Travel insurance for visiting the UAE

Start with your visa route’s insurance term. That term does not show that every visitor must hold insurance. The official pages do not say whether visitors on a visa on arrival, or who need no visa, must hold insurance.¹ Ask ICP or GDRFA if your route is one of these.

Does your visa need health insurance?

Most visit and tourist routes list it. ICP lists a health insurance policy valid within the UAE as a term for entry permits.² For the 5-year tourist visa, u.ae says the policy must be valid for 180 days.³ The official pages set no minimum sum insured for a visit visa.

Each route’s wording is in health insurance for a UAE visit or tourist visa. If a relative in the UAE is sponsoring you, read sponsoring a relative’s UAE visit visa.

Does Dubai’s health insurance law cover you as a visitor?

It names visitors, but leaves the details to later decisions. Dubai Law 11 of 2013 applies to visitors, meaning anyone, tourists included, who visits the UAE through Dubai.⁴ It says the responsible entities must enrol visitors in health insurance, with emergency health services approved by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) among their benefits.

The law makes an entity the DHA determines responsible for enrolling visitors, and leaves the timing to a resolution. Which entity the DHA named, and whether the visitor phase has started, is not known. It makes a sponsor responsible for enrolling people it sponsors who have no employer, and requires a sponsor to produce a policy when issuing or renewing a visit permit.⁴ The law says nothing about entry through Abu Dhabi.

If someone in Dubai sponsors your visit, ask them whether they had to produce a policy for the permit.

Can you get free medical cover by flying Etihad?

Yes, on qualifying Etihad tickets to Abu Dhabi from July to December 2026. Etihad Airways and the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi announced the cover on 12 June 2026. The National Insurance Company (Daman) underwrites and runs it.⁵

• It runs from July to December 2026.
• It covers up to 15 days in the UAE.
• You do not apply. The release says cover comes with every qualifying ticket.
• You must fly to Abu Dhabi on a flight Etihad operates, with the journey starting and the ticket sold outside the UAE.
• The release says Stopover Programme travellers are covered for their stay.
• Terms and conditions apply. The release does not state benefit limits or exclusions.

Ask Etihad for the terms and benefit limits before you rely on this cover for a visa.

Which insurers sell cover for visitors?

Daman sells Ziyarah as emergency medical cover for visitors to the UAE.⁶ Its page lists a 190-day multi-trip plan with emergency hospital cover of AED 150,000, evacuation to the nearest suitable hospital and cashless treatment at network hospitals, and a 100-day single-trip plan with emergency medical expenses up to AED 150,000. The page says the product complies with UAE visa requirements. That is Daman’s statement, not a government one.

GIG Gulf links its Travel Inbound terms from its site, and Allianz has a plan for people travelling to the UAE.

Ask ICP or GDRFA whether the policy you hold meets your visa term.

Can you complain to Sanadak about your policy?

Yes, if your insurer is incorporated or licensed in the UAE. Sanadak, the UAE’s insurance ombudsman, handles complaints about insurers incorporated in the UAE and foreign insurers licensed there.⁷ The rules do not say whether a visitor whose policy is from an insurer outside the UAE can use it.

Check where your insurer is licensed before you buy. The steps are in how to complain to Sanadak.

Films from the tourism boards

Play: Dubai's Extraordinary SightsNothing loads from YouTube until you click. Plays through youtube-nocookie.com.

Play: Experience Abu DhabiNothing loads from YouTube until you click. Plays through youtube-nocookie.com.

The small print

• Dubai Law 11 of 2013. Visitors are defined in Art 2 and brought in by Art 4. Enrolment duties are Art 7(a), with phases set by resolution under Art 7(b). Visitor benefits are Art 8. The DHA-determined entity and the sponsor’s duty to enrol are Art 9. Art 2 defines a sponsor to include sponsoring a visit, and Art 11 sets the sponsor’s duty to produce a policy for visit permits. Under Art 28, the DHA coordinates with the authorities that issue entry permits and visas on policies for permit and visa holders.⁴
• Visitor numbers. Dubai reported 19.59 million international overnight visitors in 2025, up 5% from 18.72 million.⁸ DET gives 6.97 million overnight visitors for January to August 2026.⁹ Abu Dhabi reported 5.9 million hotel guests in 2025.¹⁰ UAE airports recorded 44,241,785 arrivals in 2025, 30,224,510 in Dubai and 8,316,095 in Abu Dhabi.¹¹ Arrivals are not visitors, and appear to include residents returning home, so these figures cannot be added or compared. Regional detail is in the Dubai visitor markets study.