User

Qatar will never be like Dubai

warm_heart's picture

i have tried the life in Qatar 2003/2004 as an employee But as an invester i have came here 6 months back and realized y ppl dont come here to invest.
even i have investment of 500thous qatari riyal, and although i cant make it 100% under my name like Dubai but my visa was not approved!! its not bcoz of the nationality!! my nationality is ok here, but they said that visa should be for a lebanese???? i'm not lebanese and i'm the owner of the business!!! my sponsor was not in the country and i couldnt meet the commettee in the labor! how can i open a business of 500thous qatari riyal and no visa? wat to do with the lebanese visa? after many trials my visa was approved!!!!!! then i cant leave the country unless i have an exit permit??!! wat do i do if i have emergency and my sponsor is not in the country? my business was the biggest filipino restaurant in Doha, i asked for females visas but i couldnt get the approval!! all the restaurants have ladies but y my restaurant didnt get that???
Also its very difficult to get wife visa!! they want 6 months bank statemnt?? y do i have to wait for 6 months?
thats apart of strict and not open country!
I'm happy now that i sold the restaurant!!
thats some of my problems and obstacles here, now i say to get 10thous profit in Dubai or bahrain is better than 100thous here.
Now i knew y ppl dont like to invest here in this country

dotdot's picture

dotdot said ma'shi ya baasha! ...

ma'shi ya baasha!

 

north_me's picture

north_me said In every country has ...

In every country has different rules and regulation, I am sorry to hear about your experience while in qatar and most businessman may also feel the same way as you. Here, it does not matter how much money you can put into a business, what matters here is your sponsor if he/she got some good connection in any of government office here to get your request. Since you are already out of the country, just take this nightmare as your learning experience and never try to check in again in Hotel California...

MO RIN...YUN LANG!!!

 

britexpat's picture

britexpat said Why not sve yourself the ...

Why not sve yourself the headache. Forget trying to be a Lebanese and go and invest somewhere else..

Good Luck!

 

spartacus300's picture

spartacus300 said ohhh men! ...

sounds great! made that move other wiseyou will be stuck in the limbo forever!!!!! welcome to jumanji! where the days change with the same shit in a different level of surprise!!!!LOL! HA HA HA!

 

bleu's picture

bleu said Just get a multi-exit ...

Just get a multi-exit permit, QR500/year.

 

britexpat's picture

britexpat said Is Yaani still in Qatar ? ...

Is Yaani the Lebanese still in Qatar ?

 

MagicDragon's picture

MagicDragon said bleu, that requires a very ...

bleu, that requires a very trustful sponsor. How many do you think will agree on a multiple exit visa? 1%, 2%??

 

qatarisun's picture

qatarisun said maybe they just don't need ...

maybe they just don't need your 500 K? Maybe they don’t want your filipino restaurant, which will bring much more troubles with your refused-females staff, then it will be beneficial for them... Don't look at this matter from what YOU can get from qatar, think whether THEY need you?
and yeah, qatar will never be like Dubai..You will never be Queen Elisabeth either...but.. do you want it??


*********************
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small compared to what lies within us."
Oliver Wendell Holmes


 

vignale's picture

vignale said qatarisun, you nailed it. Do ...

qatarisun, you nailed it. Do Qatar need him ? No is my thought.

 

flanostu's picture

flanostu said agree with QS, obviously ...

agree with QS, obviously doha is out of your price range (and thankfully i might add) but it gives me comfort to learn that the government is giving some criteria in relation to who lives here.

reaching a satisfactory level of social comfort is hard to achieve but thankfully the qatar government can assist in maintaining it.

 

warm_heart's picture

warm_heart said its not the exit ...

i have got the multiple exit but its one of so many obsticles

 

crapcircle's picture

crapcircle said Hey buddy ...

No Doha will never be Dubai or Manama. The Emirate of Dubai and the Kingdom of Bahrain have very little oil left, if any. The State of Qatar on the other hand, still pumps 30% of the world's Liquefied Natural Gas. Those two places are tailored to your needs, that of a small foreign investor. They have tourism and services oriented economies and you'll be better off over there. With that kind of money to invest (US$150,000) I'm pretty sure the GCC is well out of your ballpark though.

 

britexpat's picture

britexpat said There is always scope. I ...

There is always scope. I have a business plan to purchase a large number of KIAs and offer incentive for Landcruiser drivers to downsize in order to cut Co2 emissions and thus save the planet.

Perhaps you'd like to invest..???

 

crapcircle's picture

crapcircle said Hahaha ...

If a Kia hearse were to drive me to my final resting place, I'm sure I'd rise up to the occasion and walk to my damn grave :)

 

heero_yuy2's picture

heero_yuy2 said LOL brit! ...

"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

 

qatarisun's picture

qatarisun said i can be KIA marketing ...

i can be KIA marketing executive, brit.. am I hired?


*********************
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small compared to what lies within us."
Oliver Wendell Holmes


 

Gypsy's picture

Gypsy said Thank GOD! I hate Dubai. ...

Thank GOD! I hate Dubai.

 

johnpur's picture

johnpur said "then i cant leave the ...

"then i cant leave the country unless i have an exit permit??!! wat do i do if i have emergency and my sponsor is not in the country?"

In the future, you will need a CID clearance to use the toilet and an exit permit to get out of that toilet....

 

malpaso's picture

malpaso said brit ...

dont be so rude to the poster !
:)

 

baloch's picture

baloch said dear if u have 500thousand ...

dear if u have 500thousand invest this money in your country make ur country economy stronger
and pls no body compare Qatar wid UAE . With respect To Dubai Qatar Market is Larger Then Dubai and Bigger then Dubai yes i dont deny that dubai is open market but as my point of view Qatar is safer then Dubai in investment

 

warm_heart's picture

warm_heart said To crapcircle ...

I'm not talking about myself only or about my capital, i'm talking in common, then to deal with residents in Qatar with a little respect to thier humanity it doesnt depend on being having much oil or gas on not having!

 

warm_heart's picture

warm_heart said ? ...

?

 

reemahf's picture

reemahf said so where are you now warm ...

so where are you now warm heart?

 

aftab.azam's picture

aftab.azam said before investing you should ...

before investing you should know the rules of country not after investing.

 

warm_heart's picture

warm_heart said ? ...

What if i want to enter Qatar now? Can my sponsor cancel my multiple exit which its already done (for 1 year)?

 

shoeaddict's picture

shoeaddict said warm heart ...

it would be in good gesture for you to save yourself from too much headache and invest your money somewhere else.
why hassle yourself?

 

bleu's picture

bleu said warm, You assume that the ...

warm,
You assume that the "sponsor" is an evil person trying to get you.

 

warm_heart's picture

warm_heart said any plan for changes? ...

Is there any plan or hope for changing the rules in Qatar for the residents? at least for the investors??

 

warm_heart's picture

warm_heart said day by day ...

day by day i realize that qatar can never be like dubai nor bahrain, its easy to change the place but almost impossible to change the mentality of the ppl

 

PM's picture

PM said You are assuming that Qataris want to change to be like Dubai ...

And I don't believe they do. In fact, I suspect that most Qataris would like much stricter laws with regard to business ownership and partnership, and sponsorship laws. I think they expect to have a very strong advantage over any ex-pats here and if we the expatriates don't like it, they will probably be happy to wave goodbye to us at the airport.

I don't know what your specific problem is warm heart, but I wouldn't waste your time worrying about how Qatar's can't change their mentality to become like Bahrainis or Emiratis....

 

 

 

I didn't drink the kool-aid! -- PM


 

warm_heart's picture

warm_heart said PM ...

I agree with you and you are right, but Qatar is loosing a lot even they think themselves clever and holding all the money, they hold 10 but loose 1000

 

bleu's picture

bleu said That's OK. ...

That's OK.

 

shamils's picture

shamils said Its quite obvious you cannot ...

Its quite obvious you cannot compare Qatar with UAE for some reason…and it never be.....
But you can save *** & ur money & multiply…. Give u an idea…
u was planning to open up a Filipino restaurant in Qatar & serve Filipino food ya?
Now think about other way…
Why don’t you go to Philippines & open up a restaurant to serve Arabic food to Philippines may be you can add Pilipino food as well.
U don’t have to apply for female visa’s.... no exit permit needed…. Have entertainment…. ++…

 

Vanessa02's picture

Vanessa02 said i hate Qatar ...

I hate Qatar and i love Dubai

 

Boston's picture

Boston said There ain't so much a ...

There ain't so much a difference. Both are ruled by dictators, laws apply to foreigners, and Dubai has more shopping malls. What a choice.

"Real Love has no Enemies"

 

Default Nick's picture

Default Nick said What Goes Around Comes Around ...

You are right about the strict rules. This country has strict rules. But nobody is forcing you to make investment here. This is all our choice in the end to work/make investment here.

For changing subject, maybe you are right that Qatar will not be like Dubai, but here the point is that do Qataris want to be like them or not. If they want to keep their culture in a conservative way, there is nothing to do with it for you. On the other hand if they want to be open to world (like trying to get olympics, trying to attract more tourists, trying to be education center) in one way or another they will have to change. If you do not have entertainment for students whether you will have the best schools or not you will not attract students here. If you do not let the people have fun, tourists will not visit here just for tall buildings, or you will not be able to get big sport events/Olympics (Maybe you will pay a lot of money for a friendly match between England vs Brazil but thats all). What goes around comes around. This will be only their decision. Again there is nothing to do with you.

"What doesn't kill me; makes me stronger..."
---------------------------------------------------------
http://www.youtube.c...

 

vander dick's picture

vander dick said i agree with u ...

Its a stupid answer to say (if u dont like this country dont invest here!!!)

 

shahzad_14's picture

shahzad_14 said U r right BRO but what to do ...

U r right BRO
but what to do if Some one does not have other option LIKE u have.

He has to stay here and follow all the (so called) rules n regulations to survive

 

sir dolly's picture

sir dolly said actually dubai is becoming like qatar!!!! ...

cause dubai is on the downfall while qatar is peaking , so they'll meet somewhere in the middle....

************************************
I'm Jack's complete lack of surprise

 

shahzad_14's picture

shahzad_14 said niCE dollY ...

niCE dollY

 

maurochiado's picture

maurochiado said well, if an expat wants to ...

well, if an expat wants to invest here, but qataris don't need his money, that's a pity. If I will stay here for some years, I could be that guy.

 

bleu's picture

bleu said maurochiado, "need" is such ...

maurochiado, "need" is such a hard word.

I'd say we may either not mind it, or not want it.

 

maurochiado's picture

maurochiado said bleu okay, I ...

bleu okay, I understand.
There is nothing apart money that Qatar wants? There is no chanche for an expat to bring something good to this place?

 

Boston's picture

Boston said You are wrong, mauro! ...

You are wrong, mauro!

 

Join the Qatar Living Community