Recruiting workers from abroad for other employers in Qatar needs a licence from the Ministry of Labour under Article 29 of the Labour Law. The licence holder must be Qatari and at least 21, keep an independent office with a full-time manager and lodge QAR 250,000 as security. The licence lasts two years.
What a recruitment office may do
Article 28 of the Labour Law gives an employer two ways to bring workers from abroad: through a licensed recruiter, or directly for itself with the labour department’s approval. The office you are licensing is the first of these. It takes employers’ requests, recruits the workers they have official approval for, handles the recruitment steps and, where authorised, deals with government bodies for them.
Two limits come with it. The premises are for recruitment and nothing else, and the worker it recruits pays no fee, recruitment cost or other charge. The job ends when the workers arrive and are handed to the employer, under the written recruitment contract the office signed with that employer.
| Single Window activity | Code | Ministry of Labour approval shown |
|---|---|---|
| Recruitment services of domestic labour | 781001 | Before the CR, before the commercial permit (recruitment for third parties) and at renewal |
| Public services activities (managing and operating professional labour) | 781004 | Before the CR |
| Online recruitment agencies | 781003 | Before a branch CR |
| Search for employees for jobs by direction or tests | 781002 | None shown |
Conditions for a manpower company licence
The conditions come from Ministerial Decision No. 8 of 2005, as amended in 2021, and there are five.
A Qatari applicant
Qatari, and at least 21.
Good conduct
No conviction for a crime against honour or trust, unless rehabilitation has followed.
An independent office
Permanent and separate, somewhere employers can be received, with the name and hours on the door and the licence on the wall.
A full-time manager
Either the applicant or someone the applicant appoints, working for this office alone.
The security
QAR 250,000 in the Ministry’s favour, kept in place for the whole licence period.
The Hukoomi page has two further rules: no previous office cancelled by the Ministry, and no licence already held, directly or through a company. Under Article 32 of the Labour Law a commercial licence is needed too. On the Single Window, the recruitment codes need the Ministry of Labour’s approval before the CR and the commercial permit.
The QAR 250,000 security
Say the Ministry approves your application and tells you on 1 March to lodge the security. You then have until 11 March; miss that and the licence is cancelled. The money answers for court judgments and fines against the office, its duties under recruitment contracts, the cost of sending a worker home if the office does not, and financial penalties under the decision.
Once drawn down, it has to be topped up within 30 days of notice, or the Minister may suspend the licence. For a breach that continues after a written warning, the Ministry may take QAR 25,000 from it and ask for the top-up. Whatever remains comes back within 30 days of the licence ending, once no recruitment contract or guarantee period is still open.
Documents and how to apply
- Prepare the file
An individual applies with a copy of the ID, a criminal record certificate and a copy of the CR. A company applies with its memorandum or articles, its CR and the ID of its full-time manager.
- Add the office papers
Attach the lease or title deed of the office and a written undertaking to lodge the security once the licence is approved.
- Submit to the Ministry
Hand the form and documents to the Ministry of Labour. The Hukoomi page names the Government Services Complex and the Work Permits Department.
- Decision
The Minister has 30 days. Hear nothing, and treat it as a refusal; you then have 15 days to appeal to the Minister, whose answer on appeal is final.
- Security and licence
Once told, you have ten days to lodge the security. Pay the fee and the licence follows, valid for two years.
Renewing? Ask in the last 30 days of the licence. Every original condition must still hold, and the renewal fee is due again.
On top of that, the company pays the usual CR and commercial permit fees.
Rules once the office is open
Until an employer collects a worker, you house and feed them, and the same applies if a worker is sent back. You keep a register of requests and of workers recruited, send the Ministry your monthly figures in the first week of each month, and treat every worker with dignity. Then come three months of trial. If a worker proves medically unfit, refuses to work or runs away, or the contract is broken, the employer gets back what it paid, less government fees.
A court can close an office and cancel its licence for breaking Article 29 or 33 of the Labour Law, on top of up to a month in prison, a fine of QAR 2,000 to 6,000, or both. Law No. 9 of 2026 went further, letting the Minister name repeat offenders publicly and impose financial penalties for recruitment breaches.
Say a family in Al Rayyan asks you on 5 May for a housemaid. You sign a recruitment contract with them on the Ministry’s form and get it certified by the labour department. Before she travels, she must have the job terms the family has signed: the work, the contract type and notice period, and her wage. She arrives on an employment contract already prepared, signed and certified.
How to check that an agency is licensed
Walk in and look at the walls. A licensed office shows its Ministry of Labour licence inside and its name and hours outside. Ask to see the licence, check the name against the office’s CR and commercial permit, and make sure the CR carries a recruitment activity. Then ask for the recruitment contract on the Ministry’s form, certified by the labour department.
If something goes wrong, complaints are handled by the Ministry of Labour. A complaint against a recruitment office can be followed online with the establishment ID and complaint number, or at a Government Services Complex.
How we help
We help you choose the activity code, set up the company and commercial permit, check the office against the decision and prepare the licence file for the Ministry of Labour. If you only need staff for your own company, we help you prepare the recruitment approvals and work visas instead. The Ministry decides every application.
