What GCC government paperwork actually costs
Indicative fees, renewal cycles and issuing authority for twelve services across all six Gulf states, plus an honest view of when each one is worth paying someone to file.
Cost guides by service
Residency Visa
Issuance, renewal, and transfer of GCC residency permits.
6 countries compared
National ID Card
The unified resident identity card across GCC states.
6 countries compared
Driving Licence
Obtaining, renewing, or converting a foreign driving licence.
6 countries compared
Vehicle Registration
Registering a new or transferred vehicle and renewing yearly Mulkiya/Istimara.
6 countries compared
Family Sponsorship
Sponsoring a spouse, children, or parents to live with you in the GCC.
6 countries compared
Work Permit
Issuance, transfer, and renewal of employment permits.
6 countries compared
Document Attestation
Legalising educational, marriage, and birth certificates for use in the GCC.
6 countries compared
Fines & Overstay
Checking, contesting, and paying traffic, immigration, and overstay fines.
6 countries compared
Exit & Re-Entry Visas
Travel permits for residents to leave and return.
6 countries compared
Health Card / Insurance
Government health insurance enrolment and renewal.
6 countries compared
Trade Licence
Setting up and renewing a commercial licence for a business.
6 countries compared
Police Clearance Certificate
Obtaining a Good Conduct certificate for visa or job applications.
6 countries compared
Or start from a country
How to read these numbers
Every figure on these pages is an indicative planning number, not a quotation. Government fees across the GCC change without much notice, free zone schedules are set independently by each zone, and service centres add their own charges on top. We date what we publish and say where it came from rather than presenting a single confident number that will be wrong within a year.
Three habits will keep you out of trouble. Compare the fee and the renewal cycle together, because a lower fee renewed annually can cost more across three years than a higher fee renewed every three. Ask any provider to separate the government fee from their service fee, since the first is fixed and public and the second is not. And confirm the current amount with the issuing authority before you pay, because you, not a website, carry the cost of an out-of-date figure.
What a headline fee never includes
The most common complaint about published costs is that they never match the invoice. That is usually because the headline captures one line out of six or seven.
- Medical fitness testing, required for most residency transactions.
- Health insurance, mandatory in several states and a precondition for renewal.
- Emirates ID or the local identity card, billed separately from the visa.
- Typing or service centre fees, set by the centre rather than the authority.
- Attestation and legal translation where a foreign document is involved, which is slow and happens abroad.
- Urgent processing surcharges, optional but frequently presented as though they are not.
- Late fines, which are the largest avoidable line on this list.
Why the same document costs different amounts
Two people filing what looks like the same transaction routinely pay very different totals. The usual reasons:
- Validity length. Most identity documents are priced per year of validity, so a longer card costs proportionally more upfront and less per year.
- Employer classification. In the UAE, an establishment's compliance banding materially changes the work permit fee for an identical hire.
- Mainland versus free zone, which changes both the issuing authority and the schedule.
- Inside the country or outside it. An entry permit and a status change are priced differently.
- Dependants, each billed separately rather than as a family.
- Whether anything went wrong. A rejection, a retest or a lapsed document adds cost that no schedule shows.
Legitimate ways to pay less
Not loopholes, and nothing here involves under-declaring anything.
- Renew before expiry. Late fines are the single largest avoidable cost in GCC paperwork and they accrue daily.
- Choose the longer validity where you are staying, since the per-year rate usually improves.
- Start attestation early. It happens abroad and cannot be accelerated by paying an urgent fee locally.
- File it yourself when the transaction is genuinely available in an app and your documents are valid.
- Batch related transactions instead of paying a service fee per visit.
- Fix a name mismatch once, properly, rather than paying for repeated rejected submissions.
Frequently asked questions
Comparing headline fees alone is misleading, because renewal cycles differ between states. A lower fee renewed annually can cost more over three years than a higher fee renewed every three. Compare the fee and the renewal cycle together, both of which are in the table on this page.
Because the government fee is only one line. Typing or service centre fees, urgent processing surcharges, delivery, medical tests, insurance and translation are charged separately, and providers bundle them differently. Ask for the government fee and the service fee split out before agreeing to anything.
They are indicative planning figures drawn from the issuing authorities and consistent public sources, and they are dated. Government fees change without much notice and free zone schedules are set independently. Always confirm the current amount with the issuing authority before you pay.
Not sure which of these you actually need?
We quote a fixed fee before we start, with government fees shown separately at cost. If your case is simple enough to do yourself, we will tell you that instead.