It is simpler than many expect: a commercial registration with a cleaning code, and a commercial permit once your premises are approved. No other authority approves the building cleaning codes, and foreign owners are allowed on the Single Window. Where people slip is hiring cleaners out to other firms. That is manpower supply, and it needs a labour licence.
Picking the cleaning codes
There is no single cleaning licence; you pick codes. The Single Window has several, from general cleaning of buildings to specialised cleaning and related services, and we opened the page for each cleaning code. None asked for another authority’s approval. All listed foreign owners as allowed. Every one showed the same commercial permit fee, QAR 500 per location type.
Get this wrong and you end up amending the CR later, at QAR 300 a request. Whatever is not on the CR and the licence, you may not do.
Cleaning codes and manpower codes side by side
Side by side, the cleaning codes and the manpower codes could hardly look more different. The table sets the Single Window entries out: who must approve each one, and which owners it allows.
| Code | Activity | Approval from another authority | Foreign owners |
|---|---|---|---|
| 812100 | General cleaning of buildings | None needed | Allowed |
| 812901 | Exterior cleaning of buildings | None needed | Allowed |
| 812909 | Other building and industrial cleaning | None needed | Allowed |
| 433091 | Cleaning of new buildings after construction | None needed | Allowed |
| 811009 | Other facilities support activities | None needed | Allowed |
| 781004 | Public services activities | Ministry of Labour approval to manage and operate professional labour, before the CR | Not shown as allowed |
| 781001 | Recruitment of domestic labour | Ministry of Labour, before the CR, before the commercial permit and at renewal | Not shown as allowed |
| 782001 | Temporary employment agency for home services | Ministry of Labour, before the CR, before the commercial permit and at renewal | Not shown as allowed |
Mind the exclusions in the wording. 812100, general cleaning of buildings, does not include chimneys, furnaces, boilers, ventilation ducts or exhaust units; those are in class 8129. 433091, cleaning new buildings after construction, does not include general or specialised building cleaning. A company doing both records both.
Cleaning is not manpower supply
Some businesses that call themselves cleaning companies really supply workers to others. That is a separate activity. Under Article 29 of the Labour Law, recruiting workers from abroad for others needs a licence, valid two years, and the licensed office may not charge workers any fees or carry on other work. The Single Window’s manpower codes need the Ministry of Labour’s approval and do not list foreign owners as allowed.
How to open a cleaning company in Qatar and get its licence
Most cleaning companies start as a limited liability company. Law No. 1 of 2019 allows foreign ownership up to 100%, with an application to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry above 49%, outside a few closed sectors. From there the order is fixed: trade name, Arabic memorandum, registration on the Single Window, then the Ministry’s initial approval for your premises before any lease is signed, and the commercial permit once the premises pass.
Fees and the other set-up costs are in our cost guide. Still choosing between cleaning and another trade? The licences guide compares what each type of business needs.
Staff and wages
A cleaning company is staff-heavy, so plan the labour side early. The company needs its establishment card before it can bring staff on work visas, and each worker needs the labour department’s approval and an attested employment contract in Arabic. Wages are paid in Qatari riyals into each worker’s account at a bank in Qatar, by the seventh day after they fall due.
Outdoor cleaning in the summer months
Outside work changes shape in summer. From 1 June until 15 September, Ministerial Decision No. 17 of 2021 keeps crews out of the sun, and out of open areas with no shade or ventilation, between 10:00 and 15:30; a facade team in July works early and late.
So the summer roster, and the times you promise clients, have to work around that gap. The rules also expect the daily schedule to be posted where workers and inspectors can read it, cool water and shaded rest areas to be on hand, and the crew to be trained on heat stress. When you clean a new building after construction, the main contractor checks on the other employers there, and a site that breaks the rules can be shut.
How we help
For a cleaning company the paperwork is heavier on the staff side than on the licence. We pick the codes with you and register the company, then prepare the establishment card and work visa files and set up a payroll that meets the wage rules. Each ministry, and the labour department, decides on its own part.
