I can answer about the passport question. I have an American passport and planned to fly back to Qatar about 4 weeks ago from Dallas. I went to the airport on the scheduled day and they would not let me fly. I was shocked!
THey said that since I only had 4 months of validity left on my passport that I could not fly to Qatar. If they (BritishAirways) let me fly they could be fined if they did not follow Qatar's rules for entry. They said I had to have at least 6 months of validity left to fly to Qatar even though I had a valid residency visa. They said it didn't matter that my residency visa was valid. What mattered was that my passport didn't have the required 6 months of validity left on it. Needless to say, I had to cancel that flight and book another flight to Qatar, 2 days later, which meant that I was frantically learning how to get an expedited passport. I was only allowed to qualify for the expedited passport if I had proof of needing it fast, which meant I had to book another flight and use that paperwork as the proof I needed it expedited. IF you have a flight scheduled within 14 days you quality for the expedited passport. It was frantic but I did get a brand new passport, and got to fly to Qatar two days later!