Indian expatriates and business travellers in Saudi Arabia should note an important operational change at the India Passport Application Centre (PAC) in Jeddah. VFS Global, which runs the centre on behalf of the Consulate-General of India, has confirmed that all appointments originally booked for Monday, 29 July 2026 at the Hail Street facility have been automatically brought forward to Sunday, 28 July 2026. The one-day shift is necessary to allow final packing and systems migration ahead of the centre’s relocation to a larger, purpose-built office that will open to the public on Sunday, 2 August 2026. According to a consular circular issued late on 28 July, customers who are unable to attend on the rescheduled date may re-book online without penalty or can visit the Consulate-General’s walk-in counters for emergency services. The Consulate emphasised that Tatkal (fast-track) passport renewals, attestation of commercial documents and visa endorsements required for urgent travel will continue to be processed without interruption. The new PAC—located in the Tasheel Commercial Plaza, Al Mohammadiyah district—will offer 30 per cent more counters, segregated lanes for families and senior citizens, and a larger biometric-capture area. VFS Global says the expansion responds to a 17 per cent year-on-year rise in passport renewals and other consular services requested by the estimated 2.4 million-strong Indian community in western Saudi Arabia. Peak demand is typically recorded in the summer months as families travel to India for school holidays. For corporate mobility managers, the move should ease bottlenecks that had been reported at the Hail Street site during early-morning queues. Employers sending staff to India for short-term assignments or urgent business trips are advised to confirm that employees carry hard copies of appointment confirmations reflecting the new address from 2 August onward. VFS will install QR-code kiosks in the foyer to speed up check-in and reduce average processing times from 35 to 20 minutes. The relocation underscores the growing need for scalable consular infrastructure in the Gulf, where Indian nationals form the largest expatriate cohort. With Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 driving mega-projects in construction, health care and IT, demand for passport renewals and attestation of professional qualifications is expected to remain high. The Consulate has hinted that it is evaluating satellite pop-up centres in Taif and Yanbu to further decentralise service delivery over the next twelve months.
Source: VFS Global
