United Arab Emirates Licensing

United Arab Emirates has 5 regulators. Your workplace picks yours

A licence in United Arab Emirates is tied to a place, not to the country as a whole. DHA licenses dubai, UAE, DOH licenses abu Dhabi, UAE, MOHAP licenses northern Emirates, UAE, SHA licenses sharjah, UAE and DCAS licenses dubai, UAE (EMS). The facility that hires you sits under exactly one of them, and that is the regulator you apply to.

Settle this before paying for anything. Application and exam fees paid to one regulator do not move to another, and the experience each one asks for at the same grade is not identical, so a file that clears one can fall short at the next.

• DHA (Dubai Health Authority): Dubai, UAE. Exam via Prometric; Dataflow needed; about 8-16 weeks end to end.
• DOH (Department of Health – Abu Dhabi): Abu Dhabi, UAE. Exam via Pearson VUE; Dataflow needed; about 10-18 weeks end to end.
• MOHAP (Ministry of Health & Prevention): Northern Emirates, UAE. Exam via Prometric; Dataflow needed; about 8-16 weeks end to end.
• SHA (Sharjah Health Authority): Sharjah, UAE. Exam via Prometric; Dataflow needed; about 10-16 weeks end to end.
• DCAS (Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services): Dubai, UAE (EMS). Exam via DCAS's in-house computer-based test; Dataflow needed; about 6-12 weeks end to end.

The DHA route, step by step

DHA handles the largest share of applications for United Arab Emirates, so its sequence is the one shown here. The other regulators follow the same shape with their own portals and fees, and each has a full page linked above.

• Step 1, Create Sheryan account: Register on Sheryan (DHA's unified professional portal) with your Emirates ID or passport.
• Step 2, Dataflow verification: Submit degree, transcripts, licence, experience letters and Good Standing for primary source verification. Takes 4-8 weeks.
• Step 3, Book Prometric exam: Once Dataflow clears, DHA issues an Eligibility ID. Book your slot on Prometric - Dubai, home country or any international centre.
• Step 4, Pass the exam: Score at or above the DHA cut-off for your title level (typically 60%). Result is instant on-screen.
• Step 5, Employer sponsorship & activation: A DHA-licensed facility submits your activation request. Licence issued within days.

The grade United Arab Emirates will register you at

No one practises clinically in United Arab Emirates without a licence in hand: doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives, pharmacists and the allied professions such as laboratory, radiography, physiotherapy and respiratory therapy are all covered.

Your job title at home does not carry over. The regulator reads your qualification and counts the years of practice you can prove after it, then places you in a grade of its own. That grade fixes which paper you sit and which salary band an employer can offer, so it is the first thing to establish, not the last.

• General Practitioner: 2 years post-internship
• Specialist: 3 years in specialty after board qualification
• Consultant: 5+ years post-specialty

What the United Arab Emirates licensing exam looks like

DHA, MOHAP and SHA examine through Prometric, so revision for one carries to the others. DOH examines through Pearson VUE. DCAS examines through DCAS's in-house computer-based test. All of these are computer-based multiple-choice papers taken at an approved test centre, and centres operate in most candidates' home countries, so the exam itself rarely needs a flight.

For DHA the published format is 150 MCQs, single best answer, sat over 3 hours, with 60% (title-dependent) as the pass mark and an exam fee of $240 – $280. Holders of certain higher qualifications are excused the paper altogether, so check the exemption list for your grade before you book a seat.

Papers to gather for a United Arab Emirates file

You build one set of documents and it feeds every later stage: the regulator's portal, verification, and eventually your employer's onboarding. Gaps in it are what hold up United Arab Emirates applications far more often than the exam does. A letter missing a date or a signature comes back, and the review does not move while you replace it.

• Identity: Passport (bio page + valid Dubai/UAE visa or entry stamp if in-country)
• Identity: Emirates ID (if already resident)
• Identity: Recent passport-size photograph (white background)
• Qualifications: Primary medical/dental/nursing degree certificate
• Qualifications: Full transcripts covering every academic year
• Qualifications: Internship completion certificate
• Experience: Experience letters covering every year since qualification
• Experience: Letters should state role, dates (DD/MM/YYYY), full-time / part-time, contact details of the HR office
• Experience: Consultant tier: additional evidence of leadership, teaching or research
• Professional standing: Good Standing Certificate from your current or most recent licensing council (no older than 6 months at DHA submission)
• Professional standing: Home-country practice licence (current, not expired)
• Professional standing: BLS + ACLS / PALS as applicable to your specialty
• Attestations: Degree attested by home country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (or apostille for Hague Convention countries)
• Attestations: UAE Embassy attestation of the degree (from your home country)
• Attestations: MOFA UAE final attestation (after arrival, if required by employer)

Dataflow checks for United Arab Emirates

Every regulator in United Arab Emirates asks for a Dataflow primary source verification report. Dataflow contacts the institutions behind your file, meaning the university, the licensing council and each employer named, and asks them to confirm that what you submitted is real.

The pace here is set by other people. A university registry that answers in days gives you a fast report, and an employer that has closed or changed its contact details gives you a slow one. Tell your referees to expect the request. A finished report can normally be put towards a later application to another Gulf regulator, which shortens a second licence.

How long and how much: planning a United Arab Emirates licence

From a complete file to an issued licence, plan on roughly 8-16, 10-18, 10-16 or 6-12 weeks, depending on the regulator. That figure assumes nothing is returned for correction and the paper is passed at the first sitting. Revision and document collection are in your hands. Referee response times and the regulator's review queue are not, so run the two in parallel instead of finishing one before starting the other.

On cost, expect separate payments to separate bodies: the regulator's application and registration charges, the $240 – $280 exam fee, the verification report where one is required, and attestation if your documents need it. These are paid whether or not the application succeeds, which is one more reason to confirm your grade and regulator first.

• Sheryan account creation: Free
• Dataflow PSV report: $220 – $320 (Varies by number of documents & source countries)
• DHA Prometric exam: $240 – $280 (Higher for Consultant tier)
• DHA eligibility & licence issuance: $270 – $410 (Depends on title tier)
• Employer facility linking: Employer-paid (Facilities cover the practice-permit fee)
• Total out-of-pocket (indicative): $730 – $1,010 (Not including translation, courier or attestation courier)