Most cost guides for MOHAP licensing quote a single number. That is where the confusion starts, because MOHAP does not run a single service. It runs two, they are charged separately, and they happen at different points with different people responsible for each.
Stage one: professional evaluation
Evaluation comes first and you pay for it yourself. MOHAP publishes the fee by professional band: AED 500 for physicians and dentists, AED 400 for nurses and midwives, and AED 300 for allied health and traditional or complementary medicine. MOHAP states a service duration of five working days for this stage.
What evaluation produces is a decision about whether your qualifications and experience meet the requirements for the professional title you are applying under. It is not a licence and it does not let you work.
Stage two: licensing
Licensing is submitted by the facility that wants to employ you, not by you. There is an application fee of AED 100 for all medical professionals, and then a licence fee of AED 3,000 for doctors or AED 1,000 for nurses and technicians in private facilities. MOHAP states this stage takes one to two working days once a complete application reaches it.
The dependency matters: MOHAP lists an accepted work invitation and a valid facility licence among the conditions. You cannot complete this stage on your own, however well prepared you are.
The rule that catches people out
The two services apply different limits on time away from practice. The evaluation service states there should not be a gap in professional practice of more than three years. The licensing service states the gap must not exceed two years.
Read that twice, because the consequence is not obvious. Someone who has been out of practice for two and a half years can pass evaluation and then find the licensing stage is a problem. Clearing the first stage is not evidence that the second will clear.
How your experience is counted
MOHAP calculates professional experience from the date your professional licence was issued, not from when you graduated. For anyone who worked or trained before registration, that can be a difference of years, and it is the single most common reason an applicant believes they meet an experience threshold when the authority does not agree.
What to do with this
Work out which band you fall into, budget for both stages rather than one, and check both practice-gap limits against your own history before paying for anything. If your gap sits between two and three years, get that reviewed before you start — it is much cheaper to know now.