How to Hire a Maid or Nanny in Qatar: The Complete 2026 Guide

The legal foundation — Law No. 15 of 2017

Qatar regulates domestic-worker hiring under a single dedicated statute: Law No. 15 of 2017 on Domestic Workers, signed by HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. It sits separately from the general Labour Law and covers the people who work inside private homes — housemaids, nannies, drivers, cooks, gardeners, and equivalent roles. The Ministry of Labour administers it, with a standard written contract that became mandatory in 2017 and was revised in 2021. June 2025 brought a renewed enforcement push, but the operative framework is still the 2017 law.

For families hiring in 2026, the practical takeaway is that everything — eligibility, the contract, salary, leave, end-of-service — sits inside this one law, and overseas recruitment runs through the Qatar Visa Center (QVC) network. There's no Tadbeer-style "managed centre" model like the UAE; instead Qatar uses a tightly-regulated licensed-agency system you find via the Ministry's published list.

Who you can hire: the categories Qatar recognizes

Law 15/2017 lists the roles that can be sponsored as domestic workers. The most common in Qatari households:

• Housemaid
• Nanny or babysitter
• Cook
• Driver
• Gardener
• Equivalent home-based roles, including household assistants and elderly carers

Qatar's list is narrower than the 19-category list the UAE publishes, but it covers the work most families actually need help with — and you can browse verified nannies or maids on Rufy by exactly these categories. Two hard limits the law sets on who you can recruit: no one under 18 or over 60, regardless of nationality or experience.

A small but important nuance — the visa must match the actual work. If you sponsor a "housemaid" but use the person primarily as a nanny or a cook, you're outside both the contract and Law 15's protections.

Are you eligible to sponsor?

Sponsorship eligibility in Qatar isn't governed by a single published income number the way the UAE publishes its AED 25,000 threshold. Instead, the rules are practical and check three things.

Income. Qatar's general residency framework expects expatriate professionals sponsoring family to earn at least QAR 10,000 per month (or QAR 6,000 with employer-provided housing). Domestic-worker sponsorship is typically assessed against the same expectation in practice — show a recent salary certificate and three months of bank statements to your recruitment office before they start the process. The MOI and the Ministry of Labour take the final view per case, so always reconfirm the live requirement with your sponsoring agency before committing.

Accommodation. You must be able to house the worker properly — usually a private or semi-private room in a residence you control, evidenced by a tenancy contract or title deed.

Family composition. Marriage is not a blanket legal requirement, but in practice it makes approval much easier. Single professionals do sponsor — most commonly for drivers and elderly carers — but expect more scrutiny on the income and accommodation side.

Qataris and GCC nationals typically have more flexibility on these checks. Expats — especially first-time sponsors — should plan to provide the full documentation up-front.

The two main routes: licensed agency vs sponsorship transfer

There are really only two legal ways to bring a domestic worker into your household in Qatar today, and the right choice depends mostly on whether you're starting from a fresh hire abroad or picking up where someone else's sponsorship ends.

1. New recruitment via a licensed agency from abroad. You sign with a Ministry of Labour–licensed recruitment office in Qatar, pick a candidate from the agency's pool, the agency files for the work permit and entry visa, the contract is signed at a Qatar Visa Center in the worker's home country, biometrics and medical clearance happen there too, and the worker arrives in Doha with the visa already issued. This is the most common route for first-time hiring.

2. Sponsorship transfer of a worker already in Qatar. A domestic worker on someone else's sponsorship moves to yours with both parties' written consent and MOI approval. Faster, cheaper, and lets you meet the person before you commit — but supply is limited and you inherit whatever the worker's prior history is, which means due diligence matters. If you're not sure which route fits your situation, our Hiring Route Finder walks you through the decision in a few minutes.

Step-by-step: from agency to Qatar ID

If you're recruiting from abroad through an agency, the process splits cleanly into two halves: what happens before the worker arrives, and what happens after.

Before arrival — handled by the agency and the Qatar Visa Center

1. Pick a licensed recruitment office in Qatar — only deal with offices on the Ministry of Labour's official list. Our Qatar recruitment agencies directory lists every licensed office with phone numbers and emails, all searchable.
2. Choose a candidate from the CVs the office sources from the origin country.
3. Sign the agency contract and pay the recruitment fee — capped by the worker's nationality, see Section 6 below for the full schedule.
4. The agency files for the work permit and entry visa with the Ministry of Labour and the MOI.
5. The candidate travels to the Qatar Visa Center in their home country — currently India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, Tunisia, and the Philippines. There they review and e-sign the employment contract in their own language, complete biometric registration (fingerprints, palm scan, facial image, iris scan), and pass the medical fitness test.
6. The worker travels to Qatar with the visa already inside their passport.

After arrival — handled in Qatar

1. Complete the Qatar ID (residence permit) application via Metrash2 or the Ministry of Interior within the legal window.
2. Open a salary bank account in the worker's name.
3. Sign the worker up for mandatory health insurance.
4. Welcome them home — the employment contract starts on their arrival day.

The QVC step is one of Qatar's quiet strengths: by the time the worker lands in Doha, the contract is signed in a language they understand, their biometrics are on file, and medical clearance is done. It removes most of the friction other Gulf systems push to the destination country.

What it costs in 2026 (QAR)

There's no single price, because the two biggest variables are the worker's nationality (which sets the recruitment fee cap) and the route you take. The cleanest way to think about it is to separate the agency recruitment fee from government and ongoing costs.

Recruitment fee caps by nationality

Set by the Ministry of Labour in January 2022 and still the operating reference in 2026. These are the maximums a licensed agency can charge you for recruiting from each origin country:

Government and paperwork fees

• Work permit (annual): QAR 100
• Qatar ID issuance: around QAR 100
• Medical fitness test: around QAR 100
• Sponsorship transfer paperwork: QAR 500–1,500, depending on whether you DIY or hire a PRO

Monthly salary expectations (QAR)

Salary is separate from the recruitment fee and is paid by you directly. Typical 2025–2026 ranges run roughly QAR 1,000–2,000+ per month, depending on nationality and experience: Filipino workers tend to start around QAR 1,460 for a fresh agency hire and reach QAR 1,800–2,000+ for an experienced transfer; Indonesian and Sri Lankan workers typically sit in the QAR 1,200–1,800 range; African nationalities (Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda) usually QAR 1,000–1,400; Indian and Bangladeshi workers QAR 1,200–1,600.

For a precise total based on your specifics, use the nanny cost calculator or the maid cost calculator — both pull live Qatar market data.

Your obligations under Law 15/2017

The Ministry of Labour standard contract is mandatory — verbal agreements are unenforceable and outside the law's protection. The contract locks in the terms that protect both sides. The headline obligations to plan for:

• A standard written contract specifying job title, salary, working hours, weekly rest day, annual leave, and end-of-service terms.
• Daily rest: a maximum 10-hour working day, with breaks for meals, prayer, and rest inside that window.
• Weekly rest: at least one fully paid day off per week. If the worker agrees to work it, they are owed a substitute day or a day's wage.
• Annual leave: three weeks of paid leave per year of service. The worker chooses the timing, and wages are paid in advance of any leave that includes travel home.
• End-of-service gratuity: three weeks of salary for each completed year of service, owed automatically after the first year of continuous employment. Simpler than the UAE's 21-day/30-day tiered formula.
• Salary in QAR, monthly, on time: the agreed monthly wage must be paid in Qatari riyals no later than the 3rd of the following month. Late or unpaid salary is a Law 15 violation and grounds for a complaint.
• Bank-transfer payment (strongly encouraged): Qatar's Wage Protection System (WPS) is a Labour Law obligation for private-sector firms, not for individual households hiring domestic workers under Law 15. But paying via a Qatari bank creates the auditable salary trail that protects you in any dispute — and it's clearly the direction Qatar's regulators are moving.
• Dignity protections: the law explicitly prohibits forced labour, discrimination, and harassment. Retaining the worker's passport is treated as unlawful in Qatari practice.

Done as Law 15 intends, none of this is onerous — it's mostly a matter of paying on time, providing the agreed conditions, and handling any change formally through the agency or the Ministry rather than privately.

Common mistakes to avoid

Most of the trouble Qatari families run into is avoidable, and it usually comes from trying to shortcut the system:

• Going through an unlicensed broker. Only Ministry of Labour–licensed offices can recruit domestic workers legally. Anything else leaves you outside the law's protection and exposed to recruitment fraud — always cross-check against the MOL agencies list before signing anything.
• Verbal-only agreements. A handshake deal is not recognised by Law 15. No written contract means no enforceable rights for either side.
• Cash-only salary with no audit trail. Even though WPS isn't strictly mandated for households, paying cash with no record leaves you exposed if a dispute later arises. Use a bank transfer.
• Passport retention. Treated as unlawful in Qatari practice. The passport belongs to the worker — return it when asked.
• Wrong job category. Hiring someone as a "housemaid" but using them as a driver or a tutor breaches both the visa and the contract.
• Skipping the medical or insurance step. Both are mandatory; the worker cannot legally start work without them.

Conclusion

Hiring a domestic worker in Qatar feels complex the first time you do it, but it is really a small stack of decisions. You're choosing a route — new recruitment from abroad through a licensed agency, or a sponsorship transfer of someone already in Qatar — and a profile (nationality, role, experience). Once those two are settled, the rest is paperwork, and most of that paperwork runs through your agency, the Qatar Visa Center on the origin-country side, and Metrash2 on this side.

Two things to keep in mind from start to finish: only deal with MOL-licensed agencies (the Qatar agencies directory is the cleanest starting point), and stay on the right side of Law 15/2017 on every obligation — written contract, weekly rest day, three weeks' annual leave, three-weeks-per-year gratuity, salary in QAR by the 3rd of the following month. Get those right and you have a stable, legal, low-friction household hire.

If you want a personalized recommendation on which route fits your situation, our Hiring Route Finder walks you through the decision in a few minutes. When you're ready to look at real candidates, browse verified profiles on Rufy.