Does my company contract in Qatar need to be in Arabic?

Yes — with one key exception. Article 6 of Qatar's Commercial Companies Law (Law No. 11 of 2015) requires that a company's contract (and any amendments to it) must be written in Arabic and officially authenticated. Failure to meet either requirement renders the contract — or its amendment — invalid.

The only exception to this rule is a Joint Venture Company, which is exempt from the Arabic-language and authentication requirement under Article 6. This is partly because Joint Venture Companies operate without needing to be publicly declared and have a more informal legal structure.

In practice, this means that if you are forming any other type of company, you should have your founding documents professionally translated into Arabic and authenticated through the appropriate Qatari authorities. Article 7 adds an important nuance: while partners can use the invalidity of an unauthenticated contract against each other, they cannot use it as a defence against third parties — meaning your obligations to outside parties remain enforceable even if your internal documentation is technically defective. Always work with a licensed legal translator and a Qatar-based lawyer when drafting your company's founding documents.