New to DubaiHow to get your Emirates ID in Dubai, and what you'll need it for
You don't apply for an Emirates ID on its own. It comes with your residence visa. Your sponsor (usually your employer) starts the process. You do a medical test and give your fingerprints, and the card reaches you once the visa is approved. You renew it with your visa, and you'll need it for almost everything, because the card is now your proof that you live here legally.
Below, we go through each step in order: applying, the biometrics appointment, getting the card, using it and renewing it. We also point out where people tend to get caught out.
What the Emirates ID actually is
It's a plastic smart card with a chip in it. The card shows your name, photo, nationality, date of birth and gender. It also has a 15-digit ID number that stays linked to you. It's issued by the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security, known as ICP.
For residents, the card also does the job of your visa. Since April 2022 the UAE hasn't put residence stickers in passports, and your visa details are on your Emirates ID instead. So when someone asks to see your visa, they mean your Emirates ID.
You'll be typing that number into forms all the time, so keep a photo of both sides somewhere safe on your phone. There's also a digital version in ICP's app. Still, the team's rule is simple: always carry the physical card.
How you apply: it comes with your visa
The residence visa and the Emirates ID now use a single application form. In Dubai, the visa side goes through GDRFA (the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs).
Who does the paperwork depends on your situation. If you're employed, your company's PRO (the person who handles government forms for the company) will do most of it. If you're self-employed, the company that helped you set up your business usually takes care of it. Family sponsors often use a typing centre, which is a shop that fills in and sends off government applications for you.
On the whole the process goes smoothly, and someone will usually guide you through each step. Some providers sell 'VIP' services, such as one-day processing or skipping the queue at the medical. If speed matters more to you than the extra spend, those services exist. The usual order is:
- Entry permit: your sponsor applies so you can enter or stay in the UAE while the visa is processed.
- Medical fitness test: a blood test and a chest X-ray at an approved centre.
- Health insurance: in Dubai you can't get or renew a residence visa without it. Your sponsor usually arranges it.
- Visa and Emirates ID application: sent in together on the one form.
- Biometrics: fingerprints and a photo at a service centre, if you're called.
- Approval: the visa is issued, and your card is printed and sent out.
The medical test
Most of the NTD Team go to the medical test centre at Ibn Battuta Mall. Get there early. One of us has gone there for 15 years and has never waited more than 30 minutes.
The biometrics appointment
Not everyone gets called. Children under 15 don't give fingerprints. If you are called, you'll get an SMS telling you which centre to go to and when. Take your original passport and the appointment message, and leave yourself time. Centres get busy, and paperwork in Dubai can always take longer than you expect.
Here's a warning from our own experience. A free zone rejected one team member's photo three times, so the agency handling her application used AI to 'enhance' it. The edited photo was accepted, but it then caused problems at the biometrics checks in government offices. It was fixed before she flew, but it was close. Use only real, unedited photos for any ID, and don't let anyone talk you into anything else.
Getting your card
Once the card is printed, you'll get an SMS saying how it will reach you. How long that takes varies a lot, so don't plan around a fixed date. Until it arrives, you can see the digital version in ICP's app.
Put a phone number on the form that you'll actually answer. Dubai doesn't have postcodes, and regular mail isn't how things arrive here. Couriers deliver, and they phone you to find your building. You can start on a visitor SIM and move to a resident line once your ID arrives, and you can usually keep the same number. Our guide to getting a SIM card in Dubai explains how.
When the card arrives, check every detail against your passport. A misspelt name or a wrong date will cause trouble later with banks and contracts. If anything is wrong, tell whoever handled your application straight away. If you'd like to track your application before then, here's how to use GDRFA Dubai to check and manage your visa.
What you'll use it for (nearly everything)
Most of your first month depends on this card. These are the places newcomers meet it first:
- Opening a bank account. Banks ask for your Emirates ID, so the card often decides when you can start getting paid into a local account. Expect to redo your signature several times. See how to open a bank account in Dubai.
- Getting a resident mobile line, which is registered to your ID.
- Signing a tenancy and registering it with Ejari, Dubai's official tenancy register.
- Connecting DEWA electricity and water in your name.
- Setting up UAE Pass, the national digital ID app you use to log in to government services. We use it for everything. Read UAE Pass: what it is and how to set it up.
- Getting a UAE driving licence or registering a car.
- Seeing a doctor or using your health insurance at a clinic.
- Using the smart gates at Dubai airport. You don't need to register in advance, and you can check whether you're registered on the GDRFA Dubai website using your Emirates ID details.
Renewing, replacing and changing jobs
Your Emirates ID is tied to your residence visa, so you renew the two together. If your employer renews your visa, the card is renewed along with it. You may need a new medical test, and you might be asked to give biometrics again.
Once the card expires, you have 30 days to renew it. After that, a fine is added for every day you're late. Don't treat that month as spare time, and never overstay your visa. Set a calendar reminder a couple of months before the expiry date.
If your card is lost, stolen or damaged, report it to ICP and apply for a replacement straight away. How long the new card takes varies. If you leave the UAE for good and your visa is cancelled, the card no longer proves you live here.
Changing jobs means a new sponsor and new visa paperwork, and this is where people get caught out. Some people, including some employers' PROs, will tell you what you want to hear so they don't have to deal with questions. Check what happens to your visa and your card, and when. Make calls, ask friends, and remember that procedures change from time to time.
Living in another emirate
The Emirates ID is issued by ICP, a federal authority, not by any one emirate. That means the card works across the whole country.
What changes is who handles your visa. Dubai residence visas go through GDRFA Dubai, and visas issued in other emirates go through different offices. If you live in Sharjah and work in Dubai, the offices and apps you deal with depend on where your visa was issued, not where you live. Ask your employer before you start so you don't end up in the wrong queue. One more thing about Sharjah: the daily drive into Dubai is a frustrating commute, and we don't recommend it.
Ask people who've done it, then double-check
Friends and colleagues who've lived here a while are the quickest way to find out what the process is really like. Listen to them, but don't take what they say as the final answer. Rules here change quickly, and what worked for someone last year may not work now. Get a second opinion, and treat the official GDRFA and ICP channels as the final word.
Next step
Your Emirates ID is one part of the visa process. For the medical test, UAE Pass and everything else, read our guide to visas, the medical test, Emirates ID and UAE Pass.