Leaving Qatar With an Expired or Cancelled QID: The 2015 Exit Duty and What Is Still Unconfirmed

A residence permit is the permission that lets an expatriate live and work in Qatar. When that permission expires, is cancelled, or the purpose for which it was given ends, the 2015 law says the holder must exit Qatar. The law text gives a 90 day window, but that is the 2015 text, and the current window is not confirmed on any official page cited here.

The ground covered here is the 2015 law level duty, the payment condition before departure, the six months abroad rule, the written penalty, and the Hukoomi renewal fees. A current exit window, a per-day fine, and cancellation steps or a cancellation fee are left out, because none is stated on an official page cited here.

The exit duty as written in Article 24

Article 24 says: “The expatriate who has not obtained residence permit pursuant to the provisions of this Law, shall exit the State. Likewise, he shall exit the State when his residence permit expires, or cancelled for any reason, or the purpose for which the permit was given to him has ended, within ninety days from the date of such expiry, cancellation or end of purpose.”

Does 90 days mean you have 90 days today? Not on the evidence of the 2015 text alone. The 90 days is the window in the 2015 law text as published. Whether Article 24 has been amended or superseded by a later decision is not verified on an official page cited here, so this guide does not present 90 days as the current grace period. No current exit window is stated in this guide. The current window must be confirmed on the live Hukoomi or MOI cancellation page before you plan around it.

Payment and court matters an accused person must settle before departure

Article 44 adds a separate departure condition. It says an accused “may not depart the State before paying the amount specified for conciliation or the pronouncement of a final court ruling”, unless a guarantor undertakes to pay. It also says the Minister may revoke residence permission and order deportation if the conciliation amount or court fine is not settled.

In plain terms, for an accused person, an unsettled conciliation amount or court fine can block departure under this article, unless a guarantor has undertaken to pay. This guide states the rule as written. It does not list which cases fall under conciliation or how a guarantor undertaking is made, because the official pages cited here do not state those steps.

Six months outside Qatar

Article 14 sets a rule for time spent outside Qatar. Article 14 states: “An expatriate who has residence permit shall not remain outside the State for a period exceeding six months continuously, unless he has obtained a return permit before exiting the State or before the lapse of one year from the date of his exit from the competent authority, and pay the prescribed fees, providing that no more than sixty days have passed since expiry of his residence.” In plain terms: the return permit must be obtained from the competent authority before exiting, or before one year has passed since the date of exit, the prescribed fees must be paid, and no more than sixty days may have passed since the residence expired.

If you are outside Qatar and your permit has expired, do not assume the Article 24 exit window and the Article 14 abroad rule are the same thing. They are separate provisions in the same law, and both are stated here only as written in the 2015 text.

The written penalty is not a daily fine

Article 38 says that contravening Article 24(1) to (2), among other provisions, carries imprisonment up to three years and/or a fine up to QR50,000. That is the criminal penalty for overstaying the Article 24 exit window as written in 2015.

Is there a daily fine for overstaying a residence permit? No per-day residence permit fine is stated on an official page cited here. Do not read the Article 38 penalty as a per-day fine. It is a maximum term of imprisonment and/or a maximum fine as written.

Renewal fees and timing if you renew instead

The Hukoomi “Renew Residence Permit For Expatriates” page describes renewal online for 1 to 3 years through MOI e-services, using smartcard login, then Residency Services, then Renew Residency. Renewal can be made 3 months prior to expiry.

The fees on that page are QR500 for wife, children, and family sponsorships; QR1000 for employees sponsored by companies, institutions and shops; and QR300 for “employees on personal sponsorships, servants, farmers and sailors”. There is a 20% discount for three-year renewal, and an extra QR20 for Qatar Post delivery. These are renewal fees. They are not exit fines, and they do not answer how long you may stay after expiry.

The Hukoomi renewal page gives an online route and an offline route.

• Online, login with a smartcard to the Ministry of Interior e-services portal, click Residency Services, then Renew Residency.
• For individuals, select the QID number to be renewed, with a maximum of five numbers at a time.
• For companies, select the QID number to be renewed, with a maximum of twenty numbers at a time, and click Add.
• Then choose the renewal period, select the delivery option, and pay the applicable fees.

Offline, download and fill out the application form, attach a copy of a valid employer’s ID for personal sponsorships, or a copy of a valid employer’s Establishment ID for government entities, institutions, companies and others, and submit the form to the Expatriates Affairs Department.

The system displays the residence permit rejection reason for any personal number in the Status box. The applicant selects Qatar Post delivery as the method of receiving the new permit, pays by credit card, and receives a receipt after successful payment. The page also says residence permits can be renewed through Metrash2 — the old name; the current app name is Metrash — and the current app name and route must be re-checked on the live pages.

Cancellation and business leave notification exist as named services

The same Hukoomi renewal page lists “Request to Cancel Residence Permit” as a related service, with the line: “This service enables you to cancel valid Residence Permits for persons under company or personal sponsorships”. It also lists “Business Leave Notification” with the line: “All expatriates except wives and children under the sponsorship of their family members are required to obtain a business leave notification when leaving Qatar.”

That is all this guide states about cancellation. No cancellation steps, cancellation fee, or exit window from that service are stated here.

What remains unconfirmed about the exit window and any fine

Non-official sources give shorter exit windows and per-day overstay figures. None of those figures is stated on an official page for residence permits cited here, so this guide does not state any of them as the current rule. The current exit window, any per-day fine and from which day it would run, and the cancellation steps and fee remain unconfirmed until the live Hukoomi or MOI cancellation page is opened, so none of the three is stated here as current.

Return, revocation, and grace periods that are not the same thing

Article 24 has a third paragraph: the expatriate may, by approval of the competent authority, return to the State if he has satisfied the conditions required for entry under the law and its Executive Regulation. That is a return after exit, by approval, on satisfying entry conditions. It is not an extra stay after expiry.

Article 37 lists when a residence permit shall be revoked: if it is proven that it was obtained based on incorrect information or documents; if continuous residence threatens the State’s internal or external safety or security, or is otherwise harmful to the State’s economy, public health or public morals; or if the holder violates the purpose for which residence was permitted, or that purpose ends, without obtaining permission from the competent authorities.

Article 36 gives a grace period, but for a different category. It says the Minister or his delegate may, on expiry or rejection of renewal, grant the permitted resident and family a period of grace to depart, not exceeding ninety days from expiry or rejection, extendable when necessary. Permitted resident is the term used in Chapter Seven for the categories in Article 30: investors, owners of real estate, residential units and usufructuaries, and any other categories specified by a decision from the Council of Ministers, with a residence period of five years, renewable, under Article 32. Do not read Article 36 as the general exit window for every residence permit holder. Article 27 gives yet another grace period, for an expatriate under a deportation order who has interests in the State requiring time to wind up: up to ninety days, renewable, provided an acceptable guarantee is presented. That is a wind-up period after a deportation order, not a general grace period after expiry or cancellation.

Conciliation, deportation expenses, and a repeat offence

Article 44 sits in a conciliation chapter. Article 42 says the Minister or his delegate may agree to conciliation in crimes specified in the conciliation table attached to the law, before a final decision, against payment of the amount specified in the table, on the date set by the competent authority. If the accused refuses conciliation or fails to implement it, criminal proceedings resume. Article 43 says conciliation is carried out by employees of the competent authority, confirmed in a record, and the accused deposits the table amount in the Treasury of the Ministry against abandoning legal proceedings. A criminal action may be abated by conciliation, but conciliation shall not abate the right of conducting fees. Article 45 says the Minister or his delegate may, for public interest or humanitarian considerations, exempt the accused from the conciliation amount or reduce it. The conciliation table itself is not cited here, so no conciliation amount for any crime is stated here.

Article 19, item 2, says the Recruiter shall bear the expenses of deportation in the situations provided for in the law. If the expatriate was working for another body in violation of the law, that body bears the expenses. If that body cannot be identified, the expatriate bears them, and if he fails to pay, having no property in the State, the Recruiter bears them. Article 38 states a repeat-offence range, distinct from the first-offence maximum above: in case of recidivation, imprisonment of not less than thirty days and not more than three years, and a fine of not less than QR20,000 and not exceeding QR100,000, or either penalty, where the similar crime was committed within a year from completion of the penalty or its prescription.

A later Ministry account: exit permits abolished, and changing employer instead of leaving

The Ministry of Labour’s 2021 report states that exit permits have been abolished for workers in ministries and government agencies, public bodies and institutions, the oil and gas sector and affiliated companies, maritime transport, agriculture and farming, and private offices, under Ministerial Decision No. 95 of 2019, and for domestic workers. It states that Decree-Law No. 19 of 2020 amended the entry, residence and exit law so foreign workers may change employer according to Ministry of Labour rules, the No Objection Certificate requirement was abolished, and change of employer must take place during residence permit validity, unless the permit expired for reasons beyond the worker’s control, or within 90 days of expiration. That account speaks about changing employer and exit permits, not about a current exit window or per-day fine after cancellation. The current exit window, any per-day fine, and cancellation steps and fee remain unconfirmed until the live Hukoomi or MOI cancellation page is opened.

Related guides

• Qatar guides
• How to Renew Qatar ID in Metrash2
• How to Check if Your Qatar ID Is Cancelled
• How to Apply for a Qatar ID
• Waiting for Residency Issue
• Cancelling a Qatar Residence Permit: the Hukoomi Service, the MOI Form and the Departure Window
• Changing Employer or Sponsor in Qatar: What the Official Pages State