Saudi Arabia business visa with Wadi Araba border crossing stamp?

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Most sources (1 2 3 wikipedia) say that you may be denied entry. There's no definite statement - some say it's not strictly enforced, and report some successes. But it doesn't look like something you want to rely on.

These sources are several years old, and there was recently an informal warm-up in Saudi-Israeli relations. One result is that Air India can now fly to/from Israel over Saudi Arabia. One could assume that they'd also allow entry for previous visitors of Israel, but I found no indication that it's actually so.

I failed to find an official Saudi source.

You should contact the embassy before you travel.

Upvote:2

In theory, this could be a problem. In practice, your odds are pretty good, and I personally would probably risk it.

In my experience, Saudi passport inspections particularly when flying in are pretty cursory. They've got a hundred passengers to look at and if your visa is in order, that's all they seem to care about. A stamp from Jordan at the "wrong" crossing won't even be visible in the same way that an Israeli stamp with Hebrew is (which is why Israel usually stamps a separate piece of paper!). Also, if your big company is the big company in Saudi, it wouldn't hurt to bring an official invitation letter and the phone number of somebody who can tell at Immigration if they do spot it and get difficult -- wasta is a powerful force in the Kingdom.

But no, this is not an ironclad guarantee, the only way to be 100% sure is to get a new passport.

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