Wills in the UAE

Registering through the DIFC Courts

The route with the most published detail, and the one whose conditions are easiest to check against your own situation. DIFC Courts states that you may register if you are "at least 18 years of age" and "are not Muslim and have never been a Muslim", that "you do not need to be a resident of the UAE", and that you must own assets in the UAE and/or have minor children residing with you here. It offers six will types rather than one: a Full Will, and narrower wills for property (up to five properties situated in the UAE), business shareholdings (up to five), financial accounts (up to ten), digital assets, and guardianship of minor children alone. DIFC Courts publishes its own registration fees — AED 10,000 for a single Full Will and AED 7,500 for a single Property Will — which are the court’s fees, charged by the court, and separate from our professional fee.

• DIFC Will — register a UAE Will in English · AED 2,499

Registering a DIFC will: what the appointment involves · Choosing between the DIFC, Dubai Courts and ADJD wills registries · What happens if you die without a will in Dubai?

Registering through the Dubai Courts

The Dubai Courts register wills as well, and this is the route people often mean when they say "a Dubai will" rather than a DIFC one. Dubai Law No. 15 of 2017 provides for a register of non-Muslim wills at the Dubai Courts — Article 6 — and the court's own Personal Status Court page lists statements related to wills, determining heirs and registering estate files among its competencies, alongside separate competencies for the personal status, pecuniary status and estates of non-Muslims. What the court does not publish is the operational half: eligibility beyond the Law's own conditions, required documents, the fee, the steps or the timing. We hold none of it and we do not fill it from a provider summary, so if this is your route, those are the points to confirm with the court before you choose.

• Dubai Courts Will — the local registration route · AED 1,499

Choosing between the DIFC, Dubai Courts and ADJD wills registries · What happens if you die without a will in Dubai?

One Dubai law sits over two of the three routes

Worth understanding before comparing fees, because it is the part that does not change. Dubai Law No. 15 of 2017 governs the administration of estates and the implementation of wills of non-Muslims in the Emirate, and Article 3 applies it to all such wills and estates in Dubai — expressly including the DIFC. Article 6 then provides for a register of non-Muslim wills at the Dubai Courts and at the DIFC Courts. So those two are not a formal route and an informal one; they are two registers under one law. Abu Dhabi sits outside it, under its own emirate's arrangements. Article 29 adds the consequence people most often miss: jurisdiction follows the place of registration, so choosing a register is also choosing the court that would hear a dispute about the will later. And Article 32 explains an absence — it says the Dubai Courts charge fees prescribed by a resolution of the Chairman of the Executive Council, without stating an amount, which is why no honest page can quote you that figure from the law itself.

• DIFC Will — register a UAE Will in English · AED 2,499
• Dubai Courts Will — the local registration route · AED 1,499

Choosing between the DIFC, Dubai Courts and ADJD wills registries

Registering in Abu Dhabi

The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department publishes a five-step registration for non-Muslim wills, and the distinctive step is the last one: the application goes in through the website, is checked by the department, an SMS confirms approval or asks for changes, the fees are paid, and then you "book an appointment to notarise the will via video call". ADJD also states plainly that "money and property outside the country can be bequeathed", and that a will form is available at its Office of Non-Muslims Wills. It does not publish fee amounts, language requirements or witness rules on that page, so we do not state them.

• ADJD Will — Abu Dhabi non-Muslim Will registration · AED 1,499

Registering a will in Abu Dhabi through ADJD · Choosing between the DIFC, Dubai Courts and ADJD wills registries

A will each, for a couple

Two people who want the same structure register two wills, not one joint document. DIFC Courts treats this as a named case and prices it as one: "Mirror Wills" are two Full Wills registered simultaneously by a married couple, published at AED 15,000 for the pair against AED 10,000 for a single Full Will, and at AED 10,000 for a pair of Property Wills against AED 7,500 for one. Again, those are DIFC Courts’ fees rather than ours.

• Mirror Wills — matching Wills for couples · from AED 2,999

Registering a DIFC will: what the appointment involves · Choosing between the DIFC, Dubai Courts and ADJD wills registries

Where the published record runs out

Worth being straight about, because it is where most of the confusion lives. The federal government portal describes the framework and states that the Federal Personal Status Law governs inheritance, but it does not name a registry, publish a registration procedure, or arbitrate between the three routes — so nobody can honestly tell you one of them is the officially preferred option. Which registry suits a particular estate, whether a will reaches assets in another country, and how any of this interacts with UAE inheritance law are questions about legal effect, and belong with a qualified lawyer rather than with any comparison page.

Choosing between the DIFC, Dubai Courts and ADJD wills registries