Start here: the UAE is not an apostille country
This is the single most important thing to understand, and it is where most people lose weeks. The United Arab Emirates is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention. A UK apostille on its own is never sufficient for a document that will be used in the UAE.
An apostille is one step in a longer chain. After the apostille, the document still has to be legalised by the UAE Embassy in London. If someone has told you "just get it apostilled and you are done", that advice is wrong, and acting on it means paying twice.
UK documents for use in the UAE
Three stages. What you skip depends on what kind of document you hold.
- Solicitor certification or notarisation. Required for private documents such as contracts, powers of attorney, affidavits and certified copies. Not required for original UK registrar certificates, which the chain accepts directly: birth, marriage and death certificates, and Companies House certificates.
- FCDO apostille. The Legalisation Office attaches the apostille. Fees and timings are published below.
- UAE Embassy legalisation in London. Submitted with the apostille attached. The embassy accepts documents by post only. Nothing can be handed in or collected in person.
What the FCDO actually charges, and how long it actually takes
These are the current published government fees. They are not our fees.
| Service | Fee per document | Turnaround | Who can use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard (paper) | £45 | Up to 25 working days, plus postage | Anyone |
| e-Apostille | £35 | Up to 2 working days | Anyone. Not available for birth, death, marriage or DBS certificates |
| Next-day (paper) | £40 | Next working day | Registered businesses only |
| Restricted urgent | £100 | Same day, pre-approval required | Registered businesses only |
Source: GOV.UK, Get a document legalised. Verified 17 August 2026. Return courier is charged separately: £6 within the UK, £32 to selected European countries, £42 to the rest of the world, per 1.5kg.
At the embassy
- Postal submission only. You will need the online payment receipt, a covering letter with your email and mobile number, a self-addressed registered or recorded delivery envelope, and a front-and-back photocopy of every document.
- Processing is stated as up to five working days from receipt, and documents can only be traced after that point.
- Payment is online only, through the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs portal. A transaction fee of 3 dirhams plus 2 per cent applies.
Source: UAE Embassy London, attestation service. Embassy fees vary by document type and are set in dirhams, so the sterling figure moves with the exchange rate. We confirm the current figure with the embassy on every file rather than publishing a number that goes stale.
Things that get documents rejected
These are the causes we see most often, and every one of them costs you the fee and the wait a second time.
- Bundled apostilles. If several documents were apostilled together as one bundle, the embassy will not accept them. Each document must be certified or legalised separately.
- Lamination. A laminated original cannot be stamped as it is. This is normally solved with a solicitor-certified true copy rather than a replacement certificate, but confirm the route before submitting anything.
- Non-UK academic certificates. The London embassy legalises academic certificates issued in the UK, Ireland and Iceland. A degree from elsewhere has to go through the chain in the country that issued it.
- Photocopies where originals are required. Registrar certificates must be originals, not certified copies.
UAE documents for use in the UK
This direction is barely written about anywhere, and it is where most of the confusion sits. It is also simpler than people expect.
The first thing to know is that British embassies and consulates cannot legalise documents of any kind. There is no "British Embassy stamp" step in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. If someone has told you to get one, they are describing a process that does not exist.
Source: GOV.UK, notarial and documentary services guide for the UAE.
The second thing is that the UK has no general inbound legalisation requirement. Whether your UAE document needs attestation at all depends entirely on who is asking for it — a university, an employer, the Home Office and a court may each want something different. Before you spend anything, ask the receiving body in writing what they require. We will do that for you if it is easier.
Where attestation is required, the chain is:
- Issue or notarisation by the relevant UAE authority: the courts, a notary public, the Ministry of Education, or a health authority, depending on the document.
- MOFA attestation. Applied through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The digital route completes within about two hours during business hours; the courier route takes one to three business days.
- Certified Arabic to English translation where the document is in Arabic and the receiving body requires English.
Published MOFA fees are AED 150 per personal document and AED 2,000 per commercial document. Note that a diploma and its transcript count as two documents, not one — a detail that catches people out on cost.
Source: UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, attestation service.
Realistic end-to-end timelines
Most agencies quote you one stage and let you assume it is the whole thing. Here is the honest arithmetic.
| Route | Realistic total | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| UK → UAE, our route | About 7 to 12 working days | Next-day apostille through our FCDO business registration, then the embassy stage |
| UK → UAE, if you do it yourself | About 6 to 7 weeks | Up to 25 working days at the FCDO, 5 at the embassy, plus postage both ways |
| UAE → UK | 2 hours to 3 working days | MOFA digital or courier, plus translation if needed |
If you are working to a visa deadline, a job start date or a court date, tell us the date first. It changes which route makes sense, and occasionally it means we will tell you the deadline is not achievable, which is more useful than finding out in week five.
What we charge and what we do
We work on a fixed fee per document, quoted before we start, separate from and on top of the government fees set out above. You will always see the two split out, so you know what is a state charge and what is us.
What that covers: checking your documents are in a state that will actually pass before anything is submitted, handling the solicitor or notary stage, the FCDO submission through the business channel, the embassy submission and payment, tracking, and getting the finished documents to you. If something is going to be rejected, we tell you at the start rather than after you have paid for it.
Whose side we are on
Al Hisn Partners acts for the client and only the client. We are retained by you, we take instructions from you, and our fee is paid by you.
There is no counterparty here, but the same rule applies to the solicitors, notaries and couriers we use. We take no referral commission from any of them, and government fees are passed through at cost and shown separately from our own.
Common questions
Is an apostille enough for the UAE?
No. The UAE is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so an apostille alone is never sufficient. After the FCDO apostille, the document must also be legalised by the UAE Embassy in London before it can be used in the UAE.
Do I still need separate MOFA attestation inside the UAE after the London embassy?
In most cases the London embassy stage now produces a document that is ready for use in the UAE, and a separate visit to MOFA inside the country is not needed. Because practice here has changed recently and can vary by document type and by the body receiving it, we confirm the position for your specific document before we start rather than assuming it.
How long does the whole process really take?
Through us, about seven to twelve working days for a UK document going to the UAE. We are registered with the FCDO through our UK arm, so we submit on the next-day business channel rather than the public queue. If you do it yourself on the standard service, expect six to seven weeks, because the FCDO standard route alone is up to 25 working days. Going the other way, a UAE document attested by MOFA can be done in as little as two hours.
My certificate is laminated. Is that a problem?
Usually solvable. A laminated original cannot go through the chain as it is, because the stamps have to be applied to the document itself. In most cases the fix is straightforward: a solicitor or notary certifies a photocopy as a true copy of the original, and that certified copy is what goes through the apostille and legalisation chain. Ordering a replacement from the issuing institution is the fallback, not the first resort. Send us a photo of the certificate and we will tell you which route applies.
Can you attest a degree from a country other than the UK?
Not through the London embassy. It legalises academic certificates issued in the UK, Ireland and Iceland. A degree issued elsewhere has to go through the legalisation chain in the country that issued it. We can tell you what that chain looks like for your country.
Do I need to send you my original documents?
For most of the chain, yes. Originals are required for registrar certificates and for the apostille itself. We will confirm exactly what needs to travel and what does not before you post anything, and we use tracked delivery in both directions.
What does it cost?
Government fees are published above and are the same for everyone. Our own fee is fixed per document and quoted upfront once we know what you have. We will not quote a range and then adjust it later.
Who pays you, and do you ever take a fee from the other side?
Our client pays us, and only our client. We do not accept a fee, commission, rebate or referral payment from a counterparty, or from any agent, provider, supplier or institution we introduce or work alongside. If one is offered, we decline it. This applies across every service we provide, without exception.