How to Renew an E-Gate Card

There is a system in Qatar whereby for a fee a resident can apply for an E-Gate card, which allows you to bypass passport security in Doha International Airport. Instead of going through passport control you scan the card at an E-Gate booth, enter and have your fingerprint scanned, at which point once your identity is confirmed you continue on. It is an extremely efficient system and I have never taken longer than 2 minutes to go through (it's usually much shorter than that but once the booth wasn't reading my fingerprint so I had to go to the next booth). There has also never been a lineup at E-Gate, unlike passport control which can get quite busy. My friends and I joke that the only major inconvenience with E-Gate is that you're through so quickly you have to wait a while for your luggage to arrive at the baggage carousel.

E-Gate even saved me from missing a flight earlier this year. Eid is by far the busiest time at the airport and the crowds were so massive that it took me over 90 minutes just to check-in my bag. Then I saw that the lineup for passport control was 15 minutes -- just to get into the passport control room! Who knows how long you'd stand in line once you were in there. No lineup at E-Gate though, I was through in under two minutes and on my way. I know a few people who missed their flights that day because of the crowding. E-Gate is awesome.

So work sent me a reminder that I needed to renew my E-Gate card and were happy to help with the arrangements. It turned out to be a complicated process so I'm glad they sent me along with someone who knew what to do because there are no signs or information at the Immigration Office to tell you the steps. Here's how it works:

1) Work arranged for some electronic form (in Arabic) filled out in my name [update: try here for a form]. I had to bring this with me along with my ID card, old E-Gate card, and a credit card so that I could pay the fee. Oddly while I was instructed to bring my old E-Gate card no one actually asked for it or looked at it so maybe it's something you bring along just in case.

2) Go to the Immigration Building just off of the Shammal Road near Landmark Mall (heading towards the airport from Landmark). When you go through security to enter the “courtyard” of the Immigration Building go to the first set of main doors on your left, this will open into a big room with lots of seats (over a hundred), to your right will be civil servants in booths with flashing numbers over them to indicate the next ticket number. Don't go to them or look for a ticket number, just go straight across the room to what kind of looks like some large phone booths. This is where you have your photo and fingerprint taken for E-Gate.

3) Two ladies were working the E-Gate “phone booths”. One of them will take your ID card and the piece of paper, take you to a booth, and then:

• take your picture
• scan your fingerprint
• have you write your signature on a special electronic pad

she will then sign the paper and give it and your ID card back to you.

4) From there look to the left of the “phone booths”. You will see a big desk with three or four civil servants behind it. This is where you get your ticket number. Go up to them and say you are here for E-gate only. They will give you a number and then you sit down and wait for your number to be called.

5) When it is getting close to your number being called I recommend trying to move to the first couple of rows so that you can quickly get to the booth. It's a big room and the guys at the desks seem to give about 20 seconds before they move on to the next number. When it is your turn give the guy the document, ID card, and credit card. He will charge the fee for the E-Gate card to your credit card and he will keep both the piece of paper and your ID card. That is because they have a new system where they have integrated E-Gate with your ID card so they will issue you a brand-new ID card that has E-Gate built in.

6) They will then tell you to sit down and wait until they call you to collect your new card. This takes about 5 to 10 minutes.

7) Now you have to activate your E-Gate card (again no one has told us anything about activating the card so had I not been with someone who knew the process the next time I went to the airport my E-Gate card wouldn’t have worked). To your immediate left of the entrance doors are what looks like two ATM machines. You use these to activate your card. There was a gentleman standing there who did it for me, typing in my ID numbers etc.

That's it, new ID/E-Gate card! Overall it took about an hour but the Immigration Office, while busy, was not packed so you might want to assume it will take longer in case the office is busier.