreement sets the period as 90 days per calendar year, not per trip. Travelers may use that time in one uninterrupted stay or across several visits over the same year.
That structure gives flexibility for repeat travel as well as longer single stays. It also sets a clear ceiling for the visa-free regime.
Business trips fall within the permitted uses, alongside tourism and guest visits. Cultural, scientific, economic and sports events are also covered, as is transit.
At the same time, the agreement draws firm limits around longer-term activity. Anyone planning to work, study or live permanently in the other country will still need a separate visa.
Those restrictions keep the arrangement focused on short-term movement rather than labor migration or relocation. In that sense, the deal broadens travel access while preserving existing visa channels for residence and employment.
Saudi Arabia’s decision carries broader weight because it is the kingdom’s first such agreement with a non-neighboring country. The move links two countries that have expanded contacts in tourism and trade.
It also aligns with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goals, which have included steps tied to tourism and economic activity. The agreement supports tourism, trade and those policy goals.
For Russia, the arrangement opens a simpler route for travel to Saudi Arabia than the previous system of e-Visas or visas on arrival. For Saudi citizens, it creates the same visa-free path into Russia under the terms set out in the agreement.
The Foreign Ministry’s April 6 announcement also clarified the procedural path that brought the deal into force. Domestic steps had to be completed before the two governments exchanged the notifications that triggered the 60-day countdown to implementation.
That timeline places the start date on May 11, 2026. From that date, the new regime applies to eligible citizens of both countries.
Visa-free travel agreements often turn on narrow legal definitions, and this one does the same. It names the passport types that qualify, the purposes that are allowed and the activities that remain outside the regime.
By doing so, it creates a framework that is broad for short visits but limited for anything beyond them. Travel for leisure, commerce, events or transit fits inside the agreement, while work, education and permanent settlement do not.
The inclusion of ordinary passports is one of the deal’s wider practical features. It means the arrangement is not confined to diplomats or officials, but extends to regular citizens of Russia and Saudi Arabia as well.
Coverage for diplomatic and service categories also gives government and official travelers the same visa-free access. That places all three passport classes under a single bilateral regime.
Because the time limit applies per calendar year, travelers will need to plan around the annual cap rather than a single-entry allowance. The agreement allows the total stay to be used continuously or cumulatively, giving room for multiple trips.
Transit is also listed among the permitted purposes, alongside tourism and business travel. That adds another option for travelers moving through one country on the way to another destination.
The agreement’s signing in Riyadh on December 1, 2025, gave the political commitment its formal shape. Its implementation on May 11, 2026, turns that commitment into an operating travel rule.
Alexander Novak’s presence at the signing underlined the level of official engagement from Moscow. Saudi and Russian representatives signed the document in Riyadh as both sides moved to complete the domestic procedures required before it could begin.
The arrangement arrives as both countries seek to deepen practical ties beyond formal diplomacy. The source content ties the agreement directly to tourism and trade, placing easier travel at the center of that push.
For Saudi Arabia, the non-neighboring dimension stands out. The kingdom has now extended a visa-free arrangement of this kind beyond its immediate region.
For Russia, the new framework removes a prior visa step for travel that already could extend to 90 days through e-Visas or visas on arrival. The difference is that eligible travelers will now be able to make those trips without a visa under the bilateral agreement.
That shift could matter most for repeat visitors, business travelers and tourists who move between the two countries more than once in a year. The cumulative structure allows them to divide their 90 days across several visits if they choose.
Still, the agreement does not create an open-ended right to remain. The annual cap remains in place, and the barred categories — employment, study and permanent residency — remain outside the visa-free channel.
Those boundaries are central to how the pact works. It is a travel agreement, not a labor or settlement agreement.
The Foreign Ministry’s announcement on April 6, 2026, provided the final procedural marker before implementation. With the exchange of notifications completed, the start date became fixed.
From May 11, 2026, Russian and Saudi citizens carrying valid diplomatic, special or service, or ordinary passports will be able to travel between the two countries without visas for the purposes listed in the agreement. The change opens a new visa-free travel route between Moscow and Riyadh, with 90 days as the rule that will define how it operates.
