Qatar to offer permanent residence status for certain expats

The draft law was passed with an intention to attract investments and to reduce the economy’s reliance on energy after Saudi Arabia and three allies severed their diplomatic ties with the country.

Amid diplomatic siege imposed by six Arab nations, Qatar has approved an unprecedented draft law that will grant permanent residency cards to some foreigners. But the cabinet will issue the law's executive regulations later.

It is a unique piece of law by Qatar, among Gulf Arab monarchies that have for decades relied on expatriate labor to run their economies, reports the official Qatar News Agency.

Who is eligible for the card?

• Under the law, children of Qatari women married to foreigners, those who have special talents "needed by the state"
• People who have extended notable services to the country

What are the advantages?

• Cardholders can avail facilities by state-run educational and health-care services
• Will be given priority, after locals, for military and civilian public jobs
• They can own property and run certain commercial activities without a local partner.

The draft law was passed with an intention to attract investments and to reduce the economy's reliance on energy after Saudi Arabia and three allies severed their diplomatic ties with the country.

Why was the draft law approved?

Qatar is giving expatriates a "deeper stake" in a country that's "under siege," Bloomberg quited a research fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy as saying.

"If you give people a greater sense of involvement, you bind them more closely together," Ulrichsen said. The decision also could be designed to garner international support against the Saudi-led boycott by portraying Qatar as "something different in the region, tolerant, open and inclusive," he said.

An analyst with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said that approving these laws doesn't mean that implementation will swiftly follow.

"That doesn't mean that there aren't good intentions," Cordesman said. "But one has to be careful about assuming too much until you see the practice," he told Bloomberg.

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