DHA registration and a DHA licence are two different records. Registration is DHA’s confirmation that you meet the requirements for one position: a category, title and specialty. A licence is that registration activated by a licensed Dubai facility. Only the licence lets you practise. DHA’s licensing manual lists “active professional registration without activating the professional license” among the situations in which a professional may not practise.
What registration costs and how long it takes
DHA’s Get Registered service charges a credentialing fee of AED 200, the same for physicians, dentists, nurses, allied health and complementary medicine. A Knowledge and Innovation fee is added at checkout; DHA does not publish its amount. The average processing time is five working days.
Those five days start only when the application is complete, and two prerequisites come first:
- Primary Source Verification by DataFlow. DHA must have your PSV result before it processes the application. Its FAQ gives 15 working days from payment for a new report.
- The computer-based test, if your title requires one, booked with Prometric. You can run it alongside DataFlow.
If your title needs an oral assessment instead, DHA asks for it after you submit the registration application. You must also have passed any assessment within three attempts across the UAE authorities, and must not be blacklisted.
What registration gives you
Once issued, registration puts you on the Dubai Medical Registry, the public list employers search. It lasts one year. While it stays active you keep your approved position without being re-assessed, as long as there is no gap in your practice.
If no facility activates it within the year, you renew the registration yourself within the 90 days before it expires. If you do not, it is cancelled and you apply again. When a facility later cancels your licence, for example when you change jobs, the registration stays active for one year so a new facility can activate it.
What activation involves
Activation is a facility service. The hiring facility applies from its own Sheryan account and you approve the request. DHA lists these prerequisites:
- the facility’s licence is active and includes your specialty;
- your registration is active and you consent to the facility licensing you;
- a valid labour card if you are not a UAE national;
- a valid medical fitness report if you are 65 or older;
- medical malpractice insurance at that facility.
The facility chooses a term of one, two or three years and pays the fee. For a one-year full-time licence that is AED 1,000 for nurses, allied health and complementary medicine and AED 3,000 for physicians and dentists. Two years cost AED 1,500 or AED 5,000, and three years AED 2,500 or AED 7,500. DHA states activation is instant, or one working day if your personal records have changed.
You can accept activation requests from more than one facility. Your full-time licence is activated with the one that pays first, and you can withdraw your approval until a facility has paid.
How to describe your status to an employer
A job advert that asks for “DHA licensed” may mean either record. Use one of four plain statements, and give the title and dates:
- Not started: no DHA application yet.
- In progress: DataFlow verification or the CBT under way, with the dates you expect.
- Registered: DHA registered as, for example, Registered Nurse, valid until a stated date and ready for activation.
- Licensed: active licence with a named facility, with its expiry date.
An employer can check the second half of that for itself on the Dubai Medical Registry. Saying “registered and ready for activation” tells a clinic exactly what it has to do and pay to put you to work.
Registration does not carry to other emirates
DHA registration is for Dubai facilities. An Abu Dhabi job needs a DOH licence, and many facilities elsewhere are licensed by MOHAP or, in Sharjah, by SHA. A full DHA licence helps when you move: DOH’s manual exempts holders of a valid DHA licence for the same title from its exam, and MOHAP has a transfer service for active DHA licence holders. A registration that was never activated is not a licence, so neither route applies to it.
Sources, checked 9 and 10 October 2026: DHA Sheryan Get Registered and Activate Professional License service pages; DHA Manual for Licensing Healthcare Professionals v1.3 (effective 18 July 2025), clauses 5.11, 10.2 to 10.6, 11.1 to 11.8, 12.1 to 12.3 and 20.6; DHA PSV FAQ; DOH Licensing Procedure Manual (August 2024), FAQ 3.12; MOHAP Transfer License from DHA/DOH service.