How long must your passport be valid for the UAE?

Six months after the day you arrive, if you are visiting. There are two exceptions where three months is enough: if you hold a UAE residence permit, and if you are transiting without passing through immigration.

By Code Majesty Tech LLC Last reviewed October 13, 2026

“To enter the UAE, your passport must have an ‘expiry date’ at least 6 months after the date you arrive.”

GOV.UK — UAE travel advice, entry requirements · checked 2026-10-13

Check your own passport against this rule

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The transit exception matters more than it sounds

Dubai and Abu Dhabi are among the busiest connecting airports in the world, and a large share of the people who pass through them never formally enter the country. If you stay airside between flights, the requirement is three months rather than six.

The distinction is whether you pass through immigration — not how long your layover is. If you leave the airport, or your connection requires you to clear immigration and re-check, you are entering the UAE and the six-month rule applies.

If you hold a UAE residence permit

Residents are held to three months rather than six, measured from the date you arrive back in the country. This is a materially different rule from the visitor one, and it is worth knowing if you live in the UAE and travel often — you may have more headroom than you think.

Six months from arrival for everyone else

If you are visiting — a holiday, business, seeing family — the requirement is six months of validity counted forward from the day you land.

As everywhere that uses this rule, it is your airline that enforces it, at check-in, before you fly. A passport that falls short stops the trip at your home airport.

Which rule applies to you

The checker above uses the visitor rule, because it is the strictest of the three and the one that applies to most people reading this. If you are a resident or transiting airside, you have more room than it reports — but the safe direction to be wrong in is the one that tells you to renew.

When your situation is one of the exceptions and the dates are tight, confirm against the official source below rather than relying on a general answer.

Passport validity for other destinations

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