Visa Process for Qatar

QATAR VISA PROCESS FOR CITIZENS OF CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES

Unless you are a national of a Gulf Cooperation Country, (Gulf Cooperation Countries include: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates), you will need a visa to enter Qatar.

There are four main visas used for travel into Qatar, three are entry visas, and include the Tourist Visa, the Permanent Entry Visa, and the Temporary Work Entry Visa, and the last is a permanent long-term visa, formally known as the Residency Visa. A candidate’s sponsor will apply for the Residency Visa (the long-term permanent visa) as soon as he/she has relocated to Qatar for long-term employment.

A description about each of these visas can be found, in order, below.

Note: For any points with an * beside it, you can find further details on the topic in the notes section at the end of the article.

I) TOURIST VISA:

Candidates traveling to Qatar for site visits and interviews will typically enter Qatar on a Tourist Visa.

14-day tourist visas are issued at border points (i.e., airport immigration) for the nationals of more than 33 countries (including the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Finland, Spain, Monaco, the Vatican, Iceland, Andorra, San Marino, Lichtenstein, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea).

Tourist visas can be extended for an additional 14 days while in Qatar. A 14-day visa costs approximately QR105 (US$29) – as at June 2, 2008.

If you are visiting Qatar on business and you are a national of a country for which visas are not issued at border points (as above), you will need to obtain an entry visa prior to starting your journey into Qatar.

II) EMPLOYMENT ENTRY VISAS:

Candidates traveling to Qatar for an employment contract most commonly enter Qatar on either a Permanent Entry Visa or a Temporary Work Entry Visa. 

As soon as a candidate has accepted an employment offer, their sponsor (i.e., future employer in Qatar) will apply for their work entry visa from the Ministry of the Interior of Qatar. The type of visa applied for will vary from sponsor to sponsor*.

  1. Permanent Entry Visa
    The documents required for the Permanent Entry visa are:

    1. clear passport copy in color: The passport must be valid for at least eight months following the candidate’s intended date of departure;
        
    1. copies of all educational documents: Depending on the candidate’s sponsor, a candidate’s highest education document may need to be authenticated through the Qatar Embassy in Canada or the United States. The candidate will need to send their original highest education document, or a notarized copy of the original, to their recruitment company, to begin the authentication process. The authentication process (if necessary) is handled by the recruitment company.  The candidate should forward the above documents to their recruitment company immediately after they have accepted an employment offer. This is to ensure that their sponsor in Qatar can apply for their entry visa as soon as possible.

    Processing time for the Permanent Entry Visa is between 4 to 8 weeks.
  1. Temporary Work Entry Visa
    With this visa, once a candidate has accepted an employment offer, their nationality and position must be approved by the Qatar Immigration Department. This process usually takes 7 to 10 days. 

    Once the approval has been issued, the candidate’s sponsor in Qatar will apply for their Temporary Work Entry Visa, a process which takes approximately 10 days to 2 weeks to complete. 

    The documents required and the process for the Temporary Work Entry Visa are the same as those for the Permanent Entry Visa (above).
  1. Accessing approved entry visas online
    Once approved, entry visas are generally accessible online through the Qatari Ministry of Interior website.

    To access an approved entry visa online, a password (provided by the sponsor) and the candidate’s country of citizenship are required.

III) RESIDENCY VISA:

To convert either of the above entry visas to a Residency Visa, it is necessary to complete various health and fingerprint examination procedures.

Within one or two days of their arrival in Qatar, the candidate’s sponsor will arrange an appointment with the Immigration Department in Qatar for a medical check-up and finger prints, and Residency Visa application. The Residency Visa is issued 8 days after the application has been submitted. The process can take up to six weeks depending on the type of entry visa used to enter Qatar*.

Prior to your leaving for Qatar, your recruitment company will collect from you the documents required for the Residency Visa. You will hand-carry these to Qatar.
The documents required include:

  1. Original police clearance certificate/letter*: Depending on the candidate’s sponsor, this document may need to be authenticated through the Qatar Embassy. Authentication is handled by the recruitment company. As the authentication process is lengthy, candidates should ensure that their recruitment company receives their original police clearance (or notarized police clearance* for US candidates) immediately after they have accepted an employment offer. 
  1. Medicals: The required medicals will vary depending on the candidate’s sponsor, and may include:

    • HIV;
    • Hepatitis B antigen;
    • Hepatitis C;
    • chest x-ray for TB;
    • copy of blood group result;
    • "physical fitness" letter from candidate’s family physician.
  1. Fifteen (15) photographs: This should be passport-sized in color. If you wear glasses, eight of the photos should be taken with your glasses on.
  1. Copies of all education documents: This includes the authenticated copy of the candidate’s highest education document (if applicable). 
  1. Original Signed Employment Contract/Offer

Note: After a candidate has obtained their official Residency Visa, the Residency Visas for their dependents (if their dependants are joining them in Qatar) can be applied for. Dependants often enter Qatar on Tourist Visas, which are converted to Residency Visas once the employee’s/candidate’s visa has been issued.

Notes:

  • If your passport has an Israeli stamp, you will be denied entry into Qatar.
  • Visitors on a tourist visa must enter on Qatar Airways.
  • The Residency Visa conversion process will likely be longer for candidates who enter Qatar on Temporary Work Entry Visas as opposed to Permanent Entry Visas.
  • Notarization must be done in a candidate’s country of origin/citizenship (either Canada or the USA).
  • For candidates who are Canadian or American citizens and are living abroad, they will need to contact the High Commission/Embassy of their country of citizenship (either Canada or the USA) to request assistance in obtaining a police clearance certificate issued by a police agency in Canada or the US.