The short version. Which notary you use depends on the emirate where you sign, not the document: Dubai Courts or a licensed private notary in Dubai, the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department in Abu Dhabi, RAK Courts in Ras Al Khaimah, and the federal system elsewhere. Bring your Emirates ID or passport, the other party's ID, and the supporting papers. A document not in Arabic generally needs a certified legal translation, except at Abu Dhabi's English bureau. Many services run online, but a passport-only applicant may have to attend in person. Official fees start around AED 100 per party for a Dubai Courts POA. Going abroad? The UAE has no apostille: notary, then MOFA, then the embassy.
📚 In this guide
- Which notary handles your document
- What a notary checks — and what it doesn't
- Court notary, private notary or online
- How notarisation works, step by step
- What to bring
- The Arabic question
- Official fees, with sources
- Powers of attorney: validity and cancellation
- Using a notarised document abroad
- Why files come back from the notary
- FAQ
Which Notary Handles Your Document
The first question is not "what am I signing?" but "where am I signing it?" The UAE has one federal notary law, Federal Decree-Law No. 20 of 2022, which replaced Federal Law No. 4 of 2013. Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah, which run their own judiciaries, also run their own notary services.
| Emirate | Who notarises | Online route |
|---|---|---|
| Dubai | Dubai Courts notary, plus private notaries licensed by Dubai Courts under Dubai Law No. 4 of 2013. The court publishes the register of licensed offices | Dubai Courts smart electronic notary: submit any time, reviewed in working hours, virtual or in-person attendance by service |
| Abu Dhabi (incl. Al Ain, Al Dhafra) | Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) under Abu Dhabi Law No. 11 of 2017, plus ADJD-licensed private notaries and an English Notary Services Bureau. ADGM Courts has a notary for ADGM matters | Apply on the ADJD website; after approval the notary meets you remotely by appointment and attests digitally |
| Ras Al Khaimah | RAK Courts notary, through its service centres (including at RAKEZ and RAK Municipality) | Check RAK Courts' e-services for your transaction |
| Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain | The federal judicial system under the Ministry of Justice, and MOJ-licensed private notaries | MOJ e-Notary, and the MOJ digital power of attorney service |
One practical consequence: a resident of one emirate is not tied to that emirate's notary for everything. You can often sign in Dubai while living in Sharjah. What matters is that the channel you choose offers your transaction and that the receiving authority accepts the result. Confirm the office for your emirate on its official channel. Our UAE authority directory lists them in one place.
What a Notary Checks — and What It Doesn't
A notary public is a witness with legal force. At the counter or on the video call, the notary confirms the identity of each signatory, their legal capacity (21 lunar years for civil matters, 18 for commercial ones), and that they understand and intend what they sign. The notary then records the instrument so it can later be verified. The documents that pass through this process most often:
- Powers of attorney: general and special, for property, vehicles, companies, cases and lawyers. See our bilingual power of attorney service.
- Contracts and signature authentication: sale agreements, commercial contracts, acknowledgements of debt.
- Company documents: memoranda of association, partner and board resolutions, share transfers, managers' POAs.
- Declarations and undertakings, including travel consent letters for children.
What the notary does not do is fix the document. The notary will not redraft a vague POA into one a bank accepts, will not correct a translation, and will not notice that the name on page two is transliterated differently from the Emirates ID. A notarised document with the wrong scope is a correctly notarised wrong document.
This is the idea to hold onto: notarisation certifies the signing, not the substance. Every rejection that happens after the notary — at the bank, the Land Department, the embassy — traces back to something that was decided before the notary ever saw the file.
Court Notary, Private Notary or Online
| Court / public notary | Licensed private notary (Dubai) | Online / remote | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Lowest official fees | Official private notary fees (set in 2026); a visit outside the office costs AED 1,000 | Same fee schedule as the authority running it |
| Convenience | Working hours; appointments or queues | Office hours set by the firm; can visit homes and hospitals | No travel; sessions run in the authority's working hours |
| Limits | Full scope of the authority | Excludes some matters by law, including family matters for Muslims and property transfer registration | Depends on ID: e.g. passport-only POA applicants at Dubai Courts attend in person |
| How to check | Official court site | The Dubai Courts register of private notary offices | Official portal only, never a link sent by a stranger |
For people outside the country, the Ministry of Justice's digital power of attorney covers eight types: representation by a lawyer, legal cases, real estate, rental disputes, licensing, vehicles, stocks and company management. For those eight, it is usually the route that avoids a flight.
How Notarisation Works, Step by Step
| # | Step | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Draft the document with the right scope | General or special POA? Which assets, which acts, which authority? This is where most later rejections are decided |
| 2 | Prepare the Arabic: bilingual text or a certified legal translation | Start this first. It is the step that takes days, and everything after it can be quick |
| 3 | Choose the channel and apply | Court smart notary, private notary, ADJD online, RAK Courts, or MOJ e-Notary |
| 4 | Identity check and signing | In person or by video, with every signatory's ID |
| 5 | Pay the fees and receive the notarised document | Often digital and verifiable. ADJD states 2 working days for POA and contract services |
| 6 | Legalise if used abroad | MOFA attestation, then the destination embassy (see below) |
What to Bring
- Emirates ID or passport for every signatory. For online services, check whether a passport alone is accepted.
- The other party's ID, for a POA the agent's, where the service requires it.
- Supporting documents for the act: title deed, vehicle registration, trade licence, heirship certificate, the company's constitutional documents.
- The Arabic or bilingual version of any document not in Arabic, certified as the authority requires.
- Legalised originals of any supporting document issued abroad: attested in the country of issue, by the UAE embassy there, and by MOFA.
The Arabic Question
Arabic is the language of UAE courts, and the notary system follows it. Dubai Courts requires non-Arabic documents to carry a legal translation certified by the UAE Ministry of Justice. ADJD requires a translation by a certified translator, with the translator's licence card attached.
The exception worth knowing is Abu Dhabi's English Notary Services Bureau, opened by ADJD in October 2023. It accepts English-language contracts, declarations, settlement agreements, powers of attorney, signature authentications and corporate resolutions without an Arabic translation. That is a genuine saving, with one caveat: if the document will later be relied on before an Arabic-language authority, a court, or another emirate, the Arabic still has to exist. It has only moved later in the process.
Bilingual layout is usually the cleaner answer for anything with legal consequence: Arabic and English side by side, one signature, one notarisation, no argument later about which version governs. That is how we draft bilingual powers of attorney. For existing documents, our MOJ-certified legal translations start from AED 60 per page, with 48-hour delivery and same-day rush available.
Official Fees, With Sources
Most fee tables online mix government fees with service charges and don't say when they were checked. The figures below come from the authorities' own publications, and each one says where it comes from.
| Authority | Fee | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Dubai Courts: POA ratification | AED 100 per party + AED 20 Knowledge and Innovation fee | Dubai Courts service page |
| Dubai private notaries | AED 100 per party (electronic registration) · AED 100 per signature · AED 1,000 per visit outside the office | Dubai Courts decision, effective 2 January 2026 |
| ADJD: general or special POA | AED 100 per year of validity (+ AED 500 if signature authentication is added) | ADJD notary guidance manual |
| ADJD: signature authentication · undertaking · POA revocation | AED 500 · AED 500 · AED 100 | ADJD notary guidance manual |
| ADJD: contracts | AED 500 (under AED 50,000 or unvalued) · AED 1,000 (AED 50,000–200,000) · 0.5% above AED 200,000, capped at AED 20,000 | ADJD notary guidance manual |
| MOFA: attestation for use abroad | AED 150 personal · AED 2,000 commercial | MOFA FAQs |
For Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain, fees follow the federal Cabinet resolution on notary fees. Take the figure from the Ministry of Justice's own channel for your transaction rather than a third-party list. Fees in every emirate are revised from time to time, so treat this table as a planning guide and confirm on the authority's page before you pay.
Powers of Attorney: Validity and Cancellation
A power of attorney does not last forever by default. In Abu Dhabi, ADJD sets a maximum validity of three years from notarisation, or five years for a POA given to a lawyer, and the fee is charged per year of validity. Elsewhere, check the term with the authority and, just as importantly, with the party that will rely on the POA. Property and banking counterparties often apply their own rules on how recent a POA must be.
Cancelling a POA is itself a notarised act. The principal revokes it before the notary and the agent must be notified, because a revocation the agent has not received does not protect you from acts already done in good faith. Revocation can be full or partial. Some POAs cannot be revoked unilaterally at all, notably one made for the agent's own benefit or one tied to a third party's right. In practice, notify the bank, the Land Department or any other party the agent dealt with, not only the notary.
Using a Notarised Document Abroad
The UAE is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so there is no apostille to order, whatever an online form suggests. A UAE notarised document goes abroad through a chain:
1 — Notarisation in the UAE, as above.
2 — MOFA attestation by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, issued digitally with a QR code: AED 150 for personal documents, AED 2,000 for commercial ones, and about 3 working days by courier (1 with express).
3 — Embassy legalisation by the destination country's embassy or consulate in the UAE, where that country requires it.
4 — Translation into the destination's language, where required. Plan it into the chain from the start rather than after the stamps.
The reverse direction runs the same logic: a POA signed abroad for use in the UAE is legalised in the country of signing, attested by the UAE embassy there and by MOFA, and translated into Arabic here. The details are in our apostille vs attestation guide, the MOFA attestation guide and the embassy legalisation guide.
Why Files Come Back From the Notary
- The wrong emirate or channel, e.g. a service not offered online, or a passport-only applicant booked into an online POA session.
- A general POA doing a special POA's job. Transfers of ownership and mortgages need to be spelled out; broad wording is not the same as specific authority.
- No certified Arabic for a non-Arabic document, outside the English bureau.
- Names that don't match across the passport, Emirates ID, draft and translation.
- Supporting documents from abroad that were never legalised before they reached the UAE notary.
- A private notary asked for something the law excludes, such as property transfer registration in Dubai.
- An apostille requested for a country route that runs through MOFA and the embassy instead.
- A signatory without capacity: under 21 for a civil act, or a person under guardianship, who must act through a guardian.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which notary public do I use in the UAE?
The emirate decides: Dubai Courts or a licensed private notary in Dubai, ADJD in Abu Dhabi, RAK Courts in Ras Al Khaimah, and the federal Ministry of Justice system in Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain. Confirm on the official channel before you go.
Do documents need to be in Arabic?
Usually. Dubai Courts wants an MOJ-certified legal translation of non-Arabic documents, and ADJD wants a certified translator's translation with licence card, except at its English Notary Services Bureau.
Can I notarise online?
Often. Dubai Courts has a smart electronic notary, ADJD meets applicants remotely, and the MOJ issues digital POAs across eight types. But ID matters: at Dubai Courts a passport-only POA applicant attends in person.
How much does it cost?
From AED 100 per party plus AED 20 for a Dubai Courts POA. Dubai private notaries charge AED 100 per party and AED 100 per signature, and ADJD charges AED 100 per year of POA validity. Translation and MOFA are separate. Confirm current fees with the authority.
Is a private notary valid?
Yes, when the notary is licensed. Check the Dubai Courts register. Private notaries can't handle some matters, including property transfer registration and family matters for Muslims.
Does the UAE issue apostilles?
No. The UAE is not in the Apostille Convention. Documents go notary → MOFA (AED 150 personal / AED 2,000 commercial) → destination embassy.