Start with your passport. GCC citizens need no visa, and Visit Qatar lists 102 nationalities that can simply fly in. Many others pay QAR 100 for a Hayya e-visa. Or the company you are visiting asks the Ministry of Interior for a businessmen visa, good for a month and not extendable.
Three ways in for a business visitor
The regulations on residence have a word for these trips: business visits, one of three kinds of visit alongside tourism and transit. They include a businessman’s visit, a fair or conference, a meeting or work mission and a training course. In practice your nationality picks the route, and there are three.
| Route | Who it suits | Points to know |
|---|---|---|
| Visa-free entry | Nationals of the 102 countries on Visit Qatar’s list | Some must show a confirmed hotel booking on arrival |
| Hayya e-visa | Many other nationalities, and holders of some Western visas or GCC residence | QAR 100, paid on approval; single entry |
| Businessmen visa | A visitor invited by a company in Qatar | Requested by the company; one month, not extendable |
Visa-free entry
Visit Qatar’s list has 102 nationalities that need not apply before they fly; what used to be called visa on arrival it now calls visa-free entry. Some of them have to show a confirmed hotel booking when they land. US citizens are treated more generously still, with a visa valid for two years, or until the passport expires, and stays of up to 90 days each. A GCC citizen needs only a passport or GCC ID.
How long you may stay, if you are not American, is something the page itself does not print. The nationality checker on the same site shows it once you choose your country, and it is worth doing before any booking.
E-visas on Hayya
Hayya is where the Ministry of Interior sends tourist and GCC-resident visit visa applications. A Dubai resident would pick A2, the GCC resident visa; someone holding a UK or US visa, A3, the visa with ETA; most other tourists, A1. A4 covers companions of GCC citizens, and B is the conference and event visa. A1 to A4 cost QAR 100 each, paid on final approval, and are single-entry.
Hayya will want your passport and a digital photo, onward travel details, and a hotel booking or a registered host. Hayya also asks for health insurance. You will look in vain for a business e-visa: the business corner of Hayya serves government bodies. Someone flying in to meet clients simply uses the e-visa open to their nationality.
The businessmen visa, through a company in Qatar
Suppose a Doha trading company wants a supplier over for a week of meetings. Holding prior approval, it asks the Ministry of Interior for a businessmen visa, which lasts one month, cannot be extended and showed a QAR 200 fee when we checked. Consultations, deals, sharing expertise and looking at investment are the purposes named in the regulations, through a licensed company or service provider.
Conferences and exhibitions have their own visit visa, which the organiser or the invited visitor requests. Meetings and work missions get one too, and there the company files with its establishment card. Visitors who will return several times to work should ask about the multiple-entry work visit visa.
Which visa for which kind of trip
Each business purpose has its own file under the regulations, and two of them need the establishment card of the company or organiser in Qatar that asks for the visa.
| Purpose | Who asks for the visa | What the file needs | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consultations, deals, looking at investment | A trading or investment company in Qatar with prior approval | Proof the visitor is a businessman, passport copy, return ticket, hotel booking | One month, not extendable |
| Meeting or work mission | A government body, or a company | Form, the sponsor’s establishment card, passport copy, hotel booking, return ticket | One month, extendable to three, when a government body asks |
| Exhibition or conference | The organiser, or the visitor with the invitation | Event and organiser details, passport, the organiser’s establishment card, hotel booking, return ticket | Not stated in the regulations |
How long a Qatar business visa lasts
Article 30 of the Executive Regulations allows two shapes. A single-entry visa gives 30 or 60 days. A multiple-entry visa gives six months or a year, as long as no one stay goes past 90 days.
The Minister of Interior keeps the lists, says Article 31. On them: nationals who are exempt or get a visa on arrival, holders of certain other visas or residence permits, and a length of stay for each nationality. Not on a list? Then you apply in advance, and the Visit Qatar checker will tell you so.
Hayya says its A1 to A4 e-visas are non-refundable and non-transferable. The GCC resident visa (A2) needs a residence permit in the GCC state valid for at least six months from the day you arrive; the regulations give this visit one month, extendable to three, for professions on the approved list. Hayya’s eligibility question for the A3 visa also lists a visa or residence from Canada, Australia or New Zealand.
Before you travel
Got a visa in advance? Use it within 90 days. Every visitor’s fingerprints are taken before entry. How long your passport must still run is a point where the official pages disagree; your airline and Hayya can tell you for your visa type. Nor is a visit visa a licence to work. Opening a company or taking a job here needs permits of its own.
Business visa services for companies in Qatar
Our business visa services are for the company in Qatar that invites the visitor. First we check what the visitor’s passport allows, since visa-free entry or a Hayya e-visa may be all that is needed. When the businessmen visa is the right route, we prepare the file with the company’s representative: proof of the visitor’s business role, the passport copy, the return ticket and the hotel booking, ready for the Ministry of Interior, which decides.
