Visa and immigration processing is going to slow down a lot in the next few weeks across the Middle East, North Africa, Türkiye and several Asian countries. The reason is simple and happens every year: Ramadan shortens working hours, and then Eid al-Fitr closes offices completely for several days.
What happens during Ramadan
In most of these countries government offices, embassies and consulates switch to shorter days during the holy month. People fast from sunrise to sunset. By afternoon everyone is tired and concentration drops. So routine things—checking documents, running security checks, booking interviews, making decisions—take much longer than normal. Offices stay open in theory, but they handle far fewer cases each day. New applications keep arriving and the queue just gets longer.
Eid al-Fitr adds the real bottleneck
Ramadan 2026 started around 18–19 February and finished around 19–20 March (exact dates depend on moon sighting in each place). Eid al-Fitr—the big holiday at the end—fell mostly between 19 and 21 March. During those days almost every government building shuts completely. No visa processing, no movement on files. When offices reopen the staff have to deal with everything that piled up plus whatever new applications came in during the break. Anything submitted late in Ramadan or just before Eid usually waits the longest.
Countries affected
These 26 countries normally see the same pattern every year:
Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Brunei, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Tunisia, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates.
What people should do
If you need to apply for a visa in March 2026—or you already did—expect longer waits than usual. Submit applications much earlier if possible, well before the last week of Ramadan. Build in extra weeks as buffer time. Companies sponsoring workers from abroad should move planned start dates and renewal deadlines back a bit so projects don’t get messed up. Checking the official embassy or visa website every few days is the only way to see when things start moving again.
These delays come round every year at this time. Planning ahead is really the only thing that works.
