Iqama Expiry in Hijri: Converting Saudi Document Dates Without Mistakes

If you live or work in Saudi Arabia, you will meet Hijri dates on documents that really matter: your iqama (residence permit), a Saudi national ID, a vehicle registration (istimara), a driving licence, a rental contract or a work permit. Getting the conversion wrong by a day can mean a missed renewal; misunderstanding how Hijri years work can mean being surprised by an expiry nearly two weeks earlier than you thought.

This guide explains how to read these dates, how to convert them correctly, and the mistakes that catch people most often.

This is general guidance about dates. Rules for renewals, grace periods and fees are set by the relevant Saudi authorities and can change — always confirm on the official platform (for example Absher or Muqeem) or with your employer’s government-relations officer.

Which calendar Saudi documents use

Saudi Arabia’s official civil calendar is the Umm al-Qura calendar, published in advance and based on astronomical criteria for Makkah. Government records, residence permits and many contracts state dates in this calendar. Since 2016 salaries and the fiscal year have moved to the Gregorian calendar, and many systems now display both, but you will still regularly see dates such as 1448/09/01 with no Gregorian equivalent.

The most important rule of this guide follows from that:

Always convert Saudi document dates with the Umm al-Qura calendar.

Many free converters default to the tabular (arithmetic) Islamic calendar, which can differ from Umm al-Qura by one — occasionally two — days. That is the most common source of “off by one day” errors.

How to read a Hijri date on a document

Saudi documents usually write Hijri dates as year/month/day or day/month/year, with numbers only:

• 1448/09/01 — 1 Ramadan 1448
• 01/09/1448 — the same date, day first

The year is always the four-digit number beginning with 14. The month is a number from 01 to 12:

No.	Month	No.	Month
01	Muharram	07	Rajab
02	Safar	08	Sha’ban
03	Rabi’ al-Awwal	09	Ramadan
04	Rabi’ al-Thani	10	Shawwal
05	Jumada al-Ula	11	Dhul-Qa’dah
06	Jumada al-Akhirah	12	Dhul-Hijjah

The suffix هـ after a date means Hijri; م means Gregorian (miladi).

Converting an expiry date: step by step

1. Read the Hijri date and identify day, month and year.
2. Open a converter set to Umm al-Qura. On our converter, choose “Umm al-Qura” in the method toggle (it is the default).
3. Enter the Hijri date in the Hijri → Gregorian side.
4. Note the weekday shown with the result. If the expiry falls on a Friday or Saturday, offices are closed — plan to act earlier.
5. Count the days remaining with the date difference tool.

Worked example

An iqama shows an expiry of 1448/09/15.

• 1448/09/15 = 15 Ramadan 1448.
• On Umm al-Qura, 1 Ramadan 1448 is 8 February 2027, so 15 Ramadan is Monday 22 February 2027.

If you had used a tabular converter, you might get the same answer here — but in some months the tabular calendar is a day or two away from Umm al-Qura. For example, the tabular calendar starts Safar 1448 on 17 July 2026, while Umm al-Qura starts it on 15 July — a two-day difference.

The 11-day trap

Here is the mistake that surprises the most people. Suppose your iqama is renewed for one year on a Hijri date. One Hijri year is 354 or 355 days, not 365. So the new expiry falls about 11 days earlier in the Gregorian calendar than “the same date next year”.

Example: an iqama valid from 1 Ramadan 1447 (18 February 2026) to 1 Ramadan 1448 expires on 8 February 2027, not 18 February 2027. If you have been thinking “it’s due in mid-February”, you are ten days late.

The same applies to anything measured in Hijri months or years: work permits, leases, vehicle registrations and subscriptions. A Hijri month is 29 or 30 days, so “three months” may be 88 days, not 91 or 92.

Practical fix: whenever you renew a Hijri-dated document, immediately convert the new expiry to Gregorian and put that date in your phone calendar — with a reminder a few weeks ahead.

Converting the other way: Gregorian to Hijri

Sometimes you need the Hijri date for a form — for example, your Gregorian date of birth on a Saudi application. Use the Gregorian → Hijri side of the converter with Umm al-Qura selected.

If the form has already been filled in by an office (for example, the date of birth printed on your existing iqama), copy that exact Hijri date rather than re-converting. Re-converting with a different method is how people end up with two different birth dates on two documents.

Reading Hijri dates on Absher and other platforms

Official Saudi platforms show your document dates directly, often in both calendars. Treat them as the source of truth:

• If a converter and the platform disagree by a day, the platform is right. The converter is probably using the tabular calendar.
• If the platform shows only the Hijri date, convert it with Umm al-Qura and keep a note of the Gregorian date.
• Screenshots of the expiry date are useful when you discuss renewals with HR or a sponsor.

Other documents with Hijri dates

The same principles apply to:

• Saudi national ID (hawiya) — issue and expiry dates.
• Vehicle registration (istimara) and driving licence — expiry dates.
• Commercial registration (CR) — a business’s registration validity.
• Rental contracts — older contracts in particular are often dated in Hijri; check whether rent periods are Hijri months or Gregorian months, because the totals differ.
• Court and notary documents — usually Hijri.

For contracts, it is worth asking for both calendars to be written in the document, for example: ١٤٤٨/٠٩/٠١ هـ الموافق ٢٠٢٧/٠٢/٠٨ م.

Hijri periods vs Gregorian periods

Durations written in Hijri months or years are shorter than their Gregorian equivalents. If a contract or permit is measured in Hijri time, these are the real lengths:

Period	In Hijri time	In Gregorian time
1 month	29 or 30 days	28–31 days
3 months	88–89 days (typically)	89–92 days
6 months	177 days (typically)	181–184 days
1 year	354 or 355 days	365 or 366 days
2 years	708–709 days	730–731 days

The differences look small, but over a two-year permit they reach three weeks. If your employer or landlord quotes a period in Hijri months, ask for the Gregorian end date in writing.

Setting reminders that actually work

Phone calendars do not handle Hijri recurrence well, and a reminder set “every year on 15 Ramadan” in a Gregorian calendar will drift by 11 days each year. Two simple habits avoid this:

1. Create one-off reminders for the exact Gregorian expiry date of each document, plus a reminder 30 days earlier. When you renew, create the next set.
2. Keep a simple list of your documents with both dates side by side — iqama, passport, driving licence, istimara, health insurance — and review it at the start of each Hijri year.

If your phone supports a secondary calendar (many do, under calendar settings), enable the Islamic Umm al-Qura calendar so Hijri dates appear beneath Gregorian ones.

Checklist before a renewal deadline

• Convert the Hijri expiry with Umm al-Qura, not a generic converter.
• Check the weekday — avoid deadlines that fall on a weekend.
• Remember the 11-day trap if you think in Gregorian years.
• Watch for Ramadan and Eid closures: government offices often work shorter hours in Ramadan and close for several days around Eid al-Fitr (expected 9 March 2027) and Eid al-Adha (expected 16 May 2027).
• Confirm on the official platform, and act early rather than on the last day.

Dates are the easy part; the fees, grace periods and procedures belong to the authorities. Getting the date right gives you the time to deal with everything else calmly.