Indonesia Shortens Hajj Waiting Period to 14 Years

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta – The Indonesian Presidential Secretariat said President Prabowo Subianto is paying special attention to the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah's efforts to shorten the waiting period for Indonesian Hajj pilgrims. It was discussed when Prabowo received a report from the Minister of Hajj and Umrah Mochamad Irfan Yusuf and Vice Minister Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak at the Presidential Palace Complex in Jakarta on Monday, September 28, 2026.

Vice Minister Dahnil said President Prabowo had given full support to various measures by the ministry to reduce the waiting period. He said the President had also continued to urge the ministry to find a formula that could further shorten the Hajj waiting list.

"The president said that he fully supports the Ministry of Hajj's efforts to shorten the waiting list and that we should continue looking for a formula. It should be known that since the Ministry of Hajj was established, the longest waiting period was 49 years. The President then instructed us to find a formula to make it shorter," Dahnil told reporters after the meeting.

In response to the directive, the government previously changed the formula used to calculate the waiting list. According to Dahnil, the change brought the average Hajj waiting period across Indonesia down to 26 years, but Prabowo considered the period still too long and called for further improvements.

"Thankfully, we changed the formula last year and found that the average waiting period across Indonesia was 26 years. But last year, the President also said that this was still too long," Dahnil said.

The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah subsequently carried out a data-cleaning and validation process involving 5.7 million registered Hajj pilgrims. The process identified around 400,000 records as invalid.

"Finally, the Minister, myself and the entire team at the Ministry of Hajj cleaned and validated the 5.7 million Hajj pilgrim records currently in the system, and we found 400,000 invalid records," he added.

Following the validation and a fact-based recalculation, Dahnil said pilgrims departing this year face an average waiting period of 14 years. This is shorter than the waiting period calculated under the previous formula.

"So from 49 years, it became 26 years, and now the actual Hajj waiting period is 14 years, in line with the President's instruction to find a new formula and resolve the more than 400,000 invalid records," Dahnil concluded.