Thank you for these clarifications! For the links posted by fieryangelinthesky, I'll be reading them thoroughly and take notes of the points. For certified BisDak, thank you for the advise. It helped. As I understand, we were directly hired since we didn't apply to them thru any agency. We just submitted our applications directly to the company and when we accepted their offer, we were then directed to coordinate with a specific agency here in the country for our medical and emigration process. And when we got in touch with the said agency, we were asked to pay an amount for the processing, stamping of visa and service charges. These amount we assume was that for direct-hired employee since they had asked us first if we were hired by the company or we applied thru them. A bit confused about whether these amount should be paid by the company for us or ourselves, or about the placement fees (if ever there is) that might be subtracted in our monthly salaries, we have been searching the net and asking friends already working abroad for any related experience that might help until I finally came here in qatarliving.com...