Certificates are available for births occurring after l969; prior to that date records are not complete. On application to the Ministry of Public Health in Doha, the certificate will not be mailed to nonresidents but will be released to an individual acting on their behalf.

In order to obtain a Qatari birth certificate for your newborn child, you will need to collect several documents. First the hospital will give you two letters, one official looking and one just typed out. If you have your child anywhere other than Hamad hospital you will have to take the official document to the cashier or records lady and she will give you the government number for the child's file. If your child was born at Hamad this will already be on the official document. It is much faster for the mother to do this portion of the job.

These two papers, along with both parents passports, both parents birth certificates, your marriage certificate, your visas and copies of each of these along with the fee QR 308, are to be submitted to the Department of Public Health, located across the street from Hamad Hospital.

They will ask you to complete a short form and pay 10QR for each copy of the birth certificate that you would like. The certificate is issued in English.

You will need to return one week later to pick up the original and all copies. If you have problems at this time, go to the 3rd floor and follow the pictures of babies to get more assistance. If you are persistent you will have no problem getting this done in a week. After completing this process head to your embassy to begin work on obtaining a passport.

Newborn babies must have their residence permits processed within two months; failure to do so will result in a QR10 fine per day until the date of visa issue.