Immigrant Visas

Filing the I-130 Petition

The U.S. Embassy in Doha, Qatar, accepts petitions for immediate relative immigrant classification from American citizens who are resident in Qatar for the preceding six months or longer, including members of the armed forces, as well as true emergency cases, such as life and death or health and safety, and others determined to be in the national interest.  Examples of family emergency include minor children who would be unexpectedly left without a caretaker.  Family reunification or new marriages alone are not emergencies.  Examples of national interest include facilitating the travel of United States military and other USG direct hire employees assigned overseas who are pending transfer on orders and need to petition for immigrant classification of their spouse and minor children at posts overseas.  All other petitions must be filed with the appropriate USCIS Service Center with jurisdiction over an American Citizen's or Legal Permanent Resident's current or last known residence in the U.S.

To demonstrate residency in Qatar, American Citizen petitioners must be able to show that they have held a valid Qatar residence permit and have resided in Qatar continuously for at least six months before filing the petition.  Individuals who are in the country on a temporary status, such as a temporary work contract or tourist, would not be considered to meet the residency standard.

All lawful permanent residents, and American Citizens resident in the United States or with a permanent address in the United States, will file I-130 petitions at the USCIS Service Center having jurisdiction over their place of residence (as indicated on the USCIS website:  http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-130.pdf).

American citizens with further questions on this change who are resident in Qatar should contact the Consular Section at the U.S. Embassy in Doha via telephone at [974] 488-4101, ext. 6118, or via email at IVCONSULARDOHA@state.gov.

USCIS contact information may be found on their webpage at www.uscis.gov.  USCIS can be reached through their National Customer Service Center (NCSC) at 1-800-375-5283 (TTY 1-800-767-1833).  The USCIS Ombudsman may be contacted at cisombudsman@dhs.gov.  Currently, the CIS sub-office in Athens, Greece, has jurisdiction for Qatar as part of the CIS Rome region.  For contact information, please visit:

https://egov.immigration.gov/crisgwi/go?action=offices.type&OfficeLocator.office_type=OS

A citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States may file the I-130 form (Petition for Spouse)  with the Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to establish the relationship to certain alien relatives who wish to immigrate to the United States. You must file a separate form for each eligible relative.

Complete instructions for completing the I-130 can be found on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis .