Attestation Process UAE 2026: The Full Chain, Step by Step

The attestation process in the UAE is the sequence of official certifications that makes a document usable before a UAE authority, employer, school or court: each authority in the attestation chain confirms that the signature and seal of the previous one are genuine, ending with the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Attestation does not say the content of your document is true, and it does not say the document is yours. It says the stamp before it was real, which is why the order cannot be changed.

This guide is the hub of our attestation section: the attestation chain for documents issued abroad and in the UAE, personal, educational and commercial documents, translation and notarisation, and attestation verification, with worked cases and a myths table.

Country-specific routes (India, Pakistan, the Philippines), the detailed cost breakdown and the apostille comparison each have their own guide, linked where they come up. Every procedural statement here comes from the MOFA service page and FAQ, the UAE mission pages on mofa.gov.ae, the Ministry of Justice legislation, u.ae and the HCCH. Where the official pages disagree or are silent, we say so.

Attestation process UAE at a glance: which route are you on?

Everything depends on one question: where was the document issued? Not your nationality, not where you live now. Find your row, then read the matching section below.

Attestation process UAE: how MIRDXB PRO helps

You can run much of the attestation process (UAE) yourself, and this guide is written so that you can. We come in where it goes wrong: the stage nobody noticed was missing, a university in another country that does not answer, a name that differs from the passport, a company file with a dozen documents, or a family who needs degree, marriage and birth certificates attested before a visa deadline. MIRDXB PRO is a Dubai PRO services company working with Amer and Tasheel, and document attestation is one of the services our Al Barsha team handles.

What we do

• Read the stamps already on your document and tell you exactly which stage it has reached and what is missing, before anything is paid.
• Plan the attestation chain for each document: personal, educational or commercial, issued abroad or in the UAE, and whether your UAE mission offers the online route.
• Check each document against the passport for name, spelling and date of birth, and flag lamination, short-form certificates and photocopies at the start.
• File the MOFA application on the correct route (digital attestation or courier) and the UAE Embassy stage through MOFA’s online channel where your mission offers it. See our document attestation service in Dubai and our MOFA attestation service.
• Arrange legal translation by a Ministry of Justice listed translator through our legal translation service in Dubai, after the attestation chain is complete.
• Verify the finished file and give you the reference numbers, so the employer, school or immigration authority receives something that checks out first time.

How it works

1. WhatsApp us clear photos of each document, front and back, with every stamp visible, and your passport data page. Tell us what the documents are for.
2. We map the attestation chain: which stages are done, which remain, where each one happens, and whether your UAE mission offers the online service.
3. We quote in writing: government and embassy fees at cost, our fee separately.
4. We run the UAE-side stages and coordinate the home-country stages with you or your representative there.
5. We verify and hand over the attested originals or digital attestations with reference numbers and receipts.

What it costs

Government and mission fees are passed on at cost, with receipts. MOFA publishes AED 150 for a personal document and AED 2,000 for a commercial document; service-provider charges are added by the provider you choose. Our service charge for the UAE MOFA step is AED 250 per attestation, on top of MOFA’s fee; for the other stages our fee depends on the number of documents, the country of issue and how many stages remain, and it is quoted in writing before we start. Our general price guide is on the fees page, and every official fee line is set out in our attestation cost guide.

Why residents use us

• We publish our sources. Every rule in this guide links to the MOFA, mission, Ministry of Justice or u.ae page it comes from.
• We tell you when you do not need us. A UAE-issued digital birth certificate can be attested on your phone in two hours, and we will say so.
• We connect the documents to the visa or permit, because we also handle the family residence file and the employment visa the documents are for.
• You can walk in. Our office is in Al Barsha 1, Dubai, open by appointment; whatsApp us any time, 24 hours; office open Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 18:00 (Dubai time).

Why the attestation chain runs in one order only

Every authority in the attestation chain does the same small job: it holds a specimen of the signatures and seals of the authority before it, compares, and certifies that they match. The UAE Embassy in a country is not checking that your degree is real. It is checking that the foreign ministry’s stamp is real. MOFA in the UAE, in turn, certifies the UAE mission’s attestation. MOFA describes its service in exactly these terms: attestation “certifies the authenticity of the signatures and seals on documents issued within or outside the United Arab Emirates”.

So when a stage is missing, the next authority has nothing to compare. It is not a rule that can be waived or expedited. A degree taken straight to a UAE embassy without the foreign ministry’s stamp is simply returned, and you have spent the courier legs to find out.

The same logic tells you what the attestation process (UAE) does not do:

The first line is the expensive misunderstanding. A fully attested degree can still produce a refused work permit or licence, because the receiving authority asked a different question. When something is refused, the first job is to work out whether the problem is the document (fixable by the attestation chain) or the qualification (not fixable by the attestation chain at all).

Step 0: sort every document by where it was issued

A family relocating to Dubai often holds documents on both sides of the line at once. A British national whose child was born in Dubai has a UAE-issued birth certificate (the short route) and a UK-issued degree (the full chain). Each document runs its own chain on its own timeline.

Before planning anything, make two piles:

• Pile A: issued outside the UAE. Degrees, school certificates, transcripts, birth and marriage certificates from home, police certificates, foreign court orders, foreign company documents. These run the full chain, starting in the country of issue.
• Pile B: issued inside the UAE. Birth certificates of children born here, UAE marriage contracts, UAE university degrees, salary and experience letters, UAE court documents, UAE trade licences and company documents. These start with the issuing entity in the UAE and then MOFA.

A third, smaller pile catches people out: documents issued in a third country. A degree from a British university awarded at its campus in Malaysia, or a marriage registered in Cyprus by two Indian nationals. The attestation chain follows the country whose authority issued the document, not your nationality. For a branch-campus degree, the question is which entity legally issued it; that decides whose foreign ministry and which UAE mission you need.

The attestation chain for documents issued outside the UAE

For a document from pile A, the attestation process (UAE) runs through up to five stages, always in this order. Some countries merge stages, some add one, but no country reverses them.

MOFA’s own FAQ puts stages 3 and 4 in one sentence: original documents “must be attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the issuing country. Documents can then be attested by the UAE Embassy or Consulate in the issuing country by applying through MoFA online channels.”

Stage 1: the issuing authority or a notary

The attestation chain starts with whoever created the document, or with a notary where the document is private. What this looks like depends on the document:

• Degrees and school certificates: the university or board confirms the award. In many countries this is done through a registrar’s verification letter or a stamp on the original; in some it is replaced by a national education body’s verification at stage 2.
• Birth, marriage and death certificates: the civil registry issues a certified copy. Long-form certificates, with both parents’ names, are the safe choice; abbreviated extracts are a common cause of return.
• Private and company documents (powers of attorney, affidavits, board resolutions, contracts, experience letters from private employers): signed before a notary public, who certifies the signature. Company documents are often certified by the chamber of commerce as well.

Stage 2: regional or specialist authentication

Many countries insert a layer between the issuer and the foreign ministry. India routes educational documents through the state’s education or home department before the Ministry of External Affairs. Pakistan sends degrees to the Higher Education Commission and school certificates to the IBCC. The Philippines verifies degrees through CHED and civil records through the PSA before the Department of Foreign Affairs. Companies in many countries go through the chamber of commerce.

Most delays in the attestation chain come from this stage. The country guides cover it: Indian degree attestation, Pakistan degree attestation and Philippine documents attestation. For any other country, that country’s foreign ministry website and the UAE mission there are the authoritative sources.

Stage 3: the foreign ministry or the apostille

The issuing country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs certifies the stage 2 (or stage 1) signature. In countries that are party to the Hague Apostille Convention, the foreign ministry’s output is usually an apostille certificate. India, Pakistan and the Philippines are all contracting parties on the HCCH status table (entry into force 14 July 2005, 9 March 2023 and 14 May 2019 respectively). The United Kingdom issues apostilles through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Stage 4 and 5: the UAE Embassy attestation and MOFA, in one application or two

This is the part of the attestation chain that has changed most, and most online guidance has not caught up. There are now two ways the UAE stages happen.

Route one: the online mission service (selected missions). MOFA’s attestation service page lists a process for documents issued outside the UAE: sign in, select “Attestation through UAE Missions Abroad”, complete the information, pay, and receive a confirmation with a reference number. MOFA adds that “This service is available through selected UAE Missions abroad” and asks you to check the website of the UAE mission in the relevant country.

The mission pages that offer it describe the outcome. The UAE Embassy in New Delhi: “One application covers both the UAE Embassy in New Delhi and the UAE MoFA in the UAE.” The UAE Embassy in Islamabad uses the same wording. The UAE Embassy in London says you “will receive an email with a copy of your document digitally attested by the UAE Embassy and by MOFA”, and a MOFA-approved service provider collects and returns the originals. In other words, at these missions the UAE Embassy attestation and the MOFA attestation arrive together, digitally, from one application.

Route two: the mission counter, then MOFA in the UAE. Where the mission does not offer the online service, the document is presented at the mission in person (or through its appointed centre), and the MOFA stage is completed afterwards in the UAE. MOFA’s courier route handles this: you apply on the MOFA website or app, an approved courier collects the original and returns it attested, with a published completion time of 1 to 3 business days.

If there is no UAE mission in the country of issue at all, MOFA says: “please contact the Ministry through the Contact Center” (800 44444, or +971 80044444). Do not assume a neighbouring country’s mission will accept the document; ask first.

Steps for the online mission route

Drawn from MOFA’s service page and the New Delhi, Islamabad and London mission pages:

1. Finish stages 1 to 3 in the country of issue. The mission pages are explicit: India-issued documents must be attested by the Ministry of External Affairs; Pakistan-issued documents by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs; UK documents by the foreign office.
2. Sign in to the MOFA website or the UAE MOFA app with UAE Pass and choose the attestation service.
3. Select the country of issue (for example “Republic of India” or the UK) and Attestation through UAE Missions Abroad.
4. Complete the form exactly as the document reads and pay. A MOFA-approved provider collects the original, within 24 hours of submission on the New Delhi and Islamabad pages.
5. Receive the digital attestation by email, covering the UAE Embassy and MOFA.
6. The original is returned by courier. The mission pages give 24 to 48 hours after release from the embassy, longer for remote areas (Islamabad: 48 to 72 hours).
7. Verify the attestation using the attestation reference number and issue date (see the verification section below).

Which route applies to your country?

Only the mission’s own page answers that, and missions differ. The table records what we could confirm on mofa.gov.ae mission pages on 24 September 2026. For every other country, open the UAE mission’s page for that country before planning.

The attestation process for documents issued in the UAE

Pile B is shorter, and for the right document it can be finished on your phone before lunch. MOFA’s rule in its FAQ is that original documents “must be attested by the governing entity, except for digital documents issued by a government entity or documents attested electronically”. So the UAE chain has at most two UAE stages: the issuing entity, then MOFA.

Stage 1 in the UAE: the issuing entity

Dubai Chambers also lists documents that do not require its attestation, including employment and labour contracts, birth and marriage certificates, lease contracts, academic certificates and powers of attorney. Taking these to the chamber adds nothing.

Stage 2 in the UAE: MOFA, digital or courier

You sign in with UAE Pass, choose Attestation Services in the UAE, confirm the document was issued in the UAE, and select the issuing authority and document type. MOFA then says: “The appropriate attestation route will be determined automatically.” You do not choose between digital attestation and the courier route; the system does, based on the issuer and document type.

Digital attestation route (from the MOFA service page):

1. Select the destination country where the document will be used.
2. Upload the original digital document issued by the competent authority, in PDF. MOFA’s FAQ: the file “must open correctly, must not be corrupted or password-protected, and must include the required verification mechanism.”
3. Confirm the declaration, pay and submit.
4. Receive the digitally attested document by email or through My Requests on the MOFA website.

Published time: within 2 hours during official working hours. MOFA’s FAQ defines digital attestation as “an electronic service provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for UAE-issued digital documents intended for use outside the United Arab Emirates.” A scan or a photograph of a paper certificate does not qualify.

Courier route (from the same page):

1. Enter the document owner’s name, mobile number, email and delivery details.
2. Select an approved courier service provider and a collection and delivery slot.
3. Confirm the declaration, pay and submit.
4. The courier collects the original and delivers it back attested.

Published time: 1 to 3 business days, depending on the courier. The original must be in Arabic or English or accompanied by a legally certified translation, must be attested by the competent authority where applicable, and must not be laminated.

When a UAE document is going abroad

A UAE birth certificate for a passport application at home, a UAE degree for a job in another country, a UAE company’s power of attorney for a foreign bank: these leave the UAE, and the receiving country decides what it needs. MOFA’s service description now says it enables customers “to obtain the attestation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UAE Mission in the destination country”, and its FAQ on birth and death certificates filed through MOHAP gives a total of AED 300: AED 150 for MOFA and AED 150 for “UAE Embassy in destination country attestation”.

Some destination countries also expect their own embassy or consulate in the UAE to legalise the MOFA-attested document; others accept it as it is. That rule belongs to the destination country, so ask the receiving authority before paying for extra stamps.

Personal, educational and commercial documents: how the attestation chain differs

The structure is the same for every document. What changes is who sits at stage 1 and 2, what MOFA charges, and what tends to go wrong. MOFA’s fee list separates them: “Individual Affairs Documents: AED 150” and “Commercial Documents: AED 2,000”.

Educational documents

Degrees, diplomas, transcripts and school certificates are the most common files in the attestation process (UAE), because they gate work permits at skilled levels, professional licences and, for teachers and health professionals, the job itself. Gulf News, reporting MOFA’s 2025 figures on 24 December 2025, listed academic certificates at all levels first among the personal documents most often attested.

• Stage 1: the university or board, often with a verification letter. Some countries require the institution to confirm the award directly to a national body.
• Stage 2: frequently a specialist education authority (a state education department, HEC, IBCC, CHED), not the foreign ministry.
• Stages 3 to 5: foreign ministry or apostille, then the UAE Embassy attestation and MOFA.
• Recognition: a separate process run by the education ministry, not part of the attestation chain. See our equivalency certificate guide, and our degree certificate attestation service if you want the attestation chain handled.

Personal and civil status documents

Marriage, birth, divorce and death certificates, police certificates, name-change deeds and adoption papers. These usually decide family visas, a newborn’s residence and school admission.

• Use the long-form certificate. A short extract without parents’ names is a frequent return at the embassy stage.
• Marriage certificates for a spouse visa are almost always requested attested when issued abroad. Religious certificates may need registration with the civil authority before the attestation chain can start, depending on the country.
• Birth certificates of children born abroad run the full foreign chain; those born in the UAE take the short route.
• Our service pages for marriage certificate attestation and birth certificate attestation describe how we handle each.

Commercial documents

Certificates of incorporation, memoranda and articles of association, board resolutions, commercial powers of attorney, trade licences and financial statements.

• Stage 1 is usually a notary, or a certified copy from the companies registry.
• Stage 2 is often the chamber of commerce in the country of issue.
• MOFA charges AED 2,000 per commercial document against AED 150 for a personal one, so a ten-document company file is a large MOFA bill. Ask the UAE registrar or free zone which documents it really needs.

Commercial invoices: a separate system

Import invoices are not run through the document chain at all. MOFA handles them through its electronic document attestation system (eDAS). Its FAQ states that “LCA (electronic) attestation has become mandatory for goods imported into the UAE valued at Dh10,000 and above, effective from February 1, 2023”, that “the flat rate 150 dirhams + service fees is applied for the attestation of commercial invoices starting February 1st, 2023”, and that “Failure to pay within the grace period incurs an additional fine of AED 500 per invoice.” Certificates of origin are also handled in eDAS.

Where notarisation fits in the attestation process (UAE)

Notarisation is the first stage for any document that an official body did not issue. A notary does not attest the document’s content; it certifies the signature of the person who signed it, and sometimes that a copy is a true copy of an original. That gives stage 2 something to authenticate.

• Abroad: powers of attorney, affidavits, declarations and company resolutions are signed before a notary in the country of issue. The notary’s signature is then authenticated by the foreign ministry or apostille, and the attestation chain continues.
• In the UAE: u.ae describes Public Attestation Services as legal services “provided through Notary Public Departments in the courts or via digital judicial platforms”. A UAE-notarised power of attorney going abroad then goes to MOFA and follows the destination country’s requirements. The Ministry of Justice also offers a digital power of attorney service that can be used from abroad.

Legal translation: after the attestation chain, by a listed translator

Two rules decide translation, and they point the same way.

MOFA’s document rule. For the courier route, the original must be “in Arabic or English, or accompanied by a legally certified translation”. A document in French, German, Tagalog or Urdu-only text needs a legal translation for the UAE stage to accept it.

The Ministry of Justice register. Federal Decree-Law No. 22 of 2022 Regulating the Translation Profession (in force 2 January 2023) says in Article 2(1) that “The translation profession may not be practiced in the country except after being registered in the list and obtaining a license”, and in Article 3 that no authority may carry out authentication or certification, and no court may accept a translated document, “unless this translation was done by a translator or a translation house is listed on the list”. A translation made abroad, or by an unlisted translator in the UAE, is not a legal translation for these purposes.

In practice the order is:

1. Complete the attestation chain on the original, in the language it was issued in.
2. Have the attested original, stamps included, translated into Arabic by a translator on the Ministry of Justice list.
3. Submit the attested original with the legal translation to the receiving authority.

Translating first and attesting the translation instead of the original is the common mistake: the attestation chain authenticates the issuing authority’s signature, which is on the original, not on a translation made later. There are exceptions. Some countries issue a translation as a certified document in its own right, and then that document can enter the attestation chain. Where you are unsure, ask the receiving authority whether it wants the translation attached to the attested original or attested itself. Our legal translation service in Dubai uses listed translators.

Recognition and equivalency: a different process running alongside

Attestation proves the document is genuine. Recognition decides whether the qualification counts as equivalent to a UAE qualification. Run them in parallel wherever the rules allow. Gulf News reported (updated August 2024) that the Ministry of Education renamed the equivalency certificate the “Certificate of Recognition” and relies on verification through its partners, with attestation not required for every field. The authority, fees and current rules are covered in our equivalency certificate guide; do not rely on this summary for a recognition decision.

The practical point for the attestation chain: if a work permit, licence or visa is refused after a clean attestation, find out whether recognition was the problem before re-running any stage. Re-attesting a document never fixes a recognition refusal.

Attestation process UAE fees, with sources

This is the short version of the attestation process UAE costs. Every fee line by document type and embassy, with worked totals, is in our attestation cost guide.

Timeline: how long each stage of the attestation chain takes

The UAE stage is published and short. Everything before it belongs to authorities in another country, and that is where schedules slip.

We do not publish an end-to-end promise, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Nobody in Dubai controls a registrar’s inbox in another country. What is knowable is the UAE stage, and the rest can be tested early: email the registrar today and see how long they take to answer. For visa-side times once the documents are ready, see our UAE visa processing times guide.

Attestation process UAE rules at MOFA: what gets rejected

MOFA’s conditions of use and FAQ are short and strict. Read them once before your first application.

Attestation verification: how to check a MOFA or digital attestation

Attestation verification costs nothing, takes a minute, and is the step most people skip. Do it the moment a document comes back, not when you hand it to an employer.

Attestation verification does not end at the portal: count the stages yourself. On a foreign document you should see the issuing authority or notary, any regional authentication, the foreign ministry or apostille, and the UAE Embassy and MOFA attestations (paper stamps, or a single digital attestation covering both on the online mission route). On a UAE document you should see the issuing entity’s attestation where required and MOFA.

Then confirm the names match the passport exactly, the document type is what you applied for (degree, not transcript), the original is intact and unlaminated, and a legal translation is attached where one is needed.

Attestation process UAE checklist: before you start

An hour spent here removes most of what goes wrong later, and none of it costs anything.

1. Sort every document into issued abroad, issued in the UAE, issued in a third country.
2. Lay each document next to your passport and compare names character by character.
3. Check for lamination, trimming, tears and water damage. A laminated document is not accepted, and removing lamination usually destroys it.
4. Confirm you hold the long-form original, not a photocopy or short extract.
5. Ask UAE issuers for the digital version with a QR code or reference number.
6. Scan everything, both sides, at full resolution. Originals are about to travel.
7. Email the registrar or issuing office abroad and ask how they handle verification, what they charge and how long it takes.
8. Open your UAE mission’s page to see whether it offers the online “two attestations” route.
9. Ask the receiving party exactly which documents it needs attested, and whether it wants a translation.
10. Have UAE Pass ready, at the level needed to use MOFA services.

What goes wrong in the attestation process (UAE), and how to fix it

The two problems the attestation chain cannot solve

A name mismatch needs either a correction by the issuing authority or a linking document such as a marriage certificate or deed poll, which will itself need the full chain. Plan it into the file from the start rather than discovering it at the employer’s HR desk.

A damaged, laminated or lost original needs a replacement from the issuer. For a university that has since merged or closed, the first task is finding who holds the record now: the successor institution, or the national higher education authority. Where the records cannot be produced, the attestation chain cannot start, and it is better to know that in week one.

Attest before you move, or run the attestation chain from here

The single biggest saving available is to run the attestation chain in the country that issued the document, before you leave it.

In the country of issue you can walk documents between authorities, fix a name problem at the counter and collect a replacement certificate in days, without a power of attorney. From the UAE, each of those becomes a courier leg or a request by proxy.

If you are already in the UAE, the online mission route has made this easier where it exists: once stages 1 to 3 are done at home, you can apply for the UAE Embassy attestation and MOFA together from Dubai, and a MOFA-approved provider collects the original in the country of issue. You still need someone there to get the home-country stages done and to hand over the document.

Which documents first: the order inside a family or company file

Documents unlock each other, so the order within a file matters as much as the order within a chain.

Employers: ask at offer stage where the degree was issued and whether it has been attested. Raised after the candidate relocates, the same question becomes a crisis. Our employment visa cost guide shows where documents sit in the visa sequence.

What circulates online that is not true

Attestation process UAE: six cases, worked through

These cases are built from the situations we see most often. Names and identifying details are left out, and the figures are the published ones.

1. A Dubai-born baby’s birth certificate, needed for a passport at home

Situation. Parents of a newborn in Dubai need the birth certificate attested so their home country’s embassy can issue the baby’s passport. They had been told it takes a week.

Route. Pile B. The certificate is issued in the UAE and available digitally with a verification feature. MOFA decides the route automatically; for a supported digital document it is digital attestation, within 2 hours during official working hours. If the parents file through the MOHAP website, MOFA’s FAQ gives a total of AED 300 (MOFA AED 150 plus AED 150 for the UAE Embassy in the destination country).

Lesson. Ask for the digital version before accepting any timeline. The fastest route in the whole system is often sold as the slowest. Then check with the home-country embassy whether it wants its own legalisation too.

2. An engineer’s Indian degree for a Dubai work permit

Situation. An engineer already in Dubai holds a degree from an Indian state university, untouched. The employer needs it attested.

Route. Pile A. Stage 1 and 2 in India (university verification and the state authority), stage 3 the Ministry of External Affairs. Then, because the UAE Embassy in New Delhi offers “One service, two attestations”, a single MOFA online application from Dubai covers the UAE Embassy attestation and MOFA. A MOFA-approved provider collects the original in India within 24 hours of submission and returns it after the embassy releases it; the digital attestation arrives by email. MOFA fee: AED 150 for a personal document, plus service and delivery.

Lesson. The UAE stages are now the easy part. The India stages are where time goes; our Indian degree attestation guide sets out that route.

3. A UK marriage certificate for a spouse visa

Situation. A British resident in Dubai wants to sponsor his wife. They married in England.

Route. Pile A. A certified copy of the marriage certificate from the General Register Office is apostilled by the FCDO (the foreign-office stage). Because the UAE is not a party to the Apostille Convention, the attestation chain continues: the UAE Embassy in London offers digital attestation, so one MOFA application returns a document “digitally attested by the UAE Embassy and by MOFA”.

Lesson. An apostille is a stage, not the end. Read the apostille vs attestation guide before assuming otherwise.

4. A German birth certificate for school admission

Situation. A family relocating from Germany needs their daughter’s birth certificate for a Dubai school. The certificate is in German.

Route. Pile A. The certificate goes through the German authorities’ stages, then the UAE Embassy attestation and MOFA (online or at the counter, depending on what the mission offers). After the attestation chain, the attested original, stamps included, is translated into Arabic by a translator on the Ministry of Justice list. Translating it in Germany first would not satisfy Article 3 of Decree-Law 22 of 2022.

Lesson. Attest the original first, then translate. Check with the school whether it wants the translation.

5. A parent company’s board resolution for a Dubai branch

Situation. A UK company opening a Dubai branch is asked for its certificate of incorporation, articles of association and a board resolution appointing the branch manager, with a power of attorney.

Route. Commercial documents. The resolution and power of attorney are signed before a UK notary; the incorporation documents are certified by the registry. All are apostilled by the FCDO, then given the UAE Embassy attestation and MOFA. MOFA charges AED 2,000 per commercial document, so four documents mean AED 8,000 in MOFA fees alone before service charges.

Lesson. Confirm the exact document list with the licensing authority before attesting. At AED 2,000 a document, one unnecessary document is expensive.

6. A degree in a maiden name, a passport in a married name

Situation. A nurse’s Philippine degree carries her maiden name; her passport shows her married name. The attestation chain was completed, and the licensing application was returned.

Route. The attestation was valid; the file was incomplete. The marriage certificate, which links the two names, had to run its own chain (PSA copy, DFA apostille, then the UAE Embassy stage and MOFA). See our Philippine documents attestation guide.

Lesson. Attestation confirms a document is genuine, not that it is yours. Where names differ, the linking document is part of the file from day one.

How to verify every figure in this guide

What we will and will not do

Related guides

• Attestation cost in the UAE: every published fee line, with worked totals.
• Apostille vs attestation: what an apostille does and does not do for the UAE.
• Equivalency certificate: degree recognition, the separate process.
• Indian degree attestation: the India route in detail.
• Pakistan degree attestation: HEC, IBCC and the embassy stage.
• Philippine documents attestation: CHED, PSA and the DFA apostille.
• UAE government fees 2026: the wider list of official fees.
• Family visa documents checklist: where attested certificates are needed.

Getting documents through the attestation chain and into the visa, permit or licence they are for is what our PRO services in Dubai team handles, from our office in Al Barsha. You can also contact us directly.