Authenticating Medical Documents: All You Need to Know

Lots of new people coming to Qatar and sometimes people who have lived here for years, ask the same questions, where can I verify my documents? Don’t worry, you are not alone, we have the answers for you here!

Let’s break this down for you, medical records include:

• Medical certificates issued by hospitals or medical centers in Qatar
• Medical certificates issued abroad and authenticated by the highest health entity
• Medical documents authenticated by the Ministry of foreign affairs, or an embassy abroad accredited by the State of Qatar
• Medical documents related to education, study abroad, or vaccinations

Here’s what you need to do to authenticate these documents if need be:

• Submit a request to the Consular Affairs Department for authentication of documents
• Make sure that any official documents you have is in fact official from the highest health entity
• If you were denied access online for whatever reason, you can submit the documents required to be authenticated to the Legalization Section at the Administration Building of the Consular Affairs Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• If your medical documents are education related, they need to be submitted to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education for authentication before being taken to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• A fee of 20 QR applies to authenticating medical reports and medical certificates.

This simply authenticates your documents as quickly as possible, perhaps even within a few minutes if not many people are applying for it at the same time. However, like everything official in any country, there are some things that you need to keep in mind before going to authenticate your documents:

• The Consular Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can abstain from authenticating any document that violates the applicable regulations in the State of Qatar.
• A document being authenticated with a broken seal or missing signatures will be deemed invalid making any authentication done to it void.
• If an authenticated document is deemed void, the department has the right to refer the issue to the competent security entities in the State of Qatar.
• Content of the documents needs to be clearly presented, if not in English or Arabic, a translation document attached would be helpful.
• In the case the transaction lacks any required signatures, stamps, or seals, the customer is requested to complete the requirements and come back for authentication.

Keep in mind most documents that need authentication are the ones that are either from abroad as you enter the country, or ones from Qatar that you would want to take abroad with you as you leave.

Make sure that you read this article properly and understand what needs to be done before going to authenticate your documents. This information is applicable to patients, nurses and doctors as certifications obtained to work as a health professional in Qatar need to be authenticated in the same way. Then authenticated by the Ministry of Public Health and the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners (QCHP).