Equivalency Certificate Service in the UAE

In short: As of October 2026, an equivalency certificate in the UAE is a MoHESR recognition report for a foreign degree, or an MoE equivalency for a school certificate. The official degree fees are AED 350 plus AED 50, with 18 working days published. We handle the whole file for AED 1,200 all-inclusive, starting with an AED 100 file check.

This page is our service. If you want every rule, every MoHESR service and the history behind the name, read our full MOHRE equivalency certificate guide, which covers fees, steps and refusals in depth. Here we focus on one question: what do you need, and how do we get it done for you?

MIRDXB PRO is a private PRO and visa services company in Al Barsha 1, Dubai. We are not MoHESR, the Ministry of Education or MOHRE, and we are not a partner or agent of any verification company the Ministry uses. We prepare your application and submit it with you through your own UAE PASS. The Ministry alone decides whether a qualification is recognised, so nobody, including us, can guarantee the outcome.

Which certificate do you actually need?

Most delays we see start here: someone pays for the wrong service, or for one service when the receiving body wanted another. Find your situation in the table, then check the purpose rule in the last column. Each row comes from the issuing body's own page, checked on 26 October 2026.

When you do not need an equivalency certificate

• MOHRE skill levels 6 to 9. These are not skilled work under the MOHRE definition, so no certificate is needed to classify the permit.
• A UAE degree already recognised automatically. If your university is in the scheme, the Ministry recognises it "without the need for a separate application". Check before you pay.
• An old equivalency report you already hold. MoHESR reissues a digital copy of an earlier recognition or equivalency report at no cost in 2 working days, unless the original was filed in 2000 or earlier.
• A job or visa that only asks for attestation. Recognition is a different document. Paying for it does not replace the stamps an employer asked for, and the other way round.

Equivalency, recognition, attestation and primary source verification: how they fit together

Four words get mixed up in almost every enquiry we receive. They answer four different questions.

How they relate. Recognition contains primary source verification: the partner's check is stage one of the MoHESR service. Attestation sits outside it. The MoHESR card does not ask for attestation before recognition, but the purpose often needs both, because MOHRE's skilled-work test refers to an "attested" certificate and many employers and schools ask for stamps. When both are needed, we start attestation first, because the original paper has to travel through your home country and that is the slow part. We file recognition alongside it, so neither waits for the other. A health regulator runs its own primary source verification for the licence, which is separate again. Our guide to the attestation process shows the stamp order for every country.

The rules MoHESR applies to your degree

The legal test is Ministerial Decree No. 34 of 2025. It has two general conditions: the qualification must be valid and accurate, and the awarding institution must have been "legally established, licensed, and accredited" in its own country "at the time of issuance" to offer the programme. The current service card puts the second condition as accredited "during your period of study". Everything else you read online is either a detail of how those two tests are applied, or an old rule. This table separates the two.

Documents checklist

The MoHESR card asks for only two documents for a foreign degree. In practice, the partner contacts your university and may ask for more, and the Ministry may close a request if extra documents are not provided within 7 working days. So we prepare the likely extras before the clock starts.

Attestation before the UAE stage, by country

Recognition does not need attestation, but your purpose may. These are the home-country chains on our country guides, each with its own checked date. The UAE is not a party to the Apostille Convention, so an apostille only replaces the foreign ministry stage; the UAE embassy and MOFA still follow.

On the UAE side, MOFA charges AED 150 per personal or educational document, and it counts a transcript as a separate document. Every UAE fee line is in our attestation cost guide. If you would rather hand the stamps over too, our degree certificate attestation service and MOFA attestation service run alongside this one.

Fees: our AED 1,200 all-inclusive price

Our price for degree recognition is AED 1,200 all-inclusive, per degree. It includes 5% VAT and the official AED 350 partner verification and AED 50 MoHESR report fees, so there is no second bill from the Ministry. Here is every line and where it sits.

Official fees are from the MoHESR card checked on 26 October 2026; Cabinet Resolution No. 103 of 2026 confirms that verification costs and any fees charged by foreign universities come on top of the Ministry's own fee. MoHESR states that all service fees are non-refundable. Our published price card terms apply, including a full refund of our service fee if we cannot submit your application. School (Grade 12) equivalency through the Ministry of Education costs AED 50 officially; our fee for it is quoted on WhatsApp, in writing.

How long it takes, start to finish

MoHESR publishes 18 working days, and both partner portals say the verification document arrives within 18 days. That is the recognition alone. If attestation is needed, the home-country chain usually decides the total.

Worked examples: what a client actually pays

These two examples are built from published figures and our price card, not from named clients. Totals are what you pay, in dirhams, before any university charge.

Example 1: a UK master's degree for the Dubai Golden Visa

A marketing director on a MOHRE level 1 permit earns above AED 30,000 a month and holds a master's degree from a UK university. GDRFA needs a recognition report for a degree from outside the UAE, and her employer also wants the degree attested to update her work permit record.

Timeline: recognition runs in parallel with the UK chain, so it is usually finished before the paper apostille is back. With an e-Apostille the whole file can close in roughly the 18 working days of recognition plus the embassy and MOFA steps. Her Golden Visa costs are separate; see our Golden Visa service.

Example 2: an Indian bachelor's degree for a skilled work permit

An engineer from Kerala is moving to a level 2 role in Dubai. The employer needs the degree attested for the MOHRE skilled classification and asks for the recognition report as well, because the role is senior.

Timeline: the Kerala state stage sets the pace for attestation; recognition starts the same week and runs alongside it. The work permit itself is a separate step; see our employment visa service and the work permit types guide.

Why files get refused or stuck, and how we prevent it

If a refusal does come, MoHESR lets you ask for reconsideration once per qualification, within three months, with no fee and a 20 working day decision. It helps most when the refusal was about missing evidence. Our full equivalency guide explains each refusal reason in detail.

What we do, step by step

Practical tips from our casework

• Ask HR or the authority in writing which document they want. "Attested", "recognised" and "equivalency" mean different things, and one email saves a wrong payment.
• Write to your registrar before you apply. Ask whether they answer verification requests, whether they need your consent and whether they charge. Their reply, or their silence, is your real timeline.
• Check the spelling of your name on all three papers. One letter of difference between degree and passport is the most avoidable delay we see.
• Do not pay twice. UAE graduates should check their UAE PASS wallet for automatic recognition, and anyone with an old equivalency report can ask for a digital copy at no cost.
• If your university merged or closed, find the successor's records office first. A letter from them is often what lets verification finish.
• Healthcare professionals: start the regulator's verification and the recognition at the same time. They are separate processes, and the licence does not wait for recognition.
• Walk away from anyone selling a "ready" certificate. A genuine report comes only from the MoHESR system and anyone can check it with its document and verification numbers. We do not arrange or submit any qualification we believe is not genuine.

Who checked this page

Reviewed by Mir Ali, founder of MIRDXB PRO, who has personally handled more than 100 files over the past three years. Every fee, time and rule on this page was checked against the official sources listed below on 26 October 2026: the MoHESR and MoE service cards, Ministerial Decree No. 34 of 2025, Cabinet Resolution No. 103 of 2026, Resolution No. 5 of 2025, u.ae, GDRFA Dubai, KHDA, MOFA, the DataFlow and QuadraBay MoHESR portals and the Unified Healthcare Professional Qualification Requirements. Where an official page is silent, we say so instead of guessing. Read how we write and check our pages.

Equivalency certificate questions