Marriage Certificate Attestation for the UAE

Why the UAE asks for marriage certificate attestation

If you married outside the UAE and now want to sponsor your spouse on a residence visa, add a spouse to your Emirates ID records, or enrol children under a family sponsorship, the authority handling that application needs proof that the marriage is genuine and correctly registered. Attestation is how a foreign government document is confirmed, step by step, as authentic before a UAE authority relies on it.

You are likely to be asked for marriage certificate attestation for the UAE when:

• You are sponsoring a spouse on a family or residence visa.
• A UAE authority is updating your Emirates ID or family records to reflect a spouse.
• A school is enrolling children and needs proof of the parents’ marriage.
• An employer or authority abroad needs a UAE-issued marriage certificate attested for use in that country.

The attestation chain: issuing country, then MOFAIC

The UAE is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so an apostille stamp alone is not accepted for a marriage certificate that will be used in the UAE, no matter how the certificate was apostilled abroad. Instead, the certificate has to pass through a chain of attestations.

To answer the question directly: no, because the UAE is not a party to the Apostille Convention, a marriage certificate cannot simply carry that single stamp for UAE use. The attestation chain below is the route that is recognised.

1. Attestation in the issuing country. The marriage certificate is checked and stamped by the relevant authority where the marriage was registered, for example a civil registry, notary or the country’s own foreign affairs ministry.
2. Attestation at the UAE embassy in the issuing country. Once the certificate carries the home country’s own stamp, the UAE embassy or consulate there adds its attestation.
3. MOFAIC attestation in the UAE. After the certificate reaches the UAE, MOFAIC attests it as the final step, for a fee of AED 150 for a personal document.

We manage the UAE side of this chain and guide you through the issuing-country steps, so the certificate does not bounce back for a missing seal.

Arabic translation after attestation

Documents submitted to UAE government offices are generally required in Arabic, and a marriage certificate issued in another language will usually need a translation carried out by a legal translator registered with the UAE Ministry of Justice, done after the attestation chain is complete rather than before. If that translation itself needs to be notarised as part of the instrument, the federal schedule sets that fee at AED 50 per page.

UAE-issued marriage certificates vs foreign ones

If you married in the UAE and need the certificate recognised abroad, the direction reverses: the certificate is attested by MOFAIC in the UAE first, then by the destination country’s embassy in the UAE if that country requires it.

If you married outside the UAE and need the certificate recognised here, it follows the issuing-country and MOFAIC chain described above.

Documents to send

For most marriage certificate attestation files, be ready to provide:

• The original marriage certificate.
• A copy of both spouses’ passports.
• Any earlier attestation stamps already on the certificate, if you are continuing a chain that was started elsewhere.

Because a stamp has to be applied to the physical document at each stage, the original certificate usually has to travel between offices rather than a scanned copy.