Dubai licensing portal guidance
Reached Sheryan and cannot work out what to do next? This guide follows the sequence DHA itself publishes — self assessment, registration, then activation — and states plainly where DHA publishes nothing at all.
Start here
Sheryan is the Dubai Health Authority's licensing system for healthcare professionals and facilities. It is where you check whether your profile fits a DHA title, where you submit a registration application, and where an employing facility later turns that registration into a practising licence.
It is not, in itself, a licence. Nor is it a shortcut around the requirements — the portal is the counter, not the decision. The decision is made against the rules DHA publishes for the category, title and specialty you apply under.
The official Sheryan portal is run by DHA, not by us. This page explains what happens at each stage once you are inside it.
Open the DHA Sheryan portalThe published sequence
DHA sets the professional pathway out as Self Assessment Tool, then Get Registered, then Activate. Most confusion at the portal comes from treating verification and the exam as stages of their own; DHA places both inside Get Registered, and states they can run at the same time.
Stage one
It is the only stage that costs nothing and the only one that can be undone. Everything after it — verification, the assessment, the credentialing fee — is money spent against a specific category, title and specialty. Choosing the wrong title at the start is expensive to discover at the end.
DHA's requirements differ by title, so the question the self assessment answers is narrow but decisive: does this profile fit this title? That is also the question a PQR-based review answers, which is why it is worth doing before you open an application rather than after.
A profile review looks at profession, qualification, experience, licence history and target authority together, so the title you apply under is a decision rather than a guess.
PQR eligibility assessmentStage two
These are the conditions DHA states for its professional registration service. They are the details that decide whether an application moves or stalls, and several of them contradict what applicants commonly assume.
DHA states plainly that DataFlow verification and the CBT assessment can be performed at the same time. Waiting for the verification report before booking the exam adds weeks to the timeline and no rule requires it.
DataFlow / PSV assistanceDHA states the professional must pass the related assessment within three attempts across the Authorities. The allowance is shared, not per-authority, so a run of failures is not reset by applying to MOHAP or DOH instead.
DHA requires the Primary Source Verification result for submitted documents before the registration application proceeds, and states an applicant must not be blacklisted.
Depending on the position applied for, DHA may require an oral assessment after the registration application. It is a step many applicants only discover when they are asked to schedule it.
DHA requires the Good Standing Certificate to be valid and no older than six months at the time of application. Requesting it before your other documents are ready is one of the most common avoidable delays.
The six-month rule explainedThe last two years of surgical logbook are required for surgical specialties, alongside the standard document set.
Full DHA document listWhat the portal charges
Only one of these is charged by DHA. The rest are charged by other organisations that happen to sit inside the same pathway, which is why quoted totals for “a DHA licence” vary so widely between sources.
DHA publishes a single credentialing fee for its professional registration service. The other costs in a DHA application are charged by separate organisations — the verification provider and the testing provider — and the activation fee is handled through the employing facility.
| What you pay for | Amount | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| DHA professional registration (credentialing) | AED 200 | Official | Stated by DHA as applying to all professional categories. |
| Primary Source Verification (DataFlow) | AED 900 – 1,700 | Indicative | Varies by professional category and how many documents are verified. Charged by DataFlow, not DHA. Confirm your exact package price at checkout. |
| Computer-based assessment, where required | AED 700 – 1,100 | Indicative | Only applies if an assessment is required for your category and title. Charged by the testing provider. |
| Licence activation through the facility | Varies by category | Indicative | Paid once a facility activates your registration into an active practising licence. Confirm the current amount with your employer or on Sheryan. |
| Knowledge and Innovation Fee | Added at checkout | Official | DHA states this is applied at checkout alongside the credentialing fee, without publishing the amount on the service page. Expect the total to exceed AED 200. |
Sources: DHA Sheryan — Get Registered service description · DataFlow Group — Primary Source Verification · DHA Sheryan licensing portal
Checked 22 August 2026. Authorities can change fees and requirements without notice — confirm current figures before you pay.
How long each stage takes
DHA's five working days is a decision time, not a start-to-finish estimate. It begins once a complete application reaches DHA, which means after verification has returned and any required assessment has been passed.
| Stage | How long | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| DHA professional registration decision | 5 working days | Official | DHA's stated service delivery time once a complete application is submitted. |
| Primary Source Verification | Around 3 – 8 weeks | Indicative | Depends entirely on how quickly your universities, employers and regulators respond. This is usually the longest and least predictable stage. |
Sources: DHA Sheryan — Get Registered service description · DataFlow Group — Primary Source Verification
Checked 22 August 2026. Authorities can change fees and requirements without notice — confirm current figures before you pay.
Reading your result
The computer-based assessment is delivered by the testing provider, and its result feeds the registration application rather than being the registration itself. Passing it does not complete the pathway; it clears one of the conditions DHA requires before it will decide the application.
What a result does decide is how many attempts remain. Because DHA counts three attempts across the Authorities, a failed attempt is worth treating as a shared allowance being spent — the first attempt is the one to plan for, not the one to test the water with.
DHA states registration is valid for one year and must be activated into a licence by a healthcare facility before practice can begin.
Registration versus active licenceThe honest gap
On its registration service page, DHA does not publish the assessment's duration, its question count, its passing score or its fee. It points instead to its own Mode of Exam per Specialty and CBT Assessment Guideline documents, because those figures differ by specialty.
It also states that a Knowledge and Innovation Fee is added at checkout, without publishing the amount — so the total you pay will exceed the AED 200 credentialing fee, by an amount the service page does not name.
Stage three
DHA states that registration is valid for one year and that a healthcare facility should activate it into a licence in order to start practising. The professional cannot complete this stage alone — it runs through the facility.
This is the single most common misreading of Sheryan. Passing the assessment and receiving registration feels like the end of the process, and it is not: without activation there is no permission to practise, and the one-year clock on the registration has already started.
Activation and transfer cases follow their own route, and the details differ from a first application.
Licence activation and transferAccount housekeeping
DHA clears draft applications that have been inactive for more than six months, and sends a reminder to the registered email address fifteen days beforehand. If you opened an application and paused it while chasing a transcript or a good standing certificate, that reminder is the thing to watch for.
Prepare carefully
Waiting for the DataFlow report before booking the assessment, when DHA states both can run in parallel.
Opening an application before checking whether the profile fits the category, title and specialty being applied for.
The three-attempt allowance is shared across the Authorities. There is no low-stakes first try.
The certificate must be valid and no older than six months at application, so requesting it first often means requesting it twice.
Registration is valid for one year and still requires a facility to activate it into a licence before practice.
Drafts inactive for more than six months are cleared, with a single reminder fifteen days before.
The Knowledge and Innovation Fee is added at checkout and DHA does not publish the amount, so AED 200 is a floor rather than a total.
Duration, question count, passing score and fee are specialty-specific. A single number quoted for all professions is not from DHA.
Independent consultancy support
Case-based quote
Which fees apply, whether an assessment is required and how long verification takes all depend on profession, title, specialty and document readiness. Share your profile for a case-based estimate rather than a headline figure.
Continue your preparation
Sheryan FAQs
Sheryan is the Dubai Health Authority's licensing system for healthcare professionals and facilities. Professionals use it to run the self assessment, submit a registration application, and have that registration activated into a practising licence by an employing facility.
No. Sheryan is the portal the process runs through. What you receive at the end of the registration stage is DHA professional registration, which DHA states is valid for one year. A healthcare facility must then activate it into a licence before you can start practising.
DHA sets the pathway out as Self Assessment Tool, then Get Registered, then Activate. Primary Source Verification through DataFlow and the computer-based assessment both sit inside the Get Registered stage.
The computer-based assessment is delivered by the testing provider and its result feeds the registration application inside Sheryan. DHA does not publish a passing score, question count or exam duration on its registration service page — it points to its own Mode of Exam per Specialty and CBT Assessment Guideline documents, because those differ by specialty.
DHA states the professional must pass the related assessment within three attempts across the Authorities. The allowance is described as shared rather than per-authority, so failed attempts are not reset by applying to a different UAE authority instead.
No. DHA states that verification and the CBT assessment can be performed in parallel. Running them one after the other is a common and avoidable cause of delay, and nothing in DHA's published sequence requires that order.
There can be. DHA states that depending on the position applied for, an oral assessment may be required after the registration application. Many applicants do not know the step exists until they are asked to schedule it.
DHA states five working days once a complete application has been submitted. That covers its own decision only. Primary Source Verification runs before it and typically takes considerably longer.
DHA publishes a credentialing fee of AED 200, stated as applying to all professional categories, and states that a Knowledge and Innovation Fee is added at checkout without publishing that amount. Verification and the assessment are charged separately by DataFlow and the testing provider, not by DHA.
DHA clears draft applications left inactive for more than six months, and sends a reminder to the registered email address fifteen days before it does. If you started an application and paused it while arranging documents, check that reminder rather than assuming the draft is still waiting.
Registration itself is tied to the category, title and specialty you applied under. The activation stage is the one that requires an employer — a healthcare facility activates your registration into a licence, so a confirmed employer is needed before you can practise.
No. UAEHealthPro is an independent consultancy. DHA makes the final decision under its own rules, eligibility criteria, verification and review.
Start with your profile
Tell us which stage you are on and what the portal is asking for. A PQR-based review is the cheapest way to find out whether the title you are applying under is the right one — before an attempt or a fee is spent against it.
Disclaimer: UAEHealthPro is an independent consultancy. We are not a government authority, we do not operate Sheryan, and we do not guarantee approval, assessment results or processing timelines. Final decisions are subject to DHA rules, eligibility criteria, document verification and authority review.
Review current DHA professional registration information