The medical fitness test for a UAE residence visa

CHECKED 28 SEP 2026

Every residence visa renewal waits on this, and it is the step most often left until last. It is also the one where published fees are hardest to pin down — so every figure below comes from the health authority that charges it, and where no authority publishes a price, this guide says so.

Who has to take it

Every applicant aged 18 and over, on renewals as well as on new applications. The requirement sits in Cabinet Resolution No. 7 of 2008, as amended by Cabinet Resolution No. 75 of 2022.

It is not a formality that can be skipped for somebody who has lived in the country for years. The renewal file will not proceed without it.

What is screened

HIV, for every applicant.
Tuberculosis, for new arrivals.
Leprosy, for new applicants and on renewals — a positive result makes an applicant unfit for residence.
Viral hepatitis, for certain groups only.
Pregnancy, for domestic workers.
The examination itself is a blood sample and a chest X-ray, with vaccinations for some professional categories.

The three-month certificate

A certificate of freedom from a public health disease is valid for three months from the date of issue, and after that it is not accepted for a residence permit unless it has been renewed.

Three months, not the thirty days that several guides state. That difference matters in both directions: it is long enough that the medical can be done early, and short enough that a file which stalls for a quarter needs the test taken again.

What happens if something is found

A resident found on renewal to have TB scarring, active tuberculosis or drug-resistant tuberculosis is issued a conditional fitness certificate and a one-year residence visa rather than being refused outright. Drug-resistant cases are treated in the UAE, and residency may be renewed once the person is cured.

This is worth knowing before it happens, because the one-year visa it produces changes every downstream date — the Emirates ID, the work permit, and the next renewal all move with it.

What it costs in Dubai

Dubai Health publishes a price list for its medical fitness packages. The standard examination, delivered within 24 working hours, is AED 270 — or AED 320 for domestic workers. The premium service at six working hours is AED 700, or AED 750 for domestic workers. A VIP examination at two working hours is AED 1,020, and the service at the Salem Innovative Center, delivered in 30 minutes, is AED 700. A pregnancy test for domestic workers adds AED 50.

Two caveats worth carrying: the published list states that the institution may change these prices, and it carries neither an effective date nor a statement about VAT. Applications go through the Salem Portal, results arrive by SMS or email, and Dubai Health runs more than twenty fitness centres across the emirate.

What it costs in Abu Dhabi

SEHA's Disease Prevention and Screening Centre publishes AED 250 for a standard screening, new or renewal, with results within 48 hours. Barbers, beauticians and domestic food handlers pay AED 300 for a new application and AED 250 on renewal. Domestic workers pay AED 350 new and AED 300 on renewal for women, AED 300 and AED 250 for men. A pregnancy test where required adds AED 50.

Two faster tiers are published: fast track at AED 350, and premium at AED 500 with results within 24 hours. No price is published for the home screening service.

What it costs in the northern emirates

Emirates Health Services runs the examination federally, with centres in Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, and states 24 hours to complete. Its published categories are: employees, companies and workers at AED 250; private drivers, nursery supervisors and domestic help at AED 350, which includes AED 250 for the examination, AED 50 for vaccination on a new application and AED 50 for a pregnancy test; and workers in beauty salons, barbershops, health resorts, gyms and health facilities at AED 300, being AED 250 plus AED 50 vaccination on a new application.

Each of those is published as the figure "plus printing fees for the centre", and the printing fee is not quantified anywhere — so treat the numbers as the examination cost rather than the final bill.

Who pays

No health authority — not Dubai Health, not DHA, not SEHA, not the Department of Health, not Emirates Health Services — publishes a rule about who pays. The centre charges whoever presents the application.

The rule that does exist is in employment law. Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 prohibits an employer from charging a worker for the fees and costs of recruitment and employment, directly or indirectly. For an employer-sponsored worker that is the anchor, and it is why the company carries the cost in practice.

Note what it does not say. The same law separately obliges an employer to bear the cost of the worker's medical care — that is healthcare, not the visa screening, and the two should not be run together. For a family or self-sponsored applicant, neither provision applies.

Where it fits in the renewal

Do it early enough that the three-month certificate still covers the day the file is submitted, and late enough that it is not wasted if the passport or the insurance turns out to need work first.

In practice that means: check the passport has six months, confirm the insurance runs past the new visa term, and then book the medical. Booking it first is how a valid certificate expires while everything else is being chased.

SOURCES

UAE fees and fines change. This guide is general information checked on the date above, not legal advice — confirm current figures with the authority before acting on them.