Hi @zamaahm. I don’t have much of a reason why I didn’t travel with my family tbh. It’s just that I had my flight booked before the 12 July announcement where they started opening borders to tourists, and I didn’t want to delay my work start date, which I had already delayed once before, and risk losing my job offer. We also didn’t want to rush flying the family and get in some kind of a pickle later on, so my wife stayed behind until we had a sure plan on her route to Qatar. Now that I’m in the country I can liaise with the HR better and also start my RP process.
I spoke to my HR today and she explained that she is not aware of any tourists actually entering the country yet. Eid holidays have just finished and I think only today things are starting to kick off again so I think we need to wait a few more days to get updates.
On another note, I was looking through the VisitQatar.qa website and the requirements for tourist visa upon arrival is that you have a return/onward ticket when you enter, so I don’t know what would happen to the family after 30 days if you cannot extend the visa from within the country. Pre-covid it was easy to do a visa run to a nearby country but it feels risky now. I honestly have no idea what we could do now - so lost! And hence me joining your thread!
I am guessing the fall back option is to wait for my RP and then apply for a Family Visit Visa which is valid 30 days with an option to extend (for how long I haven’t a clue!) and the question on medical insurance still remains. There really is a chance the family might be separated for 6+ months until the family RP can be obtained?! I don’t know how people used to do it pre-covid.
In a way there isn’t much point panicking as rules change all the time and maybe soon rules would be relaxed further. I think this is why I took that leap of faith to come here first, we just wait and see how things go!
Hi @zamaahm. I don’t have much of a reason why I didn’t travel with my family tbh. It’s just that I had my flight booked before the 12 July announcement where they started opening borders to tourists, and I didn’t want to delay my work start date, which I had already delayed once before, and risk losing my job offer. We also didn’t want to rush flying the family and get in some kind of a pickle later on, so my wife stayed behind until we had a sure plan on her route to Qatar. Now that I’m in the country I can liaise with the HR better and also start my RP process.
I spoke to my HR today and she explained that she is not aware of any tourists actually entering the country yet. Eid holidays have just finished and I think only today things are starting to kick off again so I think we need to wait a few more days to get updates.
On another note, I was looking through the VisitQatar.qa website and the requirements for tourist visa upon arrival is that you have a return/onward ticket when you enter, so I don’t know what would happen to the family after 30 days if you cannot extend the visa from within the country. Pre-covid it was easy to do a visa run to a nearby country but it feels risky now. I honestly have no idea what we could do now - so lost! And hence me joining your thread!
I am guessing the fall back option is to wait for my RP and then apply for a Family Visit Visa which is valid 30 days with an option to extend (for how long I haven’t a clue!) and the question on medical insurance still remains. There really is a chance the family might be separated for 6+ months until the family RP can be obtained?! I don’t know how people used to do it pre-covid.
In a way there isn’t much point panicking as rules change all the time and maybe soon rules would be relaxed further. I think this is why I took that leap of faith to come here first, we just wait and see how things go!