The Department of Consular Affairs is competent with the following:
- Protect and look after the interests of citizens abroad, pursue such interests in coordination with representative missions or diplomatic missions accredited to the State, as well as ministries, and other government authorities.
- Prepare rules and instructions regulating consular affairs in light of the applicable laws, regulations and decisions, inform the representative missions on these instructions, and track their implementation.
- Prepare instructions for the issuance and renewal of citizens' ordinary passports and travel documents, when necessary, in accordance with established rules, and inform the representative missions on the same.
- Ratify certificates, documents and official papers issued by ministries, government agencies, diplomatic missions and offices of international organizations accredited to the State, and collect the prescribed fees for that.
- Ensure the proper collection of fees for visas issued by representative missions.
- Take the necessary procedures regarding manual visas that are granted to ordinary passports outside the electronic visa system.
- Receive and deliver judicial papers and requests for rogatory and assistance from/to the State’s competent authorities and foreign parties through representative or diplomatic missions accredited to the State, in coordination with the competent authorities.
- Coordinate with the competent authorities regarding the State’s exercise of control and inspection rights over vessels of foreign nationalities, or the crew of each of them, as well as vessels and aircrafts registered in the State and bearing its nationality when being in other States.
- Coordinate with the competent authorities in the provision of assistance to foreign vessels, aircrafts, and their crews, receive reports of their entry or travel through the Qatari waters and airspace, and issue traffic permits for non-commercial maritime navigation and aviation in the Qatari waters and airspace.
- Issue landing, take-off and transit permits for civil and military aircrafts, in coordination with the competent authorities.