A Qatar CR number is the commercial registration number every registered trader and company must show, in Arabic, on its premises and papers. To check a company, start from it: search the Single Window register of closed and liquidating firms, request MOCI’s Regulatory Record Report, and use the QFC public register for firms in the Qatar Financial Centre.
What a Qatar CR number is and where it must appear
The commercial register is kept by the competent department of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. It records the names of those who must register and the data of their commercial activities. Under Article 3 of the Commercial Register Law, individual traders, commercial companies, commercial agents, branches of foreign companies and commercial representation offices must register, and a company’s branches are registered under its own CR number. No one may trade before registering.
Article 6 requires everyone on the register to show their trade name and registration number, in Arabic, on the front of their premises and on all correspondence, publications and papers of the business. Breaking that rule carries a fine of up to QAR 50,000. Letting someone else use your CR, or using one that is not yours, carries up to six months in prison, a fine of up to QAR 200,000, or both.
Changes within 30 days
Any change to the registered data must be recorded within 30 days of the contract, judgment or event behind it.
Deletion within 30 days
When a trader stops or a company’s liquidation ends, deletion must be requested within 30 days, or the Ministry deletes the entry itself.
No trade outside the CR
A business may not carry on an activity that is not recorded on its CR.
Want a CR for a company of your own instead? The registration steps, documents and fees are in our company registration guide.
Official checks and what each one shows
Each tool is run by an authority, and each shows part of the picture.
| Check | Run by | What it shows | How to use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regulatory Record Report | Ministry of Commerce and Industry | Company name, licence number, activity and licence status, with complaints, violations and administrative closures | Request it on the Ministry’s website after a Tawtheeq login, under Services, then Inquiries; the company is asked to consent |
| Register of companies under liquidation and closed firms | The Ministry, on the Single Window | CR number, commercial permit number, names in Arabic and English, establishment ID, and the liquidation or closure date | Search before you sign or pay; a match means the company is in liquidation or closed |
| Extract or certificate from the register | The Ministry | An extract, a certificate of certain data, or a certificate that someone is not registered | Any interested party may ask; companies can also issue common certificates and extracts in the Ministry’s app |
| Trade names search | The Ministry | Registered trade names, which are reserved and protected | Confirms that a name exists; it shows no status or activities |
| QFC public register | Qatar Financial Centre | QFC number, names, registered office and status; directors and senior executive functions | Search by status, permitted activity or registration date |
| Qatar trademarks on WIPO’s Global Brand Database | The Ministry, through WIPO | Trademarks in Qatar’s database | Search a brand before you rely on it or apply for your own |
| Moawen | Ministry of Labour | Licensed agencies for recruiting domestic workers | Choose an agency from the platform before you sign |
The record report needs the company’s consent before it is released. If a company you plan to pay will not agree, ask why before you go further.
How to get a CR copy or check CR status in Qatar
Say a supplier attaches a scanned CR to its quotation. You can pull the record yourself. The Single Window’s certificates service gives an extract of the CR or the commercial permit for your own company or for anyone else’s, with or without an account. Search the company, pick the document and the language, preview it, pay, download. The portal lists the service as immediate.
| Document | Fee | Login |
|---|---|---|
| CR extract | QAR 50 | Not needed |
| Commercial permit extract | Free | Not needed |
| Status certificate for a CR or commercial permit | QAR 50 | Tawtheeq, with a valid Qatari ID |
Compare the extract you download with the copy you were sent. Names, numbers and activities should match line for line.
Qatar trade licence verification, step by step
- Get the CR number and trade name
They should be on the quotation, invoice or letterhead, in Arabic, because the law says so. Copy the name exactly, in Arabic and in English.
- Rule out closure
Look the CR number or name up in the Single Window register of companies under liquidation and closed firms. No match is what you want.
- Request the record report
Once the company consents, it shows whether the licence is active, the activity, and any complaints or violations.
- Compare the activities
Pull a current CR extract from the Single Window. The work you are paying for has to be one of the recorded activities.
- Check any specialist licence
Some activities need a second licence from another authority. The Ministry’s business activities search lists the approvals behind each activity.
Checking a manpower or recruitment company
Recruiting workers from abroad for other employers needs a licence from the Ministry of Labour under Article 29 of the Labour Law. For a manpower company, licence verification starts at the office: a licensed office must display its licence inside and its name and working hours outside. Ask to see the licence, check that its name matches the office’s CR and commercial permit, and check that the CR shows a recruitment activity, such as code 781001 for recruiting domestic workers.
A licensed office may not take any fee, recruitment cost or other charge from the worker it recruits. If you are hiring domestic workers, the Ministry’s Moawen platform links employers with licensed agencies and has a section for finding them. Complaints against a recruitment office can be followed online with the establishment ID and the complaint number.
QFC firms and the QFC public register
A firm licensed in the Qatar Financial Centre is checked on the QFC’s own public register, which the QFC publishes so that the details of licensed companies are available to all. You can search companies, senior executive functions or directors, and filter by status, permitted activity and registration date. For each hit you get the QFC number, the name in English and in Arabic, the registered office and a status.
Licensed is the status you want to see. Others on the register are licensed but inactive, in liquidation, under deregistration and licence withdrawn. The same page lists disciplinary actions, deregistration notices, approved auditors and a gazette of decisions, and has a tool to verify a QFC document by its authentication code. For waivers and disciplinary actions of the QFC Regulatory Authority, it links to that authority’s own registers.
Warning signs
No CR number on the papers
The law requires it, in Arabic, on all correspondence and papers of the business.
Someone else’s CR
Trading on a CR that belongs to another person is a crime for both sides.
A liquidation or closure date
A match in the Single Window register means the company is winding up or closed.
Work outside the activities
The service you are buying should be one of the activities on the CR.
Fees charged to workers
A licensed recruitment office may not charge the worker it recruits.
A QFC status other than licensed
Inactive, suspended or withdrawn statuses show on the QFC register.
How we help
Before you sign with a supplier, partner or agent, we guide you through the official checks above and help you read what the register, the record report and the extract show. For your own company, we help you keep the CR, its activities and its papers in order. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the other authorities hold the records and decide every application.
