UAE Family Visa Document Checklist: What Each Authority Actually Asks For

There is no single UAE family visa document list. ICP publishes one, GDRFA Dubai publishes a different one, and ICP’s own lists differ between its issuance card, its renewal card and its printed services guide. What you need depends on your emirate and on which stage you are at — sponsor file, entry permit, medical, Emirates ID or residence stamping.

Every other checklist you will find flattens this into one list and hopes for the best. This one keeps the authorities separate, quotes each list as published, and marks the items that appear on only one of them. If you would rather hand it over, our UAE visas service handles family files end to end.

How to read this

Two authorities, split by emirate. u.ae puts the routing plainly: it is “General Directorate of Identity and Foreigners Affairs for Dubai visa holders, and through Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security for visa holders of other emirates.”

So: Dubai → GDRFA. Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah → ICP.

And u.ae’s own disclaimer, which applies to this page as much as to theirs: “The conditions are subject to change from time to time. Kindly check with Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security (ICP) or GDRFA.”

The salary and housing conditions behind all of this are in our guide to family visa salary, housing and proof of dependency.

Stage 1 — The sponsor file (Dubai)

In Dubai nothing can start until the sponsor has a file. GDRFA’s service “allows opening a sponsor’s file through which he can sponsor the assisting categories”, and its requirements are published as:

1. Copy of the sponsored person’s passport
2. Copy of the sponsor’s passport
3. Copies of the identity cards of the sponsor and sponsored persons
4. Sponsor’s salary certificate if they work in a government or semi-government entity
5. Certified marriage contract by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where the husband is sponsoring the wife
6. Attested birth certificate where children are being sponsored
7. Letter of continuity of study or certificate of registration for children
8. Attested lease contract issued by Ejari, or proof of property ownership from the Dubai Land Department

Two things on that page are worth noticing. It is the only official page anywhere that names the attesting authority — the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs — for the marriage contract. And GDRFA lists its service availability channel as Amer only, with no digital route published for opening the file.

ICP does not run a separate sponsor-file service with its own published list, but it does state the same precondition: “The host/head of family must have an active sponsor file that enables them to apply for visa and residence services.”

Stage 2 — The entry permit and the residence permit

ICP’s published list for the family category, quoted exactly as it appears on its residence permit card:

• Passport
• Personal Photo
• Water/ Electricity Bill
• Proof of kinship (attested marriage contract, children’s birth certificates).
• Birth certificates to prove children’s ages, or documents proving special needs regardless of age.
• Employment certificate showing family monthly income and housing provision.
• A copy of the personal identification card (Afghanistan / Iran / Iraq).
• Valid health insurance

Note what is not on it: a lease. ICP’s renewal card and its entry-permit card both list a Lease Agreement; this one asks for the utility bill instead. Bring both and the inconsistency stops being your problem.

GDRFA Dubai’s published list for issuing the residence permit to family members is shorter, because the heavy lifting happened at the sponsor-file stage:

1. A recent colour photograph with a white background for the sponsored person.
2. Copy of passport.
3. A decent medical examination approved by the concerned authorities if they are over 18 years old.

GDRFA gives an expected completion time of 48 hours, and notes that where nothing is missing, “the customer will be notified of the approval and the approved application will be sent by e-mail.”

Two documents that appear in only one place

ICP’s printed Services Guide (version 4, last amended December 2023) lists two items for the guarantor that appear nowhere on its web cards:

• “A duly authenticated lease contract.”
• “A certificate from the municipality stating the suitability of housing for the family members.”

A municipality housing-suitability certificate is a significant requirement to find in a PDF and nowhere else. We have not seen it enforced in every case, and we are not going to tell you it is always needed — but if an officer asks for it, that is where it comes from.

Stage 3 — The medical fitness test

Who: “Clearing medical fitness examination applies to all those who have completed the age of 18.”

What it is for: a certificate of good health proving the applicant is free from communicable and infectious diseases. u.ae states the screening targets: “foreign nationals need to be free of all forms of communicable diseases such as HIV and TB.”

One emirate difference worth planning around: “The emirate of Abu Dhabi screen foreign nationals to detect pulmonary tuberculosis by a chest x-ray; however, the emirate of Dubai does not.”

What to bring, per the official service card:

• One passport-type photo
• Copies of the first and second pages of the passport
• Copy of the sponsor’s passport (private sponsorship)
• Copy of the residence or entry permit
• Current Emirates ID or the Emirates ID application form, for a renewal

How long it takes: the service card gives 40 minutes for the examination itself. Emirates Health Services publishes 24 hours to issue the report and result; the older service-card PDF says one to two days. Use the shorter figure as a hope and the longer as a plan.

Where: u.ae links three official centre locators — the Disease Prevention and Screening Center in Abu Dhabi, Dubai Health, and Emirates Health Services.

Fees are published by Emirates Health Services by category, with “+ service centre fees” attached to each, and the category you fall into depends on the occupation being screened. We are not reproducing figures here because the service-card PDF leaves its own fee section blank and the live figures carry no date — ask the centre on the day.

Stage 4 — Emirates ID and biometrics

The single most useful procedural fact in this guide: the Emirates ID and the residence permit are one application, not two. ICP states it twice — “Completion of the service procedures through the unified application for the Emirates ID and residence permit” and “The service must be submitted by the sponsor on behalf of the family members, as it is linked to the issuance of the residence permit under the unified application form.”

Its own required documents for the card are just two lines: passport and personal photo. The conditions attached are where the detail sits:

• “Completing the service requires obtaining the necessary approvals and passing the medical examination with a ‘Fit’ result”
• “The personal photograph must comply with the standards approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).”
• “Individuals who have completed 15 years of age are required to complete the fingerprint and signature procedures through the Authority’s service centers.”

So biometrics from 15, and under-15s do not attend. The card is then “delivered through authorized courier companies.”

On the photo. ICAO standard is the current official spec and it gives no dimensions. ICP’s own Services Guide gives “6/4” with a white background on the family card, “3.5 x 4.5 cm” on passport services and “4/6” elsewhere — the guide contradicts itself. GDRFA asks simply for a recent colour photograph with a white background. A standard white-background passport photo satisfies every version of this.

Stage 5 — Residence stamping (Dubai)

GDRFA’s FAQ publishes the fullest Dubai hand-over list there is, for dependent relative residence stamping:

• Application form from Amer centres or through the GDRFA Dubai mobile application
• Emirates ID registration form
• One photo of the sponsored person, white background
• Sponsored person’s original passport
• Sponsor’s original passport and Emirates ID
• Sponsor’s IBAN number
• Original UAE birth certificate for a newborn
• Valid coloured passport copy of the mother with the residence page
• Attested tenancy contract with a minimum validity of 60 days
• Latest electricity and water bill
• Arabic salary certificate for government, semi-government and free zone employees

Three items there appear nowhere else. The IBAN is not on any ICP list. The 60-day minimum validity on the tenancy contract is the only duration figure any authority publishes about the lease — nothing else states a minimum tenancy length. And the Arabic salary certificate is the only Arabic-language document requirement on any family-visa list we found.

Attestation: the chain

Both authorities ask for an “attested” marriage contract and “attested” birth certificates, and neither sets out the chain. MoFA does.

For a document issued outside the UAE, the published sequence runs: the issuing country’s authority, then that country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then the UAE Embassy or Consulate there, then the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs. MoFA describes its own service as enabling “the attestation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UAE Mission in the destination country. Attestation certifies the authenticity of the signatures and seals on documents issued within or outside the United Arab Emirates.”

Three practical rules MoFA publishes, all of which trip people up:

• “The original document in Arabic or English, or accompanied by a legally certified translation.”
• “The original document must be certified or attested by the relevant competent authorities, where applicable.”
• “The document must not be laminated.”

Timing. For documents issued outside the UAE through a service provider, MoFA says processing “may take up to 7 business days, depending on the selected courier service provider.” Documents issued inside the UAE are faster — digital attestation within two hours during working hours.

For a UAE-issued certificate, the chain is different and shorter. u.ae: “All expatriates must get birth certificates attested by Ministry of Health and Prevention and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Birth certificates stamped by Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH) or Dubai Health Authority (DHA) are equivalent to the seal of Ministry of Health and Prevention.”

And MoFA’s guidance adds that UAE-issued birth certificates, marriage certificates, educational certificates, medical reports and police clearance certificates are attested digitally only.

The fee is not published. MoFA’s attestation page points to a guide for fees, and that guide renders no amounts. What MoFA does publish is how the fee is built: the number of documents, the completion option, which attestations are included, and whether the document is personal or commercial, with the total shown before payment.

Our attestation and translation service handles this stage, which is usually the longest part of a family visa.

Translation into Arabic

This is thinner than you would expect. No ICP or GDRFA page states that the marriage or birth certificate must be translated into Arabic by a licensed translator. MoFA’s wording is a “legally certified translation” and it does not name the Ministry of Justice or a licensed translator.

The one official page that clearly requires an Arabic translation of the marriage certificate is u.ae’s page on having a baby — “attested copy of the marriage certificate translated to Arabic, if it is in a language other than Arabic” — and it requires it for processing the birth certificate, not the visa.

Practically, an Arabic translation is cheap insurance. Officially, the requirement is not written down for the visa itself.

Health insurance

ICP lists “Valid health insurance” as a required document and specifies no plan, tier or coverage level.

Dubai does specify one. The Dubai Health Authority’s insurance portal states the minimum is the Essential Benefits Plan, and — the part that matters for dependants — “Employers are encouraged to provide health insurance coverage for employees’ spouses and dependents. However, if the employer does not provide such coverage, responsibility rests with the sponsor to ensure valid health insurance is obtained.”

In other words, in Dubai your employer must insure you and need not insure your family. That cost sits with you, and it has to be in place before the file completes.

Newborns born in the UAE

Two separate deadlines, and people miss the second one.

30 days to register the birth. “Residents have a maximum period of 30 days to register their child’s birth in the UAE.”

What the hospital or health authority needs: an attested copy of the marriage certificate translated into Arabic if it is not in Arabic, copies and originals of both parents’ passports, the birth notification from the hospital, and the discharge summary.

120 days to complete the visa. “Residents have 120 days from the birth of their child to arrange the formal documents which includes birth certificates, passports, Emirates ID and visas of their newborn babies. If the residence visa is not finalised within 120 days, then a fee of AED100 per day would be charged for each day over the 120-day period, and the baby will not be allowed to exit the country.”

Note that AED 100 per day is a newborn-specific figure and is not the same as the general AED 50 per day overstay fine.

Babies born in government hospitals get the birth certificate as a next step; for private hospitals, parents apply to the Ministry of Health and Prevention or their emirate’s health authority with the birth notification.

What is not published anywhere official

• The medical fitness fee, as a dated official figure. The service-card PDF leaves its fee section empty.
• Whether an Arabic legal translation is required for the visa itself, or who may perform it.
• Whether the translation must come from a Ministry of Justice-licensed translator.
• The MoFA attestation fee as an amount.
• Any minimum accommodation size, or number of rooms.
• Whether labour or staff accommodation disqualifies a sponsor.
• A minimum tenancy duration other than the 60 days on GDRFA’s stamping list.
• Whether a shared or partitioned tenancy is acceptable.
• The minimum health insurance coverage level outside Dubai.
• Whether the municipality housing-suitability certificate in ICP’s printed guide is required in practice.
• Photo dimensions that all official sources agree on. ICAO standard is the current spec and gives none.
• A total end-to-end cost, or a total end-to-end timeline, from either authority.
• Any single official page combining attestation, translation, medical, insurance, Emirates ID and submission channel.

Our advice — practical guidance, not a rule

Marked as advice because no official page prescribes it.

• Start the attestation before anything else. MoFA publishes up to seven business days for a document coming from abroad through a courier, and that is after the issuing country has done its part.
• Assemble the superset, not one authority’s list. The lease, the utility bill, the IBAN and an Arabic salary certificate between them cover every published version, and carrying a document you did not need costs nothing.
• Keep the tenancy contract with at least two months left on it. Sixty days is the only minimum any authority publishes, and it is published for the stamping stage.
• Get the employment certificate to state income and housing in the same document. ICP asks for exactly that, in one line.
• Do not laminate anything. MoFA says so in as many words, and a laminated certificate cannot be attested.
• Budget for the family’s health insurance yourself if you are in Dubai. Your employer’s obligation stops at you.
• For a newborn, work backwards from 120 days, not 30. The registration deadline is the easy one; the visa deadline is the one with the exit ban attached.
• Book the medical early in the sixty-day window after entry, not late. Everything downstream waits on a “Fit” result.

Every document list on this page was taken from the authorities’ own pages and checked on 12 October 2026. ICP’s family service cards carry a page date of December 2024 and its printed services guide was last amended in December 2023; GDRFA’s service cards carry no content date at all; u.ae’s family and newborn pages were refreshed in September 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What documents are required for a UAE family visa?

It depends on the authority and the stage. ICP’s published list is passport, personal photo, utility bill, proof of kinship by attested marriage contract and birth certificates, an employment certificate showing income and housing, and valid health insurance. GDRFA Dubai asks for a photo, a passport copy and a medical examination at the residence stage, having already taken the marriage contract, birth certificates and Ejari at the sponsor-file stage.

How many days does family visa approval take in the UAE?

Both authorities publish a short figure for their own step — ICP gives two days, GDRFA 48 hours. Neither figure covers attestation, the medical or the biometrics, and no authority publishes an end-to-end timeline. What is published is the limit: the family member’s stay must not exceed sixty days from entry while the residence is being completed.

Does the marriage certificate need to be attested?

Yes. Both authorities require an attested or certified marriage contract. GDRFA Dubai is the only one that names the attesting body — the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs — and for a certificate issued abroad that comes at the end of a chain running through the issuing country’s foreign ministry and the UAE mission there.

Does the marriage certificate need to be translated into Arabic?

No ICP or GDRFA page says so for the visa application. MoFA requires documents to be in Arabic or English, or accompanied by a legally certified translation. The only official page clearly requiring an Arabic translation of the marriage certificate requires it for processing a birth certificate.

Do I need an Ejari for a family visa in Dubai?

GDRFA names it: an attested lease contract issued by Ejari, or property ownership from the Dubai Land Department. Its stamping list adds that the tenancy contract should have at least 60 days of validity left.

Does my child need to give fingerprints?

Only from 15. ICP states that individuals who have completed 15 years of age must complete the fingerprint and signature procedures at its service centres.

Is the Emirates ID a separate application?

No. ICP treats the Emirates ID and the residence permit as a single unified application, submitted by the sponsor on the family member’s behalf, and the card is couriered out after the residence is issued.

How long do I have to put my newborn on my visa?

Thirty days to register the birth, and 120 days from the birth to complete the paperwork including the residence visa. After 120 days a fee of AED 100 per day applies and the baby cannot leave the country.

Who pays for my family’s health insurance in Dubai?

You do, unless your employer chooses to cover them. Dubai’s health insurance portal states that where the employer does not cover dependants, responsibility rests with the sponsor.