At its weekly meeting, the cabinet backed draft legislation and took "measures to issue a law regulating the entry, exit and residency of expatriates," the official QNA news agency reported yesterday.
"The bill included provisions related to regulating the procedures and conditions of expatriates' entry, exit, residency and recruitment as well as switching to a different employer," QNA said, without giving further details.
The draft law still requires final approval by ministers.
In Qatar, laws are issued by decree. The Gulf emirate has no parliament, only a consultative Advisory Council, whose recommendations were considered by the cabinet, QNA said.
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Qatar, which has been widely criticised for its labour practices ever since winning the right to host football's biggest tournament, had pledged to try to introduce reform to the sponsorship system by the end of this year.
as it means many workers cannot leave the country without permission from their sponsor and have difficulty changing jobs.
There are around 1.7 million foreign workers in Qatar, many working directly or indirectly on World Cup projects.
Qatar is carrying out a huge infrastructure programme costing USD 226 billion (202 billion euros).
Another labour reform in the pipeline is the Wage Protection System, which seeks to guarantee workers receive their wages on time.
This is expected to come into force in November.
Under the new system, workers will be paid either twice a month or monthly, with wages electronically transferred to their bank accounts.