How to make a travel insurance claim in the UAE

Three deadlines run on a travel claim. Your policy sets the first, insurance regulation the second and the Sanadak regulation the third.

How long do you have to tell your insurer?

As long as your own policy allows. There is no single UAE deadline, and several wordings say a late claim is rejected or not considered.

• GIG Gulf Travel Smart. Tell GIG about a hospital stay within 48 hours. No claim is considered if GIG was not contacted within 30 days of the accident or illness. You need GIG’s approval first, though an emergency claim may still be considered if you could not make contact. Travel inconvenience claims are due within 30 days of the end of the trip, and incidents not notified in writing within 31 days of the end of the trip are excluded.¹
• Liva. Medical, accident, death, legal and liability claims within 30 days of the event. Travel inconvenience claims within 30 days of the end of the trip. The booklet says later claims are rejected.²
• AIG Travel Guard. Written notice within 90 days of the incident, and the information AIG asks for within 90 days of the Claim Notification Period.³
• Orient Easy Journey Outbound. Contact Orient as soon as possible and within 30 days of returning home. Later claims are not considered.⁴
• Daman Alami Comprehensive Travel. Claims not sent within 30 days of the event, and medical claims not sent within 30 days of first treatment, are excluded.⁵
• Salama. Telephone Salama as soon as possible. Expenses it did not approve beforehand are not reimbursed, and a reimbursement request needs the claim number from its assistance company.⁶
• Allianz Partners UAE. Send the claim form as soon as possible. The terms give no number of days. Nextcare handles the claims.⁷
• Mastercard World cards MENA. Written notice within 90 days of the incident, through mcpeaceofmind.com.⁸

Find the deadline in your own policy before you travel home, and call the insurer before treatment if the policy asks you to. The documents each policy asks for are in the claim document checklist.

What must your insurer do once you claim?

It must tell you whether it approves or rejects the claim within 15 days of receiving your complete documents. If it needs longer, it must tell you how long and why. The 15 days start from complete documents, not from your first call.⁹

The Insurance Authority’s Code of Conduct also says:

• claim forms are free and in clear language, and the insurer decides which documents it needs
• claims are settled without undue delay, and the insurer tells you how your claim is going when you ask
• a rejection is in writing, with reasons that are not general or inaccurate
• a claim cannot be rejected simply for a missed procedure or missing data, unless that is needed to check the event, its causes, the size of the loss or a right of recourse
• if only some items in a claim are disputed, you can still claim the agreed items.⁹

Federal Decree-Law 6 of 2025 requires insurers to decide every claim and complaint under the policy and the law, and to give written reasons for rejecting all or part of it.¹⁰

An insurer that sells online must publish its claim and complaint forms, its complaints department contact and channels, and a general description of the process with an estimated time on its website. It must offer electronic claim forms and give you a claim reference number, and it may ask for originals before it pays a claim made online.¹¹

Ask for a claim reference number and keep a dated copy of everything you send.

What do you do if your claim is rejected?

Complain to the insurer in writing first. Sanadak, the Central Bank’s ombudsman unit, asks whether you made an official complaint to the insurer before it takes your case.¹²

Some insurers publish their own complaint times. GIG Gulf acknowledges a complaint within 1 working day with a reference number and aims to give an outcome within 7 working days.¹ AIG acknowledges within 2 working days, replies or explains a delay within 5 working days of that, and gives a final answer within 3 weeks of acknowledging.³

How long you must wait for the insurer before going to Sanadak depends on which source you read.

Sanadak’s own pages give 15 and 30 calendar days.¹³ Ask Sanadak which waiting period applies before you file.

When can you take the complaint to Sanadak?

After you have complained to the insurer and waited for its answer, for the period in Table 2. Your insurer must tell you in writing that you can go to Sanadak, and give you its contact details.¹⁴ Complaints go through Sanadak’s website or mobile app.¹⁵

You have 3 years from the conduct you are complaining about, or 2 years from when you became aware of it, whichever ends later.¹⁴

Above AED 100,000, either side can challenge a decision in the Court of Appeal within 30 days of it being issued or becoming known.¹⁰

Sanadak’s FAQ says people complaining about an insurer have to go to Sanadak first, not to the courts.¹³ Federal Decree-Law 6 of 2025 says claims from insurance contract disputes are not accepted unless they were first presented to the committees.¹⁰

Play: About SanadakNothing loads from YouTube until you click. Plays through youtube-nocookie.com.

The steps, waiting periods and fees are in how to take an insurance complaint to Sanadak.

Does a credit card travel claim work the same way?

You claim as an eligible person under a policy issued to the card scheme, not to you. Under the Mastercard World cards MENA terms, the policy is issued to Mastercard.⁸ The terms do not say whether a card benefit claim can go to Sanadak, or who would answer it. Ask your card issuer before you rely on the card for a claim. Card terms are in credit card travel cover in the UAE.

The small print

• The Code of Conduct is Insurance Authority Board Resolution 3 of 2010. The Central Bank Rulebook shows it as in force.⁹ The 15-day claim decision is Art 9(4), the rule on rejections Art 9(6) and the agreed-items rule Art 9(8).
• The insurer’s duty to decide and give reasons is Art 148(3) of Federal Decree-Law 6 of 2025. The text sets no nationality or residency limit. Sanadak is the unit set up under Art 148(2), and a customer may complain to it under Art 148(4). The AED 100,000 line is Art 148(6), the Court of Appeal route Art 148(7) and the rule on presenting disputes to the committees Art 148(8).¹⁰¹⁵
• The online sales duties are in Arts 21 and 22 of the Electronic Insurance Regulations.¹¹
• The Ombudsman Regulation treats licensed financial institutions and insurance companies as separate groups, so it is unclear whether the Consumer Protection Standards bind insurers.¹⁴¹⁶ Ask Sanadak whether the Central Bank has set a shorter waiting period than the Regulation’s 30 complete business days.
• Daman Alami prints the 3-year and 2-year Sanadak limits joined by “or”, without the words “whichever ends last”.⁵
• The Regulation’s definition of an insurance company covers insurers licensed in the UAE. It does not say whether a visitor whose policy is from a non-UAE insurer can use Sanadak.