Doha – The Ministry of Labor has launched new e-services to speed up the work permit application process. This is part of digitizing services to the public. The advantage is that the application process can be completed online without visiting the offices of the Ministry of Labor or government service centers. Currently more than eighty e-services are under the Ministry.
New e-services
∙ Services to facilitate 6 types of application procedures related to work permit such as applying for work permit, renewing existing one, canceling permit, seeking labor recruitment permit, renewal of labor recruitment permit, amendment of recruitment permit.
Conditions
∙ For work permit services
The residency permit of the sponsor and the worker must have a validity of not less than 3 months if the work permit is to be renewed. Establishment ID must be active. The establishment should not have any restrictions. The service will also be available to those with residency such as sponsorship of relatives, GCC citizens and investors. Educational qualification certificates, employer’s residency information, applicant’s good conduct certificate, practicing certificate if in engineering and medical field, permission letter from Ministry of Education if working in schools or kindergartens are required.
∙Renewal of work permit
Establishment ID must be active. Don’t be a labor law breaker. The worker’s work permit must be under the applying establishment. The permit should be renewed at least two weeks before the expiry of the license and at most 3 months before.
∙Labour recruitment sanction/amendment
This section provides services for seeking permission from the Ministry of Labor, renewal of recruitment permission and amendment of permission to recruit workers. Company registration must be valid. The Recruitment Approval Code (VP) must be the same as that of the applicant’s establishment for renewal of the labor recruitment permit. All prior recruitment approvals may not be used. Renewal should be done weeks before the permit expires. At the time of application for amendment of the labor recruitment permit, the permit must not have expired. The number of workers to be recruited should not exceed that allowed in the original permit. All previous recruitment permissions should not be used.
Who benefits?
Not only companies operating in the country, but also different categories of individuals residing in Qatar such as those residing in Qatar under family sponsorship, citizens of Gulf Cooperation Council countries, permanent residence permit holders and investors can also avail the new service.