Digital MOFA Attestation in the UAE: How to Check and Verify It

eDAS 2.0 is the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs' electronic Document Attestation System — an automated online platform that attests commercial invoices and certificates of origin, whether issued in the UAE or abroad, and returns them as verifiable digital files. Businesses register a company account with a trade licence, sign in through UAE PASS, submit the transactions, pay the fee and receive the digital attestation, with an optional physical MoFA stamp at no extra charge. It is the current version; the earlier eDAS 1.0 was decommissioned on 8 June 2026.

No. They are presented as two separate services. eDAS 2.0 is the electronic system for commercial invoices and certificates of origin, aimed at businesses. Digital Attestation is the Ministry's electronic service for eligible UAE-issued digital documents used abroad, covering personal, educational and commercial files that carry a verification feature. The public pages do not state whether they share one back-end, so it is safest to treat them as distinct and follow the requirement that matches your document.

Use the Ministry's verification portal at verify.mofa.gov.ae. Enter the attestation reference (or transaction) number and the issued date exactly as they appear on the document, and the portal confirms in real time whether the record is valid. A QR code on the file points to the same result. You do not need an account, and there is nothing to submit or pay to verify a finished document. If the check returns no match, re-enter the details carefully; a stray space or wrong date is the usual cause, and a persistent failure may mean the document was not attested by MoFA.

No. The UAE is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, and moving attestation online does not change that. An apostille applies only to the origin-country step in countries that are members; for use in the UAE, a foreign document still needs the full consular legalisation chain, and a UAE document used in a non-member country follows that chain too. Digital processing speeds up an eligible step; it does not replace the chain itself.

For trade, commercial invoices and certificates of origin go through eDAS 2.0. For other documents, the Digital Attestation service is limited to original digital PDFs issued by supported UAE authorities that carry a built-in verification feature such as a QR code, barcode or reference number. Documents without that feature, paper originals, scanned copies and laminated documents are not eligible and are handled physically. The full list of supported issuers is not published exhaustively, so confirm eligibility for your specific document rather than assuming it.

MoFA publishes a fee of AED 150 per commercial invoice or certificate of origin on its eDAS 2.0 service page, payable electronically before the attestation is issued, and lists the service as available 24/7 with a very short processing time once submission is complete. For eligible digital documents under the separate Digital Attestation service, the Ministry indicates a processing window measured in hours during official working hours. Fees and timings are set by the authority and can change, so always confirm the current figures on the official service page rather than relying on any amount quoted elsewhere; MANJAZ does not set or collect government fees.

Often, yes. The electronic route only applies to documents that qualify for it. Many documents — paper originals with no verification feature, foreign documents still needing the origin-country and mission steps, and files that are not from supported digital issuers — travel physically. Even where a mission offers a fully digital workflow, the Ministry describes paper originals being returned by courier alongside the digital files. Whether you need the physical original also depends on the party receiving the document, so confirm that requirement with them.

Yes. The Ministry decommissioned eDAS 1.0 effective 8 June 2026 and urged users to transition fully to eDAS 2.0, framing the upgrade as part of a wider effort — aligned with the Zero Government Bureaucracy Programme — to streamline procedures and reduce the number of required fields and steps. In practical terms, trade-document attestation now runs only through the current version. If any older reference still points you to eDAS 1.0, treat it as out of date and use the current official service page.

In principle, yes — the digital channels are designed to be reachable from outside the UAE. Signing in relies on UAE PASS, and a non-resident can create a UAE PASS account to access the Ministry's services. For trade documents, eDAS 2.0 works from a company account tied to a UAE trade licence, so an overseas exporter usually acts through the UAE-licensed party. Whether a fully remote submission is open for your specific document depends on the document type, its issuer and the receiving authority, so confirm the current channel on the official MoFA page before relying on a remote route. MANJAZ can help map the correct chain for a document being handled from abroad.

Yes, for the services it supports. The Ministry offers the UAEMOFA smartphone app (Android and iOS) as a mobile channel for submitting and tracking digital attestation applications, alongside the mofa.gov.ae website. You still sign in through UAE PASS, and the same eligibility rules apply — the app is a channel, not a shortcut around the requirements. Commercial invoices and certificates of origin run through the eDAS 2.0 platform rather than the general app flow. Use whichever channel is more convenient and download the finished file from your requests page.

Often, yes — attestation and translation are two separate requirements. A digital attestation confirms the seal and signature electronically; it does not put the document into the language the receiving authority reads. If your document is going to an authority that works in Arabic (or, abroad, in another official language), a legal or certified translation is usually still required, and the correct order of translation and attestation depends on the case. Going digital changes the medium of the attestation step, not whether a translation is needed. See our guides on legal translation and on whether to translate before or after attestation.

Not necessarily — the last word rests with the receiving party. A digital attestation is built to be verified online at verify.mofa.gov.ae using its reference number and issued date, and many authorities accept a verifiable digital file. But some receivers — a foreign ministry, a university admissions office, an employer or a court abroad — may still ask for a physically stamped original, and where a document travels to a non-member country the consular chain and paper handling can still apply. Before you rely on a digital output alone, confirm with the specific authority that will receive the document whether a digital file is accepted or a paper original is required. MANJAZ does not decide what a receiver will accept.