Official company records for Qatar, on demand

Qatar's Commercial Registry is governed by Law No. 25 of 2005 with respect to the Commercial Registry, which creates the commercial registers in the relevant department of the ministry responsible for commerce, today the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, whose Commercial Registration and Licenses Department manages the Commercial Registry and the Trade Agents Register. The law requires entry of individuals engaging in trade, commercial companies, commercial agents, branches of foreign companies and trade representation offices; no person may engage in trade without being entered, and branches take the registry number of the parent.

Entries are valid for one year, renewable for up to five years at a time, and the relevant department may delete an entry that is not renewed after ninety days from notice. Registered persons must display the trading name and registration number in Arabic in their business and correspondence, changes must be notified within thirty days, and courts send judgments such as bankruptcy declarations and liquidations for notation in the register.

Under Article 13 of the law, any stakeholder may obtain an extract copy of the entry page, a certificate of certain details, or a negative certificate where no entry exists. The department's forms include a Beneficial Owner Declaration Form, filed with registration, renewal, amendment and licence applications, identifying natural persons owning or controlling 20 percent or more of the capital or voting rights or exercising control by other means. The Company Records report for Qatar includes the registry extract sourced from the official register.