Abstract
Saudi Arabia is the home for annual Hajj and ongoing Umrah pilgrimages. About eight million people from nearly two hundred countries perform these pilgrimages. To perform hajj, it is mandatory for a pilgrim to acquire a valid permit. The hajj permits are regulated by the Hajj Ministry of Saudi Arabia. Foreign pilgrims also require a valid visa to travel to Saudi Arabia. Foreigners in these pilgrimages constitute more than eighty percent of all pilgrims. Due to high demand, there is a quota for each country and also a moratorium of five years for individuals to perform Hajj. Similar restrictions are also in place for Umrah pilgrims. To obtain a permit, a pilgrim must furnish a health certificate and meet other criteria. In the past some cases of fake permits have been caught; and so, preventing and controlling this activity is an immediate need for hajj management. In this paper we propose the use of modern technologies to control and mange permits and visas efficiently. In particular, we propose a system that would use the Blockchain technology and smart contract platform to better manage the Hajj and Umrah permits and visas grants which would also efficiently address the problems of fake documents. As Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 calls for increasing the number of pilgrims to thirty million, our research is a timely solution to combat the menace of fake documents.