The UAE Wills Registries, Compared

All of these registries exist to let a non-Muslim formally record a will that will be recognised by UAE authorities — but they sit within different institutions, cover different scopes, and were established at different points, so they are not interchangeable in every respect.

They include the DIFC Courts Wills Service (the DIFC Wills Service Centre described below); the Dubai Courts, where a will is registered through their notary public; and the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department’s Civil Wills Office (the ADJD Office of Non-Muslims Wills described below), which operates in Abu Dhabi.

The purpose of registering a will through one of these routes is to allow a non-Muslim to depart from the default distribution that would otherwise apply to their estate — registering a will is what makes that departure enforceable and recognised, rather than just a private document with uncertain status.

This matters most for people whose intended distribution differs from the default — for example, wanting to leave everything to a spouse, structure inheritance differently among children, or make specific provisions the default position wouldn’t reflect.

Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022 — the federal Personal Status Law for non-Muslims — sets out the framework governing non-Muslims’ personal status matters, including inheritance, and under it non-Muslims may elect to have their home country’s law apply instead of the UAE default position.

Without a registered will making a different choice, a non-Muslim’s estate can be distributed according to the applicable default position rather than according to that person’s own specific wishes — which is exactly the gap these registries exist to let someone close.

The DIFC Wills Service Centre is a dedicated registry within the DIFC’s framework, specifically set up for non-Muslims to register wills covering assets in the UAE — it operates as its own distinct service, separate from Dubai Courts entirely.

It gives non-Muslims investing and living in the UAE the option to pass on their assets or appoint guardians for their children through a registered will, within the DIFC Courts’ common-law, English-language jurisdiction.

• DIFC ↗

This is a dedicated department within Dubai Courts specifically handling non-Muslim inheritance matters: non-Muslim inheritance cases, inheritance files and the execution of wills. It is not where a will is registered; registering a will with the Dubai Courts goes through their notary public, described in the next section.

It sits within the onshore Dubai Courts structure, which is a meaningfully different institutional context from the DIFC Wills Service Centre, and its role comes after a death, when an inheritance file is opened or a will has to be executed, rather than at the point a will is registered.

• Dubai Courts ↗

Dubai Courts also operates a Notary function, and this is the Dubai Courts route through which a non-Muslim’s will is registered: Dubai Courts list the ratification of non-Muslims’ wills among their notary services, with each application approved by the notary public.

That the Non-Muslim Inheritance Department and the Notary do different jobs — the Notary for registering a will, the department for inheritance cases and the execution of wills after a death — is itself a detail people commonly miss, and worth clarifying directly with a lawyer or the relevant office rather than assuming they’re the same thing under two names.

The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) operates an Office of Non-Muslims Wills for registering wills in Abu Dhabi, under Abu Dhabi Law No. 14 of 2021 — the Abu Dhabi equivalent, institutionally, of the Dubai-based registries described above, though run by a separate authority under Abu Dhabi’s own judicial system.

It is worth being precise about who this registry is open to. Asked whether Muslims can register a will, ADJD’s own published answer is that anyone who is not a UAE national can register a will at the Civil Wills Office in Abu Dhabi, regardless of religion. Check the current requirements directly with ADJD before relying on them for a particular will.

• Abu Dhabi Judicial Department ↗

These registries were set up under laws for the wills of non-Muslims — the general purpose across all of them is to let a non-Muslim depart from the default distribution position through a formally registered will.

Eligibility specifics — residency status, asset location, whether a will covers UAE assets only or is intended to interact with assets elsewhere — can differ by registry, which is why confirming eligibility directly with the specific registry (or a lawyer familiar with it) before assuming a given route is available is worth doing rather than skipping.

Under Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022, non-Muslims have the option to elect for their home country’s law to apply to their personal status matters, including inheritance, rather than the UAE default position.

This election operates alongside — not instead of — the will-registration routes described in this guide; a registered will and an election of home-country law are related but distinct tools, and which combination fits a given person’s situation is worth working through with a lawyer rather than assuming one automatically covers the other.

A registered will generally lets a non-Muslim specify how their UAE assets should be distributed, departing from the default position that would otherwise apply — that’s its core function across all of these registries.

What a will registered through one of these routes does not automatically do is resolve every cross-border estate question on its own — someone with assets in more than one country generally needs to think about how a UAE-registered will interacts with wills, or the absence of one, covering assets elsewhere, which is a matter for coordinated advice rather than something any single registry’s process addresses by itself.

For parents of minor children, a will registered through one of these routes is often also where guardianship wishes are recorded — specifying who should have guardianship of children in the event of the parents’ death, rather than leaving that question to default rules.

This is frequently one of the most practically important reasons non-Muslim parents choose to register a will in the UAE specifically, separate from the purely financial-distribution aspects of estate planning.

For someone based in Dubai, there can genuinely be a choice between, for example, the DIFC Wills Service Centre and registering through the Dubai Courts’ notary public — Dubai-area routes with real differences in institutional framework, even though the underlying goal (a recognised, registered will) is the same.

For someone based in Abu Dhabi, the ADJD Office of Non-Muslims Wills is the local registry, but the DIFC route is not closed to them: the DIFC Courts accept a will from anyone aged 18 or over who is not and has never been a Muslim and who owns assets in the UAE and/or has minor children residing with them in the UAE, with no need to be a UAE resident — although the guardianship appointments a DIFC Courts Will covers are for minor children residing in Dubai or Ras Al Khaimah.

The right choice depends on specific circumstances — the nature of the assets, family structure, and personal preference around which institutional framework to use — and is worth discussing directly with a lawyer experienced in the specific registry being considered, rather than defaulting to whichever registry is most commonly discussed online.

That there’s a single “UAE wills registry” — there are several separate ones, run by different authorities, and picking the wrong one for a given situation is a real, avoidable mistake.

That a will is registered with Dubai Courts’ Non-Muslim Inheritance Department — registering a will with the Dubai Courts goes through their notary public, while the department deals with non-Muslim inheritance cases and the execution of wills.

That a Muslim expatriate cannot register a will with the ADJD — asked whether Muslims can register a will, ADJD’s own published answer is that anyone who is not a UAE national can register a will at its Civil Wills Office in Abu Dhabi, regardless of religion.

That registering a will in the UAE automatically resolves inheritance questions for assets held outside the UAE — it doesn’t, on its own; cross-border estates generally need coordinated advice covering each relevant jurisdiction.