Health insurance for a UAE visit or tourist visa

The official pages do not say that every visitor must hold insurance, and insurance sellers quote minimum figures that no official page sets. Find your route in Table 1.

u.ae says citizens of several countries can get a visa on arrival, that the lists vary, and that passports must be valid for at least 6 months from entry. The page has no insurance line.¹

The pages do not say whether a home-country or travel policy counts as “valid in UAE”, or who checks it. Ask ICP or GDRFA before you buy.

What does ICP ask for on a visit visa?

A “Valid Health Insurance Policy within the UAE”. ICP’s service covers entry permits for tourism, visits and treatment, and for completing work or family residence procedures. Five of the six term lists on the page open with that line. The sixth has no insurance line, and the page does not say which category it belongs to.²

The same page sets these terms for visit routes:

• a return ticket, and a passport valid for at least 6 months
• entry within the 60-day validity of the permit, which may be extended for a similar period
• a stay of 30, 60 or 90 days, which ICP may extend once or several times up to 120 days in total
• an overstay fine of AED 50 a day.²

The page does not say whether the insurance must be extended when the stay is. If you extend, ask ICP whether you need to extend your policy too.

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What does the 5-year tourist visa need?

A policy valid in the UAE for 180 days, a bank balance of USD 4,000 or its equivalent over the last six months, and a continuing or return ticket, according to u.ae. You can stay 90 days per visit, extendable by 90 days.³

GDRFA Dubai’s page for the same visa lists health insurance twice, once as a document and once as “valid health insurance in the country”. It gives no policy period. It allows up to 90 continuous days, extendable by a similar period, within 180 days in a year.⁴ Neither page links the 180-day figure for the stay to the policy.

Buy a policy that runs for at least 180 days if you apply for this visa.

What does Dubai’s single-entry tourist visa need?

“Medical insurance valid in UAE”. Only accredited tourism offices in Dubai can issue this visa.⁵ Ask the tourism office handling your visa what policy it needs.

Does Dubai’s relative visit visa include insurance?

GDRFA’s fee list has a medical insurance line of AED 40 for 30 days, AED 60 for 60 days and AED 90 for 90 days.⁶ It does not say whether that fee buys a policy, or from whom. The sponsor’s salary, fees and documents are in how to sponsor a relative’s UAE visit visa.

Who has to arrange the insurance?

The ICP and GDRFA pages list insurance as a visa term without saying who arranges it. Dubai’s health insurance law names others. Law 11 of 2013 makes an entity the Dubai Health Authority determines responsible for enrolling visitors, and a sponsor responsible for enrolling people it sponsors who have no employer. It requires a sponsor to produce a policy when issuing or renewing a visit permit.⁷

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

Will an insurer’s visitor policy meet the visa term?

The government pages do not confirm any product. Daman’s Ziyarah page says the product complies with UAE visa requirements, and lists emergency medical limits of AED 150,000 on its 190-day multi-trip and 100-day single-trip plans.⁸ GIG Gulf links its Travel Inbound terms from its site.

BAL, a law firm, reported an ICP initiative letting tourists buy health insurance on the ICP platform while applying for a visa. The item was last modified on 15 August 2024.⁹ Ask ICP whether you can buy cover when you apply.

The small print

• Dubai Law 11 of 2013. The visitor and sponsor enrolment duties are Art 9, and the sponsor’s duty to produce a policy for visit permits is Art 11.⁷
• Policy period. u.ae gives 180 days for the 5-year visa policy (updated 1 October 2026). The GDRFA pages are undated and the ICP page was last updated on 11 December 2024. Neither gives a period.³²