Improved Qatar visa process for migrant workers

The Government of Qatar will soon be simplifying the migrant work visa application process that will expedite the visa processing for Sri Lankan migrant workers.

This service, which will first be introduced in Sri Lanka and then rolled out in other key South Asian cities, will be made available through Qatar Visa Centres, which is directly supervised by the Qatar concerned authorities and managed by Biomet Visa Services Lanka, a subsidiary of Biomet Services PTE. LTD, a service provider authorized by the State of Qatar.

Once the initial visa approval is issued by Qatar authorities, migrant workers can complete the medical test and biometric enrolment requirements within their country of origin within a shorter period.

The old visa process in Qatar requires medical testing, done at accredited laboratories plus a host of other requirements that could take sometimes weeks to get completed.

Sri Lankan and Qatari governments have identified many areas for collaboration between the two countries which will also see more growth in employment and remittances.

Medical tests, a key component of the visa procedure that is conducted after the migrant worker reached Qatar will be available in-house at the Qatar Visa Center as part of the visa application processing and biometric enrollment regime.

Importantly, biometric authentication, introduced as a vital element of the new Qatar visa system will drastically mitigate identity replacements, false dates of birth and other loopholes used randomly in pink collar or female houseworker categories. According to reports, the

Sri Lankan worker remittance in Qatar accounts for US $ 400-500 million, out of the US $ 7.16 billion worker remittance that was recorded in 2017.

The number of Sri Lankan migrant workers in Qatar is expected to reach 300,000, from the current 140,000, in the next couple of years.