Qatar Adds New Rules to Residence Permits

Qatar is adding new rules to its residence permits. Check out the new rules below.

Retaining one’s residence permits, as well as applying for one, often entails several rules and regulations for holders to follow. For some countries, their requirements are very strict and often leads to foreign residents to give up their permits. However, Qatar intends to change that with their new measures.

New Rules on Residence Permits

The announcement of the new measures was done during the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs press conference on October 9. The new measures will enable the sons of residents to work in the private sector without changing their sponsorship. They will only need to present a written approval from their family head and obtain their work permit from the ministry.

New temporary work visas for certain professions and jobs will also be available, as well as reduce MoI’s service fees to 20%. These new visas will be valid for one to two month and will be around QR300 to QR 500 respectively. Visas up to 6 months will be QR 200 each month.

Qatar residence permits

The new measures aims to get the sons of expatriate residents to help the country’s economy. Currently, only daughters are ok to work without changing their sponsorship.

Meanwhile, the new temporary work visas will be made available to private companies, commercial establishments and other licensed entities who handle emergency, temporary and seasonal work. The reduction of fees will also help pave way to change the services of government and make them online. It will also reduce paperwork for the government to review, as well as reduce the recruitment and housing expenses for employers.

Currently, work is underway to create the legislative tools necessary to get the proposal through. It is possible that the proposal to let sons of expatriates work without changing sponsorship will under the amendment for Article No. 17 of Law No. 21 of 2015. Meanwhile, the measure for temporary visas will be under Labor Law No. 14 of 2004 and its other amendments.

Qatar Travel Tips

If you want to check out Qatar, there are a lot of tips in this site that you can use. We have a guide on where you can stay while in Doha. If you are in a layover at Doha International Airport, we have a guide here for you.

You can check out the site of  Visit Qatar for other great travel tips.