Driving Licence Translation for the RTA and for the Road Abroad
A driving licence is the smallest legal document most people own, and one of the few they use every day. It is also a document that changes meaning the moment you cross a border. In Dubai the card in your wallet is read by the Roads and Transport Authority when you become a resident and ask to exchange it, by a hire company and an insurer when something goes wrong on the road, and — travelling in the other direction — by a foreign licensing office that has to decide whether your UAE licence counts. Each of those readers wants the same small set of facts, in a language it can read: who you are, when you were born, what you are allowed to drive, and since when. This page follows the licence through those readings and shows exactly where a legal translation is required, where a consulate certificate is required instead, and where an International Driving Permit does a different job altogether.
- Legalised Arabic translation of a foreign licence, prepared for the RTA exchange file
- Name, date of birth and licence categories reconciled with the passport and Emirates ID
- UAE licence and Driver Experience Certificate rendered into English or a third language for use abroad
- Straight guidance on when a consulate certificate or an International Driving Permit is what you actually need
- Dubai-based, UAE-wide service
- Arabic & English
- Clear guidance on every document
- Direct request, no middlemen
Who needs a driving licence translated, and why the direction matters
Almost every request we see for a driving licence falls into one of two directions. The inbound direction is the newcomer: someone who has just taken up residence in Dubai, holds a licence issued in another country, and wants the Roads and Transport Authority to exchange it for a UAE licence without sitting the tests again. The RTA offers that exchange only for licences from the countries on its published list, and for some of those countries it requires a legalised Arabic translation of the licence to be uploaded with the application. The outbound direction is the resident travelling the other way: a UAE licence holder who needs the licence — or the RTA's Driver Experience Certificate — read by a licensing office, a car-hire desk or an insurer abroad, in English or in the language of the destination.
The two directions are not mirror images, and treating them as if they were is the first mistake. Inbound, the reader is a single named authority with a published rule: the RTA says which countries qualify, which of them need a translation, which need a consulate certificate instead, and what happens if the card carries no security features. Outbound, there is no single rule at all, because the receiving state decides what it will accept — an English translation may be enough at one hire desk and worthless at another licensing office that wants a translation done by its own sworn translator. We can tell you what the RTA publishes; for the outbound leg we help you ask the right question of the destination before anything is translated.
It also helps to be clear about what a translation is not. It is not a licence to drive: only the RTA issues that, and no translated card lets a resident keep driving on a foreign licence. It is not attestation: a translator's seal certifies the rendering, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or a consulate certifies seals and signatures — neither certifies the other. And it is not an International Driving Permit, which is a separate booklet issued by authorised bodies for use outside the country of licence. Three different objects, often confused on the same forum thread, and the confusion is expensive when it sends someone to a translation office for a problem that only a consulate can solve.
Our part in all this is deliberately narrow. MANJAZ is a private translation provider: we produce the legal translation, we reconcile every name and date on it against the documents the reader will compare it with, and we tell you plainly when the thing you have asked for is not the thing your file needs. We do not exchange licences, we do not attest, and we do not speak for the RTA — we read what it publishes, cite it, and say so where its rules vary from country to country.
The vocabulary of a licence file
- Driving licence — rukhsat qiyada
- The card or booklet that authorises a named person to drive vehicles of stated categories. In the UAE it is issued by the licensing authority of the emirate — in Dubai, the Roads and Transport Authority.
- Licence exchange — istibdal al-rukhsa
- The RTA service that issues a UAE licence on the strength of a valid foreign licence from an eligible country, without the knowledge and road tests. The RTA calls the eligible states the exception countries.
- Exception countries — dual al-istithna
- The RTA's published list of states whose licences can be exchanged. It is a table, not a slogan: each row says whether a translation is needed, whether the original is withdrawn, and which nationalities the row applies to.
- Markhoos
- A federal Ministry of Interior initiative under which visitors from certain countries may drive on their national licence while visiting, and exchange it if they take up residence. It governs driving as a visitor; it does not remove the RTA's exchange requirements once you are a resident.
- International Driving Permit — tasrih qiyada dawli
- A booklet issued under the UN road-traffic conventions that accompanies a national licence and restates it in several languages. In the UAE it is issued to holders of a valid UAE licence through bodies such as the Automobile and Touring Club and the RTA, and is valid for one year. It is not a translation service and it does not replace exchange.
- Legalised translation — tarjama musaddaqa
- The phrase the RTA uses for the Arabic rendering it wants uploaded with certain foreign licences: a legal translation carrying the translator's seal, and where the source country requires it, the consulate's or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' stamp on the underlying document.
- Driving Licence Data Certificate
- A letter from the issuing country's consulate or embassy confirming the data on the licence. The RTA asks for it where the card carries no security features, and for specific countries — it names Türkiye — with Ministry of Foreign Affairs certification. A translator cannot produce this; only the consulate can.
- Security features — al-'alamat al-amniyya
- Holograms, microprint, ghost images and machine-readable zones that let an authority trust a card on sight. Older paper licences and some regional cards have none, which triggers the consulate-certificate route rather than the translation route.
- Driver Experience Certificate
- An RTA certificate stating when you started driving and the type of driving, or a to-whom-it-may-concern letter where no licence record exists. Issued digitally; the RTA notes that a country not accepting e-certificates needs it stamped by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- Emirates ID — al-hawiyya
- The identity card the RTA reads the exchange application against. The Arabic and Latin spellings of your name on it are the reference every translated licence has to agree with.
Exchanging a foreign licence in Dubai: where the translation enters
Check the country row first
Before anything is translated, find your issuing country in the RTA's exception-country table. The row tells you three things: whether exchange is possible at all, whether a legalised translation is required, and whether the original card is withdrawn on issue of the UAE licence. Some rows also restrict which nationalities may use them.
Confirm the licence is valid and readable
The RTA states that the licence to be exchanged must be valid. If the card carries no security features, the RTA asks for a certificate from the issuing country's consulate or embassy verifying the data — a step that runs alongside, not instead of, any translation.
Obtain the legalised translation where the row requires it
For countries whose row says a translation is needed, the Arabic legal translation is produced against the licence exactly as it will be uploaded — front and back, every category code, every restriction, every date. Where the source country's rule adds a consulate or foreign-ministry stamp, we translate against the stamped document so the stamps appear in the Arabic.
Apply online or at a Customer Happiness Centre
The applicant enters Emirates ID or UAE Pass details, uploads the licence copy with its legalised translation if any, and submits. Residents of another emirate add the RTA's proof of a Dubai connection — an employment verification letter and a copy of the employer's trade licence; diplomats add a valid Ministry of Foreign Affairs letter.
Eye test and surrender of the original where required
The electronic eye test is completed at an accredited centre and read into the file. Where the country row says the original is withdrawn, the foreign card is surrendered — one more reason the translation must have been done before this point, not after.
Payment and issue of the UAE licence
After payment the licence is delivered digitally through the RTA app, at a kiosk or by courier. From this point the UAE licence is the document you drive on; the foreign licence, and its translation, have done their work.
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A translation does not let a resident drive on a foreign licence
The most common misunderstanding we correct is the belief that a translated foreign licence, or an International Driving Permit, is enough for someone who now holds a residence visa. It is not. The federal position published by the UAE Government is that visitors from certain countries may drive on their national licence, and that expatriate residents obtain a UAE licence — by exchange where the country qualifies, or by training and testing where it does not. Once you are a resident, the translation is a document in an exchange file, not a permission to drive.
The practical consequence is about sequence. If your country's row requires a legalised translation, get it done while your foreign licence is still valid and before you need to drive as a resident — the RTA will not exchange an expired licence, and a translation of an expired card is a translation of a document the authority will not act on. We check the expiry date before we start for exactly this reason.
When the RTA requires a translation, and when it requires something else
The RTA's exchange page does not say translate everything. It attaches a table to the service in which each eligible country has its own row, and the translation column is one of the things that row decides. Broadly, the rows fall into three groups. Licences from a number of countries — many of them European, plus others whose cards are printed in Latin script with English or bilingual headings — are listed as needing no translation. Licences from a second group are listed as needing a legalised translation: countries whose cards are in Cyrillic, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Korean or another script, or whose format the RTA cannot read directly. A third, smaller category is handled by a consulate document rather than, or in addition to, a translation — the RTA specifically states that a licence issued in Türkiye requires a Driving Licence Data Certificate from the consulate or embassy, certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Two cross-cutting rules sit on top of the table. First, if the licence to be exchanged carries no security features, the RTA asks for a certificate from the issuing country's consulate or embassy verifying the validity of the data — whatever the translation column says. Second, the RTA notes that an applicant who opened a training file in Dubai on a licence from a non-eligible country, and later presents a licence from an exception country, must produce a clearance certificate together with a consulate or embassy certificate attesting to the validity of the licence data. These are consular and RTA documents. A translation office cannot issue them, and a translation, however careful, cannot substitute for them; what we can do is translate the consulate's certificate itself if it arrives in a language the RTA does not read.
One honest caveat about the table itself. It is maintained by the RTA and it changes: countries are added, translation requirements are relaxed as new card formats appear, and the nationality restrictions on a row can move. Third-party lists circulating online — the ones that promise a fixed number of countries — are snapshots, some of them stale. Before we translate a licence for exchange we read the current row on the RTA's own service page and tell you what it says on that day, and we recommend you do the same rather than trusting a summary, including ours.
The three ways the RTA table treats a foreign licence
| What the row says | What it usually means | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| No translation required | The card is in Latin script with headings the RTA reads directly. Typical of many European licences and of English-language cards. | Nothing, unless a specific centre asks — and we will tell you not to pay for a translation the RTA has not asked for. |
| Legalised translation required | The card is in Cyrillic, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Korean or another script, or in a format the RTA does not read directly. | A legal Arabic translation of both faces, every field and every stamp, with names and dates reconciled to the passport and Emirates ID. |
| Consulate or embassy certificate | The RTA wants the issuing state to vouch for the data — named for Türkiye, and triggered for any card without security features. | We cannot issue this. We translate the consulate's certificate and the licence where they are not in Arabic or English, and we tell you to obtain the certificate first. |
| GCC licence | GCC nationals exchange a valid GCC licence and surrender it; the RTA treats the GCC states as exception countries with their own conditions. | Usually nothing — the card is already Arabic. Where a bilingual field is inconsistent with the Emirates ID we flag it before you apply. |
A driving licence has perhaps a dozen fields, and the authority will compare every one of them with your passport and Emirates ID. On a document this short, there is nowhere for an inconsistency to hide.
The dozen fields, and the three that cause almost every rejection
The name comes first, and it is the field that fails most often. A licence rarely shows the full name in the order the passport does: many countries print surname first, some print only initials for middle names, some transliterate a native-script name into Latin letters using a system that differs from the passport's. The RTA reads the application against the Emirates ID, and the Emirates ID carries an Arabic form of the name that was itself derived from the passport at the time of the residence file. If the Arabic we choose for the licence drifts from that form by a single letter — a different long vowel, a doubled consonant, a family name split into two words — the file shows two people. We therefore fix the Arabic spelling from the Emirates ID and the passport before we render the licence, and we keep it identical to the character across every field where the name appears.
The dates come second. A licence carries at least three — date of birth, date of first issue, and expiry — and sometimes a separate date for each vehicle category. The formats vary by country in ways that are invisible to a native reader and treacherous to everyone else: day-month-year in most of the world, month-day-year on North American cards, year-month-day in East Asia, and imperial-era or Hijri years on some. A date of birth that comes out a day different from the passport, or an issue date read in the wrong order so that the driving history looks shorter than it is, is exactly the sort of discrepancy an examiner is trained to catch. We write every date out unambiguously in the Arabic, reconcile the date of birth to the passport, and flag any date on the licence that does not agree with your other documents before delivery — because that disagreement is for the issuing authority to fix, not for the translator to paper over.
The categories come third, and they are the field people forget. A licence is not one permission; it is a list of vehicle classes, each with its own code, its own issue date and often its own conditions. The codes are national — a European B, an American Class D, a Japanese ordinary licence — and the RTA maps them onto its own categories when it decides what to issue. If the translation drops a category, merges two, or renders a restriction code without its meaning, the applicant may receive a narrower UAE licence than the one they held. We translate the category table as a table, keep the original codes visible beside their Arabic descriptions, and carry every restriction and endorsement — corrective lenses, automatic transmission only, provisional status — into the Arabic in full.
Behind those three sit the quieter fields that still have to be right: the licence number, the issuing authority's exact name and emblem, the place of issue, the holder's address where the card shows one, the signature line, and — on the back — the legend explaining the category codes and any endorsement stamps. Every one of them is translated or described; none is skipped because it looks decorative. A licence translated in isolation, front only, with the legend and stamps left out, is one of the commonest reasons an upload is bounced.
International Driving Permit or legal translation: different tools
International Driving Permit
- A booklet issued under the UN road-traffic conventions by authorised bodies — in the UAE, to holders of a valid UAE licence, through the Automobile and Touring Club, the RTA and others.
- Restates the national licence in several languages for use while driving abroad; it must travel with the licence and is valid for one year.
- For a visitor to Dubai it can be the document that lets a hire desk accept a non-Latin-script licence — but it is obtained in the home country before travel, and it does not create a right to drive as a resident.
- Not accepted by the RTA as the translation in an exchange file; the exchange table asks for a legalised translation, not a permit.
Legal translation
- A sealed rendering of the specific card you hold — every field, both faces, every stamp — produced by a translator recognised for official use, and read as a document in a file rather than carried on the road.
- What the RTA means by legalised translation in the exchange table, and what an insurer or foreign licensing office wants when the card is in a language it cannot read.
- Carries names and dates reconciled to the passport and Emirates ID, and category codes with their meanings — the detail an IDP's standard fields do not attempt.
- Does not authorise driving anywhere, and does not replace a consulate certificate where the RTA asks for one.
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Taking a UAE licence abroad: hire desks, insurers and licensing offices
A UAE licence is bilingual on its face, and for many purposes abroad the English side is read directly. The translation question arises in three situations. The first is a hire company or an insurer, usually after an accident, that wants the licence and any RTA record in the language of its own file — a French insurer settling a claim, an Italian hire desk disputing a damage charge — where a certified translation of the licence and of the RTA's Driver Experience Certificate is what their claims department can act on. The second is a foreign licensing authority considering whether to exchange or recognise a UAE licence, or to credit UAE driving history: here the RTA's Driver Experience Certificate, stating the date you started driving and the type of driving, is often the document that matters most, and it is issued digitally in Arabic and English. The third is a jurisdiction that requires a translation into a language other than English — Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian — where the English face is of no help.
The RTA itself flags the attestation point: it notes that if you are in a country that does not accept e-certificates, the Driver Experience Certificate must be stamped and authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That stamp is a matter for the Ministry, and it authenticates the RTA's signature and seal — it does not translate anything. Where the destination then wants the certificate and the licence in its own language, the translation is produced against the stamped document, so the Ministry's endorsement appears in the target language alongside the RTA's text. Order matters here just as it does inbound: attest first, translate after, unless the destination has told you otherwise.
For which countries recognise or exchange a UAE licence, the UAE Government portal points readers to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the Markhoos service rather than publishing a fixed list — a sensible caution we share. Bilateral recognition changes, and a hire desk's practice can differ from its government's rule. Ask the specific office, in writing if you can, what form of translation it accepts and from whom; some states insist on their own sworn translators, in which case an English translation done in Dubai is a courtesy copy, not the operative one. We say this plainly because the worst outcome is paying for a translation twice.
Send us both faces of the licence, your passport biodata page and Emirates ID, and tell us whether it is going to the RTA or abroad — we will tell you whether a translation is what your file needs, and prepare it if it is.
Request a driving licence translationWhich case is yours?
You have just received your Dubai residence visa and hold a Japanese licence you want exchanged.
What is usually neededJapan appears in the RTA table among the countries whose licence needs a legalised translation. The card is entirely in Japanese, with the holder's name in kanji and dates that may be shown in the imperial era. We translate both faces into Arabic, convert every date unambiguously to the Gregorian calendar, spell the name to match the Emirates ID, and keep the category codes visible — then you upload the translation with the licence copy in the exchange application.
You hold a British or German licence and a translation office has told you a translation is compulsory.
What is usually neededCheck the RTA table before paying anyone. At the time of writing, licences from a number of European countries, Britain and Germany among them, are listed as needing no translation for exchange. If your row says so, you do not need us for the exchange — and we will tell you that. Where a specific centre nonetheless asks, or where you also need the licence read abroad, that is a different request.
Your licence was issued in Türkiye.
What is usually neededThe RTA states that a licence issued in Türkiye requires a Driving Licence Data Certificate from the consulate or embassy, certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Obtain that certificate first. If the certificate or the licence reaches the RTA in Turkish, a legal Arabic translation of each is then produced against the certified documents — the translation supports the consulate's certificate; it cannot replace it.
Your licence is an older card or paper document with no hologram or machine-readable zone.
What is usually neededThe RTA asks, for a licence without security features, for a certificate from the issuing country's consulate or embassy verifying the validity of the data. That is the first call to make. The translation — of the licence, and of the consulate certificate if it is not in Arabic or English — follows once the certificate is in hand, so that the Arabic reproduces the whole set.
You are visiting Dubai for two weeks and want to hire a car on your Russian licence.
What is usually neededThis is not an exchange and the RTA translation table is not the rule that governs it. As a visitor you drive on your national licence where the UAE recognises it, and a hire desk will normally ask for an International Driving Permit alongside a licence in Cyrillic script — obtained in Russia before travel, since it is not issued to visitors here. A translation done in Dubai is not the document a hire company is looking for in that case; ask the desk before you pay for one.
You are relocating from Dubai to Spain and the licensing office wants your UAE licence and driving history in Spanish.
What is usually neededObtain the RTA's Driver Experience Certificate before you leave, have it stamped by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs if the destination does not accept e-certificates, and confirm with the Spanish office whether it accepts a translation prepared abroad or requires its own sworn translator. If a Dubai-prepared translation is acceptable, we translate the licence and the certificate into Spanish against the attested documents.
An insurer abroad is handling a claim from an accident in a hired car and wants your licence in its language.
What is usually neededA certified translation of the licence, and usually of the RTA's Driver Experience Certificate showing your driving history and categories, into the insurer's language. The insurer's claims department sets the form it accepts; ask whether a translator's certification is enough or whether it wants notarisation, and tell us, so the translation is prepared once and in the right form.
Where a licence translation comes back rejected
The mistakeThe licence expired between arrival and application, and the translation was made of the expired card.
The fixThe RTA exchanges valid licences only. Renew in the home country first — often possible remotely — then translate the renewed card.
The mistakeOnly the front of the card is translated; the back, with the category legend and endorsements, is left out.
The fixBoth faces are one document. The legend is what gives the category codes their meaning, and endorsements can restrict what the RTA issues.
The mistakeThe Arabic name on the translation is spelled from the licence's own transliteration, not from the Emirates ID.
The fixFix the Arabic spelling from the Emirates ID and passport before translating, and use it identically in every field where the name appears.
The mistakeA month-day-year date is read as day-month-year, and the date of birth no longer matches the passport.
The fixEvery date is written out unambiguously and reconciled to the passport; any true discrepancy is flagged for the issuing authority, not silently corrected.
The mistakeA translation is commissioned for a Turkish licence, or a card with no security features, in place of the consulate certificate.
The fixObtain the consulate's Driving Licence Data Certificate first, with Ministry of Foreign Affairs certification where the RTA requires it; translate afterwards, against the certified set.
The mistakeAn International Driving Permit is uploaded as the translation in the exchange application.
The fixThe RTA asks for a legalised translation of the licence itself. The permit is a travel document for use abroad, not a rendering of your card.
The mistakeA licence in Cyrillic, Greek or an Asian script is submitted on the strength of an English heading printed on the card.
The fixIf the operative fields — name, dates, categories — are not in Arabic or English, the translation column applies. Translate the whole card.
The mistakeFor use abroad, the Driver Experience Certificate is translated first and attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs afterwards.
The fixAttest first where the destination requires it, then translate against the stamped certificate so the endorsement appears in the target language.
What to have ready before the translation begins
- Clear images of both faces of the licence, in colour, with every hologram, stamp, code and marginal legend legible.
- The passport biodata page and, for the RTA route, the Emirates ID — front and back — as the controlling references for the Arabic and Latin spelling of your name and your date of birth.
- The RTA country row that applies to you, so we know whether the table asks for a legalised translation, a consulate certificate, both, or neither.
- Any consulate or embassy certificate already obtained — a Driving Licence Data Certificate, a clearance letter — with its Ministry of Foreign Affairs stamp where required, so it can be translated as part of the same set.
- For the outbound direction: the RTA's Driver Experience Certificate, attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs if the destination does not accept e-certificates.
- The name of the receiving office — RTA centre, foreign licensing authority, insurer or hire company — and, where you have it, its written statement of what form of translation it accepts.
- Any earlier translation of the licence or of a family member's licence whose spelling of the family name must be matched.
- A note of any date shown in a non-Gregorian calendar or an imperial-era year, so it can be converted and labelled rather than guessed.
The language pairs behind a driving licence
- Russian to ArabicCyrillic-script licences from Russia and several neighbouring states sit in the RTA's translation-required group; the name transliteration has to be settled from the passport, not the card.
- Hindi and Urdu to ArabicIndian and Pakistani licences vary widely by issuing state; many are bilingual with English, but native-script fields, older paper formats and cards without security features raise the translation or consulate-certificate question.
- English to ArabicRarely needed for the RTA exchange itself, but asked for by some centres and by insurers or courts in the UAE when a foreign licence becomes evidence in an Arabic file.
- Arabic to English and third languagesThe outbound direction: a UAE licence and Driver Experience Certificate rendered for a foreign licensing office, an insurer or a hire company — into English where that suffices, or into the destination's own language where it does not.
Not sure which route applies to your document?
Related services and guides
Driving licence translation: your questions
It depends on who you are here. A visitor from a country the UAE recognises drives on the national licence, and a hire desk may ask for an International Driving Permit alongside a licence that is not in Latin script — no Dubai translation is involved. A resident cannot drive on a foreign licence at all: the licence is exchanged for a UAE one where the country qualifies, and the RTA's country table decides whether that exchange needs a legalised translation. So the translation is for the exchange file, never a permission to drive.
The ones on the RTA's exception-country table, published on its licence-exchange service page. It includes many European states, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, several Eastern European and Central Asian states, Türkiye and the GCC countries — but the list changes, some rows are limited to certain nationalities, and a few territories are expressly excluded. Read the live table rather than any fixed list, including this one.
The RTA's wording is legalised translation — a legal translation bearing the seal of a translator recognised for official use in the UAE, and, where the source country requires it, the consulate or Ministry of Foreign Affairs stamp on the underlying document. A machine translation, an unsigned rendering, or an International Driving Permit does not meet that description. We produce the legal translation; whether a particular file also needs a consulate stamp is set by the country row, and we tell you which applies.
For a visitor, often yes — it is the document that lets a hire desk read a non-Latin-script licence, and it is obtained in the home country before travel. For a resident, no: the UAE Government's published position is that residents obtain a UAE licence, and the RTA's exchange table asks for a legalised translation, not a permit. The permit and the translation are different tools; one is carried on the road abroad, the other is a document in a file.
A translation has no expiry of its own; it is a faithful rendering of a document at a point in time. What expires is the licence. The RTA requires the licence being exchanged to be valid, so a translation made of a card that has since expired is a translation of a document the authority will not act on. Some receiving offices, especially abroad, also prefer a translation of recent date; if the licence is renewed or re-issued, the translation is redone against the new card.
Usually the RTA reads an English-language card directly, and many rows in its table say no translation is needed. Two cautions: a card with English headings but native-script entries is a mixed-language document and may still fall under the translation column; and a card without security features needs a consulate certificate regardless of language. Check your row and look at your card before you assume.
Where a stamp is required — a consulate Driving Licence Data Certificate, Ministry of Foreign Affairs certification, or attestation of an RTA Driver Experience Certificate for use abroad — obtain the stamp first and translate against the stamped document, so the endorsement appears in the target language. Where the RTA row asks for a translation only, there is nothing to attest first; the legal translation of the valid card is the whole requirement.
It is the most common one. We translate what the licence says, in the order it says it, but we spell the Arabic form of each name element from the Emirates ID and passport so that the RTA reads one person across all three documents. If the licence and passport genuinely disagree — a missing middle name, a different surname after marriage — that is for the issuing authority to reconcile; a translation cannot and should not paper over it.
Yes — into English or the destination's language, and usually together with the RTA's Driver Experience Certificate, which shows your driving history and categories and is often what an insurer or licensing office really wants. Confirm with the receiving office what form it accepts, since some states require their own sworn translators; and if the destination does not accept e-certificates, have the RTA certificate stamped by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before we translate it.
Official references
- Roads and Transport Authority (Dubai) — Apply for a new driving licence or category based on exchanging licences
- Roads and Transport Authority (Dubai) — Apply for a Driver Experience Certificate
- The Official Portal of the UAE Government (u.ae) — Getting a driving licence
- The Official Portal of the UAE Government (u.ae) — Driving abroad and the International Driving Permit
- Ministry of Interior — Exchange of a foreign-issued driving licence (e-service)
- UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Attestation of Official Documents and Certificates
This page is general information about translation services, not legal advice. Requirements are set by the authority receiving your document and can change — always confirm with the receiving authority or ask us to check for your specific case.
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