Choosing between the DIFC, Dubai Courts and ADJD wills registries
A UAE Will can be registered through the DIFC Courts Wills Service, Dubai Courts or the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, but they are not three names for one process. They differ in eligibility, coverage, signing route and authority fee. DIFC Courts publishes the most detail; ADJD’s Civil Family Court publishes registration steps, a bilingual template and registry fees (AED 950 / 2,500); and Dubai Courts confirms its non-Muslim will-certification service but does not expose the fields needed for a complete first-party comparison in the page we retrieved.
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What actually separates the three
Not prestige, and not "strength". The differences that change what you do are narrower than the usual framing suggests: whether you qualify at all, whether one document can hold everything you own, how the signing happens, and what the registry charges on top of whoever prepares the will.
DIFC and ADJD answer several of those questions on their own websites. The Dubai Courts result confirms the route, but the retrieved service detail does not populate the eligibility, document, procedure or fee fields needed to answer them. That gap is itself worth knowing before you choose.
The comparison in one table
Our professional fee is the amount The Deedbox charges to prepare and handle the document case. The authority fee is charged separately by the registry or court. Keeping the columns separate prevents a low preparation price from being mistaken for the total cost of registration.
| Route | Who the authority says it is for | Our fee | Authority fee | Video or abroad route |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIFC Will | Non-Muslims aged 18+ with UAE assets and/or qualifying minor-child connection; UAE residence not required | AED 2,499 | AED 10,000 Full Will; AED 5,000–7,500 for narrower types | Virtual registration from anywhere, with the testator and two qualifying witnesses |
| Dubai Courts Will | The authority names the service for non-Muslim wills; detailed eligibility was not populated in the page reviewed | AED 1,499 | Not quoted — no first-party fee verified | Not quoted — no first-party route verified |
| ADJD Will | Civil Wills Office: non-UAE citizens may register regardless of religion (ADJD wording) | AED 1,499 | AED 950 regular / AED 2,500 special (special undefined) | Published path: website application, review, online notary appointment, then Will registry |
Source: DIFC Courts Wills FAQ and fees (the ADJD source is linked in its section below)
Draft, approve, register, retain
The route is easier to understand as four different jobs. First, the document is prepared from the testator’s instructions and the chosen registry’s published requirements. Second, the testator reads and approves that draft. Third, the authority performs its own registration or notarisation step. Fourth, the working and approved versions remain in the customer’s case record while the authority controls its registered original or official record.
The Deedbox handles document preparation and case coordination. It is not a law firm, a notary or any of the three registries. Approval of a draft is not registration, and retaining a copy in a Deedbox account does not replace the authority’s record. DIFC itself describes making a will as two stages — preparing it and registering it — and states that the electronic will held through its service is the original on that route.
Source: DIFC Courts, Wills FAQ — preparing, registering and electronic originals
Who DIFC Courts says may use its service
DIFC Courts states four conditions plainly. You must be "at least 18 years of age". You must be "not Muslim and have never been a Muslim". You must own "assets in the UAE and/or have minor children residing with you in the UAE". And residency is not required: "You do not need to be a resident of the UAE to register a DIFC Courts Will".
That last one matters more than it looks. It means the DIFC route is open to someone who owns a Dubai apartment but lives elsewhere, which is a common position and one people often assume rules them out.
Source: DIFC Courts, Wills FAQ
One will or a narrow one: what DIFC covers, and what it charges
DIFC Courts does not sell one product. It publishes six, and the narrower ones exist because most people do not need a document that covers everything. Each has a published registration fee for a single will and for "Mirror Wills" - two wills of that type registered together by a married couple. These are the court’s own fees, charged by the court, and separate from whatever preparing the will costs.
- Full Will - covers a range of assets and can include guardianship. AED 10,000 single, AED 15,000 mirror.
- Property Will - "up to five (5) real estate properties (or a share in up to five (5) real estate properties)" "situated in the UAE". AED 7,500 single, AED 10,000 mirror.
- Financial Assets Will - "up to ten (10) separate accounts", held with a bank or brokerage whose branch is situated in the UAE. AED 5,000 single, AED 7,500 mirror.
- Business Owners Will - "up to five (5) separate shareholdings in any free zone or UAE onshore company situated in the UAE". AED 5,000 single, AED 7,500 mirror.
- Guardianship Will - "solely provides for the appointment of guardians for your children". AED 5,000 single, AED 7,500 mirror.
- Digital Assets Will - specific to digital assets, with a named list of supported tokens. AED 5,000 single, AED 7,500 mirror.
What Abu Dhabi publishes
ADJD’s Civil Family Court publishes the Civil Wills path: submit the application and a copy of the will to the ADJD Civil Wills Section; ADJD’s Q&A adds that the website application is reviewed and, when approved, an online notary appointment is set before the will enters the Will registry.
It publishes a standardised bilingual template, Last Will and Testament / revocation forms, registry fees of AED 950 (regular) and AED 2,500 (special), and states that a non-UAE citizen may register "regardless of your religion".
What it still does not publish: what “special” means, witness rules, language requirements at the appointment, or executor eligibility. We do not fill those from DIFC or Dubai Courts.
Why the Dubai Courts column remains limited
Dubai Courts’ official result confirms a service that certifies non-Muslim wills, and its Personal Status Court page confirms jurisdiction over non-Muslim wills and estates. For many people, “a Dubai will” means this route rather than the DIFC one.
The retrieved service page did not expose populated eligibility, required-document, procedure or fee fields. A comparison filled from law-firm summaries would be a comparison of providers rather than authorities, so those cells remain unquoted and are logged as open questions in our source registry.
If Dubai Courts is the route you are weighing, treat this comparison as incomplete on those will-specific details and confirm them with the court before choosing.
What none of the three settles
The UAE Government portal describes the federal framework and states that the Federal Personal Status Law "governs personal affairs such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, etc." It names no registry, publishes no registration procedure, and does not rank the three routes.
So nobody can honestly tell you one of them is the officially preferred option, and we do not. Which registry suits a particular estate, whether a will reaches assets held in another country, and how any of it interacts with UAE inheritance law are questions about legal effect rather than published procedure. They need a lawyer.
Source: The Official Portal of the UAE Government, personal status for non-Muslims
Narrowing it down
From the published facts alone, a few things follow without needing a legal opinion:
- If you are Muslim or have ever been Muslim, DIFC Courts states its service is not open to you. That is a published condition, not our view.
- If you do not live in the UAE but own something here, DIFC explicitly does not require residency.
- If the estate is one flat, or one set of accounts, a narrow DIFC will is published at half the price of the Full Will - so "which will" is a cost question as well as a coverage one.
- If you and your spouse want the same structure, that is two wills, not one, and DIFC prices the pair as a named case.
- If your assets are in Abu Dhabi, ADJD is the emirate’s own route and its process is published end to end.
- If you are weighing Dubai Courts specifically, get its requirements from the court rather than from any comparison page, including this one.
Questions
Which is better, a DIFC will or a Dubai Courts will?
We do not answer that, because no federal source ranks them and the Dubai Courts page reviewed did not expose the will-specific eligibility, documents, procedure or fee needed for a complete comparison. What DIFC Courts and ADJD publish about their own services is set out above.
Do I have to live in the UAE to register a DIFC will?
No. DIFC Courts states "You do not need to be a resident of the UAE to register a DIFC Courts Will". You do need to own assets in the UAE and/or have minor children residing with you here, and to be at least 18.
Can a non-Muslim register a will in Abu Dhabi if the assets are abroad?
The live Civil Family Court wills FAQ we hold does not publish a sentence about foreign assets. Treat cross-border effect as a legal question for counsel, not as something this comparison invents.
How much does registration cost?
DIFC Courts publishes a fee per will type, from AED 5,000 for its narrower wills to AED 10,000 for a Full Will, with mirror pairs priced separately. ADJD’s Civil Family Court publishes AED 950 regular and AED 2,500 special will registration. Those are registry fees and are separate from the cost of preparing the will.
Can one will cover property in Dubai and a bank account in London?
DIFC states that a Full Will "may include assets within the UAE as well as outside of the UAE". Whether that will is given effect over the London account is a question of legal effect in that jurisdiction, which is outside what any of these pages publish and outside what we advise on.
What this page does not do
- This page compares what three registries publish about their own services. It is not advice about which one is legally right for your estate, and it does not state that any will is valid or enforceable.
- The Dubai Courts route is confirmed, but its eligibility, required documents, procedure and fee remain unquoted because those fields were not populated in the authority page retrieved. That is an evidence gap, not a judgement about the route.
- Registry fees and conditions change without notice. Every figure here is dated in our source registry and the authority’s own page is the version that counts.
- The Deedbox is not a law firm and not a notary office.