🇶🇦 Qatar

Every written residential lease in Qatar must be registered with the Ministry of Municipality within 60 days of signing. Registration goes through the Ministry's Real Estate Lease Registration system. The registration is the lessor's legal obligation, not the tenant's, but foreign tenants have a load-bearing interest in confirming it has happened: an unregistered lease blocks *Kahramaa* utility-account auto-creation, bars access to the Rental Dispute Settlement Committee, and may complicate residence-permit ancillary procedures. This guide explains how a foreign tenant verifies the registration, obtains the certificate, and routes onward to optional Ministry of Justice or Ministry of Foreign Affairs attestation.

The Qatar Identity Card — *QID* — is the unified biometric card the State of Qatar issues to every lawful resident, citizen and non-citizen alike. For a non-Qatari, the QID is the physical printout of the underlying residence permit and the two are administratively the same document. The Ministry of Interior General Directorate of Passports issues and renews the QID; the resident's sponsor lodges every application, pays the fee, and takes delivery.

A non-Qatari worker's lawful stay is granted as a residence permit tied to an employer-sponsor and printed as the Qatar ID (QID — الهوية القطرية). The Ministry of Interior General Directorate of Passports issues, renews, transfers and cancels the permit; the worker cannot lodge their own renewal. The framework is Law No. 21 of 2015 as amended; the exit-permit and the job-change No Objection Certificate were removed by later amendments for most workers, but the sponsorship relationship itself remains the legal basis on which permits are issued.

Four procedural routes apply depending on the country that issued your foreign licence. The routes are GCC direct exchange, approved-country unilateral exchange, the full driving-school path for residents from non-listed countries, and the visitor International Driving Permit channel that does not substitute for a Qatari licence once you hold a *QID*.