Qatar launches online Visa service

The Government of Qatar has launched a Visa On-line service allowing nationals of 33 countries to apply and receive visas on-line.

Nationals of the following countries are eligible for the service: USA, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Japan, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Finland, Spain, Monaco, Iceland, Vatican City, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korean and Hong Kong.

The move is part of the Qatar Government's e-Government initiative launched to achieve the highest performance in executing governmental transactions electronically, through streamlined business processes and  integrated information technology solutions.

Overview of Pilot Project

The e-Government pilot project was aimed at building a foundation for a flexible, scalable and robust e-service platform for the Government of Qatar.

This service includes the Resident Permit Renewal (RPR), provided by the Department of Immigration and Passport of the Ministry of Interior. The new electronic RPR channel enables the Qatar Government to provide  some selected corporate and national organisations the facility to renew staff resident permits electronically through an Extranet.

The three main parties to the project are: the Ministry of Interior as the service provider; the Qatar National Bank which is the payment gateway  for the service and the Qatar Central Bank, which is the current host of the e-Government System.