FAMILY RESIDENCE PERMIT VISA - PROCEDURE & DOCUMENTS REQUIRED

Hello,

I recently got married and brought my wife here on family visa. I have experienced many difficulties and all possible hurdles that could happen to anyone. I would like to share the detailed procedure for benefit of people who have to bring their family here in Qatar.

A. Documents Required:

1. Company NOC - Your sponsor has to provide you a letter in Arabic, stating your Profession, Salary and mentioning that the sponsor has no objection with your intent to bring over your family to Qatar.

2. Labour Contract - Take a copy of your Attested (by Ministry of Labour) labour Contract. Recently, it has been made compulsory that all labour contracts are attested by Ministry of Labour and uploaded online in their system. Your PRO has to provide you with an attested contract. If your labour contract is not attested and not uploaded in their system then you won't be able to apply for the family visa.

3. Rent Agreement – Take a copy of your Attested (by Municipality) rent agreement. It is compulsory that the rent agreement is attested by the municipality.

4. Bank Statement – Request your bank to give a 6 Month bank statement for family visa purpose. Your salary should be above QR 10000/month. Doha Bank usually takes a day to provide you the same, so plan accordingly. Doha Bank charges QR 25/- for bank statement.

5. Education Degree – Take a copy of your Attested (by MOFA - Qatar) education degree. If the content of the degree is not in English, then an Arabic translation is required and that too should be attested.

6. Marriage Certificate – Take a copy of your Attested (by Embassy and MOFA – Qatar) Marriage Certificate. If the content of the certificate is not in English, then an Arabic translation is required and that too should be attested.

7. Passport Copy of Wife and Yourself

8. Your QID Copy

9. Application Form (Arabic) – Once all, the above-mentioned documents are ready, go to a typing centre (if you don’t know Arabic) and get the application form filled in Arabic.

Go to Gharaffa Immigration office Gate No. 3 (location link below), take a token and submit the documents. They will take your documents and give you a receipt containing a reference number which can be used to track the status. It is recommended that you reach there before 7.30am

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Gharafa+Immigration/@25.321198,51.46894,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xab36bc86605ad400!8m2!3d25.321198!4d51.46894

Important Notes:

a. The profession matters a lot. Your visa profession should not be labour or unskilled profession.

b. The profession mentioned in Labor Contract, Company NOC and Your degree should compliment each other.

c. If your visa profession is Engineer, the you must have UPDA certification with you. Your application won’t be accepted if you are on engineer visa but don’t have UPDA accreditation. In such case, approach the Captain and negotiate your way. Generally, the Captain would accept it.

d. In my case, I had an Engineering Degree but my Visa profession was Admin. I explained the Captain as to why I am not changing my visa profession and he agreed and accepted my application. Captain is generally available at the reception counter, just ask anyone.

e. In my case, 2 out 6 months salary was below 10000. For this, I explained the captain that I went on vacation and he accepted my explanation.

 B. After Submission:

• Once you have submitted your documents, you can check the status of your application online. All you need to do is put the reference number and select visa type as Visit because initially visa is issued as visit category and later on it automatically changes once medical and finger printing is done.

• If the status is mentioned as ‘Under Process (along with expiry date)’ or ‘Approved’, this means that your visa is approved.

• If the status is mentioned as ‘Deferred’, then you need to go to Gharaffa Immigration again and check why they have deferred it. Generally, it happens due to some missing document or some clarification that they require. No need to worry, they basically want to see you and talk to you in person. Mostly it gets approved after you go and meet them. My application was deferred due to ‘item e’ mentioned above.

• Once the application is approved, you can print the visa by paying QR 200/- through Metrash or it can even be paid through any Govt. Services Centre around various locations in Qatar. I paid it through Metrash. Upon payment you can download/print the visa through Metrash or by MOI Website. Your wife can travel to Qatar using this visa and keep in mind that you need not book a return ticket.

 C. After Family Arrived in Qatar:

• Take your wife to Medical Comission at Abu Hamour (location link below) within 3 days of arriving. Ask her to carry a copy of Visa, Her Passport and Husband QID. An amount of QR 100/- is to be paid thru credit/debit card. Your wife will go through blood test and x-ray.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Medical+Comission+Abu+Hamour/@25.2319576,51.5155457,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x3e45cfd9006bc1c5:0xac497c08f8300d4a!8m2!3d25.2319528!4d51.5177344

• Once medical is done, you shall receive a message that test is OK.

• Once this message is received, the next day you may proceed, for finger printing (Go to one of these locations - Mesaimeer, Industrial Area, CEID Salwa Road). Your wife needs to carry the receipt received from medical commission, visa copy, passport copy and husband QID. At the fingerprinting location they will give you form filled in Arabic which you need to keep with you for final step. Once finger print is done, you shall receive a message that finger printing is OK.

• After receiving this message, next day you can go to the same location. You need to carry:

• Arabic form received during finger printing
• Passport Photo of Wife in Blue Background
• Blood Group Test report which is to be done in any independent clinic (Apollo, Aster, Naseem Al Rabeeh etc.)
• Passport Copy of Wife
• Husband QID Copy

• Submit the above documents and pay visa fees. The fee depends upon the duration of visa requested by you, which is mentioned in the Arabic form received during finger printing. They usually write 1 year unless you tell them otherwise. Visa can be maximum for 5 years.

• They print the QID within 5 minutes upon payment of the visa fees.

The entire process from A to C takes 10-15 Days. 

I hope the procedure is clear to you all. Feel free to comment if you wish to ask anything

Thanks.

Related post about family visas and permits

How to convert a family visit visa into a permanent residence permit

How to apply for a family visit visa in Qatar

Procedure for Applying Family Visit Visa through Metrash