NOTARY & ATTESTATION SERVICES

Power of Attorney Notarization & Attestation in the UAE

A power of attorney (POA) lets another person, your attorney, stand in for you in the matters the document names: selling or buying property, managing a company’s licence, a court case, a vehicle. Two facts decide its route. Signed inside the UAE, it is notarized or authenticated through an official channel, and the emirate and channel you choose set the steps. Signed abroad, it is legalised in stages first: the Dubai Land Department, for one, accepts a foreign POA only once every stage is complete. This page follows both routes, from the paperwork to the counter where the POA is finally used.

LAST REVIEWED 30 SEPTEMBER 2026

Dubai Courts’ Power of Attorney Service

In Dubai, the court’s notary service for this document is called Power of Attorneys Ratification. Dubai Courts describes it as giving clients an authorisation to delegate others to take their place in the transactions they want. It is open to all customers, through the Dubai Courts website (registration required first) or at a Dubai Courts service centre.

The court publishes the customer journey. You file the application: the type of service, each party’s data and identification number, the items the POA will cover, the supporting documents and an electronic fee payment. The system then assigns the drafting route, from the service settings or your choice between the court’s controlled and free editor, and that choice, with the data you entered, decides whether the POA can be reviewed without the parties or needs them to attend virtually or in person. An auditor checks the entries, fees, draft and attachments, verifying any POA under which a party is represented. The application is approved, sent back for changes or rejected with reasons; the service provider signs and approves it; the notary contacts you if needed; and the attested POA arrives by email.

Documents and Signatories Dubai Courts Requires

Every application uploads, as PDFs, proof of identity (Emirates ID or passport) and proof of identity for the attorney, with any powers already conferred. The rest of the upload list follows the POA’s subject: a trademark registration certificate for a trademark POA; a valid trade licence, and the relevant contracts and documents, for a company or establishment; a determination-of-heirs or death certificate for an estate; the legal guardian’s death certificate for a POA to solemnise a marriage; the marriage certificate or contract for divorce proceedings; the title deed for property; and a valid vehicle possession certificate for a vehicle.

Two conditions attach to every supporting document. One not in Arabic needs a legal translation certified by the UAE Ministry of Justice. One issued outside the UAE must already carry the attestations of that country’s foreign ministry, the UAE Embassy there and, finally, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, as the court names it. So a foreign company’s certificate supporting a POA signed in Dubai has to complete that chain before it is uploaded.

The court also sets age thresholds for both sides: principal and attorney must each be at least 21 lunar-calendar years old when the POA concerns civil matters, and at least 18 when it concerns commercial matters. Online attestation is open only to parties holding a valid Emirates ID; a party with a passport and no Emirates ID attends the notary in person. Where a party lacks legal capacity, their legal guardian may appear for them once the competent authority approves.

What Dubai’s Notaries Law Requires of the Document

Dubai Law No. 4 of 2013 Concerning Notaries Public applies to anyone practising as a notary in the emirate, free zones and Special Development Zones included. Before processing a POA, the notary must verify the identity, eligibility, capacity and consent of the parties and of any legal attorneys acting for them, and that they know what the instrument says and have the legal capacity to execute it. If any of that cannot be verified, or the application conflicts with public order or the legislation in force, or is aimed at deceiving or defrauding others, the notary must decline it.

Identity is proved by a passport or Emirates ID, by an official document from a competent UAE entity, or by two trustworthy witnesses who know the party. The instrument must be in Arabic, with two permitted exceptions. A bilingual POA puts both texts in one continuous document, and the parties sign each page opposite each text. A POA written only in a foreign language has an Arabic translation by a certified legal translator attached, both are signed by the parties, and the notary attests the foreign-language text.

Where the notary does not know a party’s language, a translator is used and signs the instrument file; a party unable to sign has their fingerprint affixed instead. An application the party leaves incomplete is struck off 60 days after registration, and finishing it then takes a new application and a new fee. Once processed, the POA has the evidentiary value of an official document and can be challenged only by a claim of forgery, a rule the 2021 amending law applies to traditional and electronic instruments alike.

Private Notaries and the Limits on Every Notary

Since the 2021 amendment, notary work in Dubai may be performed only by Government Notaries Public, Private Notaries Public, employees of government entities registered on the court’s Roll, and the e-Notary Public. A private notary is a natural person registered on that Roll to exercise certain functions of a Government Notary Public, and must practise through a firm licensed in the emirate and authorised by Dubai Courts. The court publishes its directory of private notary offices online.

Which functions a private notary holds is set by resolution. The amended law lets a resolution of the Director of the Courts assign private notaries any Government Notary Public function, attesting parties’ signatures on documents and contracts among them, and Resolution No. 36 of 2014 bars anyone on the Roll from exercising a function they have not been authorised to exercise. Article 21 of the 2013 law then limits every notary, public or private: none may attest an instrument that creates, transfers, changes or extinguishes ownership or another real right in real property; register or attest one on the family affairs of Muslims or on endowments (waqf); handle one that the legislation reserves exclusively to another authority; or process an application in which the notary, a spouse or a relative up to the fourth degree has an interest.

Whether a particular POA sits within a private office’s authorised functions is a question for that office; whether the receiving body will accept it is a question for that body. For a property POA, put both questions before anyone signs.

The Federal Digital POA and Abu Dhabi’s English-Language Bureau

The federal Ministry of Justice offers a digital route through its Notary Public and Attestation Department. Its service Writing and authentication of contracts and deeds covers general and special powers of attorney and sale contracts, and the ministry describes it as drafting documents without the intervention of a notary public. The POA is requested as a “Digital Power of Attorney” and signed with UAE PASS, and the ministry lists the service duration as one day.

Launching the service’s second phase in June 2023, the ministry said the platform offered eight types of POA, among them lawyer representation and POAs for legal cases, real estate, rental disputes, licensing, vehicles, stocks and company management. It added that customers could produce a ratified digital POA in less than ten minutes with no trip to a notary office, keep it in a digital wallet and share it with third parties and competent authorities.

In Abu Dhabi, the Judicial Department’s Notary Services Bureau in English, launched in October 2023, lists all types of power of attorney among the transactions it authenticates digitally in English. Its POA forms follow who grants the power and over what: an owner or a partner granting management of all commercial licences, or management and disposal of a specific licence; an owner, a partner or partners granting management and disposal of a specific property; special POAs for a specific property, specific shares or all shares, a specific car or cars, and managing and disposing of a commercial licence; and a general POA. The completed form is signed in the space provided on every page and uploaded as a clear scanned PDF with the application.

Signing Abroad: How a Foreign POA Is Legalised

UAE missions set the first step. The UAE Embassy in New Delhi states that legal documents such as powers of attorney must be signed in front of a notary or legal authority in India and then attested by that country’s foreign ministry; the embassy in Dhaka says the same for Bangladesh. Both add that a POA containing commercial content is considered a commercial document.

That classification follows the POA to the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its FAQ lists a power of attorney of personal nature among personal status documents, but a power of attorney of commercial nature, and any general power of attorney, among commercial documents, which carry a different fee. For a document issued abroad, MoFA’s attestation runs through selected UAE missions: you apply under “Attestation through UAE Missions Abroad”, and where a mission has no electronic service, you visit it in person.

For property in Dubai, the Dubai Land Department spells the sequence out: a POA issued outside the UAE is accepted for DLD transactions only once ratified by the notary public and the foreign ministry in the country of origin, then by the UAE Embassy in that country, and last by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Because DLD lets an attorney act only within the limits the POA states, fix the property, the acts authorised and the attorney’s details before the document is signed abroad.

Presenting the POA at the Dubai Land Department

Apart from the transactions developers record through their own self-registration system, DLD registers transactions made by owners, or by their representatives under an official power of attorney, with the parties present at a Real Estate Registration Trustee centre. Its sale-registration service is open to the seller and the buyer or their legally authorised representatives, and gift registration requires a legal POA whenever someone acts for the parties.

DLD also puts a shelf life on the document. A POA for sale, mortgage or grant transactions is valid for two years; one to purchase is valid for five years from the date it was notarized. For a property sold at auction, the certified POA’s date of issue must be no more than two years old.

Tenancy registration has its own rule. At a Real Estate Services Trustee office, an attorney registering an Ejari contract shows the official POA: one issued in Dubai can be entered by its number without attaching a copy, while one issued in another emirate has to be attached.

Checking, Cancelling and Timing a Notarized POA

Dubai Courts runs a Certificates inquiry among its notary public services, searchable by document type, the Authentication Register included, and the Ministry of Justice’s E-Notary System page links to its own search and verification tool. To withdraw a POA, Dubai Courts’ Legal Notices service sends a notice attested by the notary public, and the court lists cancelling a power of attorney among its uses. That service carries the same Emirates ID, translation and foreign-attestation conditions as the POA service.

Official timings are few. The Ministry of Justice lists one day for its digital POA. Dubai Courts’ page for Power of Attorneys Ratification publishes no processing time, and DLD’s POA answers give none. For attestation outside the UAE through a service provider, MoFA gives up to 15 business days, depending on the courier chosen, and the notary and foreign-ministry steps in the issuing country come before that.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Power of Attorney Notarization & Attestation

DLD’s published answer is two years for a POA covering sale, mortgage or grant transactions, and five years from the date of notarization for a POA to purchase. For a property sold at auction, the certified POA must have been issued no more than two years earlier.

Proof of identity (Emirates ID or passport) and the attorney’s, with any conferred powers, as PDFs. Then the paper matching the subject: the title deed for property, a trade licence for a company, a trademark certificate, an heirship or death certificate for an estate, a marriage certificate for divorce proceedings, or a vehicle possession certificate.

Yes, under Dubai’s notaries law: the parties attach an Arabic translation by a certified legal translator, sign both texts, and the notary attests the English text. A bilingual POA instead sets both texts in one continuous document, signed on every page. At Dubai Courts, supporting documents not in Arabic need a Ministry of Justice-certified legal translation.

As a commercial document. The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists a general power of attorney, and any POA of commercial nature, among commercial documents; only a POA of personal nature sits with personal status documents. The UAE Embassies in New Delhi and Dhaka likewise treat a POA with commercial content as commercial.

A private notary practises through a firm authorised by Dubai Courts and exercises only the functions assigned to them. No Dubai notary may attest an instrument creating or transferring ownership or another real right in real property. Yet Dubai Courts’ POA service asks for a title deed with property POAs, so check with the office and DLD first.

The Legal Notices service, which sends a warning or legal notice attested by the notary public; the court lists cancelling a power of attorney among its uses. Filing online needs a valid Emirates ID, a party holding only a passport attends in person, and documents not in Arabic need a Ministry of Justice-certified legal translation.

For a POA on civil matters, both must be at least 21 by the lunar calendar; for commercial matters, at least 18. If one party lacks legal capacity, their legal guardian may appear on their behalf once the competent authority approves.

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