Advice if you are going to Qatar from Bahrain

Just thought this may be useful information and I apologise if it is well known but I went to Qatar at the weekend to visit a friend and in my ignorance thought it would be as easy as going to Dubai - it is not!  Am on a British Passport but it still wasnt easy to get in.

When you arrive in Qatar, you need a visa.  You will be asked what you are doing in Qatar and you must have an address to prove where you will be staying - I was only going for the day but they still wanted an address!

You will be asked to do an eye scan.

The visa costs 100QR each (10bd) and the only way you can pay is by credit card - they do not take cash (scary moment as my NatWest credit card does not work in Bahrain - thankfully it worked in Qatar).

Hope this may be of use to someone.

Oh thanks for this. I've also thought Qatar does not require a visa for people who hold a British passport. Thanks for letting us know.

Thank you for the information.

I went to Doha today to do my visa hop and found out that you can pay cash if you go to the office and buy and e card which you can top up. Still a nightmare.

I didn't give them an address, I just told them that LMRA were being totally awkward, I was renewing my visit visa in Bahrain and using Doha to do so - they grinned, took my card, billed me BD20 (Callum and Me) and off we toddled.

We had 2 hours between flights to hang around. BUT it's a 20 - 30 minute taxi drive from arrivals to departures!!!

By the time we had got through customs at one end, found out this info and got the taxi etc we just got our flight back to Bahrain.

Back home now with a nice bottle of Gin to make up for the hassle!!

Josnuggles wrote:

I went to Doha today to do my visa hop and found out that you can pay cash if you go to the office and buy and e card which you can top up.


What is an e-card Jo? I might need to visit Doha soon so I wanted to know what that is and it does.

I didn't purchase one as I used my credit card but I sat next to a lady who is a resident there and she said if you want to pay by cash then go to the e-office and request to purchase a card. It's a bit like putting credit on a store card for someone.

Sounds like a lot of hassle and the queue's there are huge so we just ran for customs and paid using our card. Still took nearly an hour though to get through customs.

Thanks Jo.