Power of Attorney Translation for Dubai Notarisation
A power of attorney starts to matter the moment a notary, a court or the Land Department reads it — and in Dubai it is read in Arabic. This page follows the instrument through that journey: the bilingual format notaries accept, the legalisation chain for POAs signed abroad, the wording the DLD now insists on, and the notarised revocation that ends it all. We translate for the counter where the document will actually be executed.
- Bilingual instruments typeset the way Dubai notaries require
- Property POA wording aligned with Dubai Land Department practice
- Foreign POAs guided through the full legalisation chain
- Litigation, corporate and revocation instruments in one consistent Arabic voice
- Dubai-based, UAE-wide service
- Arabic & English
- Clear guidance on every document
- Direct request, no middlemen
Why a Dubai notary reads your POA in Arabic
Every power of attorney that reaches a Dubai notary meets the same threshold rule before anyone discusses its content. Article 27 of Dubai Law No. (4) of 2013 concerning Notaries Public requires notarised instruments to be drawn up in Arabic. A document written in another language can be notarised in only two forms: as a bilingual instrument, with both texts running through one continuous document and the parties signing every page opposite each text; or as a foreign-language instrument with an Arabic translation attached — a translation prepared by a certified legal translator, with both versions signed by the parties.
The word ‘certified’ carries statutory weight here. Article 2 of the same law defines a Translator, for notarisation purposes, as a legal translator certified by the competent authority to translate from a foreign language into Arabic and back. The notary cannot accept a version from a bilingual colleague, a paralegal or an online tool, however accurate it reads. If the translation does not come from a translator the authority recognises, the appointment ends before it begins.
This is why we describe POA translation as part of the notarisation itself rather than a step before it. The Arabic text is what the notary examines when verifying, under Articles 24 and 25 of the law, that the principal named in the instrument is the person presenting the passport or Emirates ID, that they have legal capacity, and that they consent to what the document grants. Names, ID numbers and the scope of authority are all checked against the Arabic wording, so the Arabic wording has to be exact.
The framework has also moved recently. Dubai Law No. (26) of 2021 amended a substantial part of the 2013 law, restructured private notaries — natural persons entered on the Roll, working through authorised firms that carry the liability — and created the e-Notary Public: an electronic system that performs notarial functions with remote identity verification and electronic signatures, without the parties attending in person. The language rule, however, did not move: Article 27 was not among the amended provisions.
The vocabulary of the notary counter
- Tawkeel / wakala — power of attorney
- Wakala is the underlying agency relationship; tawkeel is the notarised instrument that grants it. UAE notary practice uses tawkeel for the document you actually sign and stamp.
- Al-muwakkil — the principal
- The person granting the authority. The name in the instrument must match the passport or Emirates ID presented at the counter — and, for property, the DLD's own records.
- Al-wakeel — the agent
- The person empowered to act. Not a lawyer by definition: a court advocate is a separate, licensed role, and confusing the two in translation changes what the instrument does.
- Al-katib al-adl — Notary Public
- In the UAE, a function inside the courts. Its statutory duties run from registering documents and attesting signatures to recording affidavits after administering the oath and affixing the executory formula.
- Private notary
- A licensed practitioner working through an authorised firm, required under Dubai law to have at least five years of judicial or legal experience and to practise full time.
- e-Notary Public
- The electronic channel created by Dubai Law No. (26) of 2021: notarial acts performed with remote identity verification and electronic signature, valid without personal attendance.
- Tawtheeq — notarisation
- The act of the notary itself. Keep it apart from tasdeeq: mixing the two is the fastest way to misread an authority's checklist.
- Tasdeeq — attestation / legalisation
- The ministry and embassy stamps a foreign POA collects before it can be used in the UAE: the issuing country's authorities, the UAE mission there, then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at home.
- General vs special POA
- Broad standing authority versus a single named transaction. The difference decides acceptance at the Land Department, where practice expects a special POA for the disposition itself.
- The executory formula
- The endorsement that makes certain obligations directly enforceable. Under the 2021 amendment, government notaries may affix it to instruments containing established obligations of a specified amount.
One instrument, two texts: how a bilingual POA is built
Article 27 does not merely allow a bilingual power of attorney; it prescribes its shape. The Arabic and the foreign language must sit inside a single continuous instrument — not an English document with an Arabic translation stapled behind it. In practice that means a mirrored layout: clauses aligned so that each authority granted in English faces the Arabic clause granting the same thing, page by page, with nothing appearing in one language that is absent from the other.
The signature rule is just as physical. The parties sign every page, opposite each text. A bilingual POA where the principal signed the English side and skipped the Arabic fails the article as surely as an untranslated document. When we prepare a bilingual instrument we deliver it print-ready for that ritual: consistent clause numbering across both languages, names transliterated exactly as they appear on the passport and Emirates ID, and signature blocks positioned where the notary expects them.
The alternative route — a foreign-language instrument with the certified Arabic translation attached, both versions signed — suits documents that already exist and cannot be redrawn, such as a POA drafted abroad by the principal's own lawyers. Which route serves you better depends on where the document will be executed and how often it will be shown. We advise on that choice before a word is translated.
Want this checked for your own document?
Five instruments, five different translation risks
| POA type | What it typically covers | Where the translation can fail |
|---|---|---|
| General POA | Broad management: leasing, collections, correspondence with authorities. | Scope words rendered too loosely; authorities increasingly read general grants narrowly for asset disposals. |
| Special property POA | One disposition over a named property, identified by its title deed number. | The transaction verb must match the DLD's approved Arabic formulations exactly. |
| Litigation POA | Appointing an advocate to file, defend and manage a claim. | The advocate's details and the procedural powers must survive translation intact, in the court's own terms. |
| Company management POA | Running a licence, signing for an LLC, dealing with banks and free zones. | The corporate documents behind it — board resolution, MOA — need the same Arabic treatment, consistently. |
| Revocation instrument | Ending an existing POA formally before the notary. | It must mirror the terminology of the instrument it cancels, or the cancellation reads as ambiguous. |
A power of attorney is not translated to be read. It is translated to be executed — at a counter, before an official, against an identity document.
A POA signed abroad: the full journey to a Dubai counter
Execution before a local notary
The principal signs before a notary in the country where they are. The document is drafted with its UAE destination in mind: the agent's details, the exact authorities granted, and the property or case it concerns.
The issuing country's own attestation
The country's competent authority — typically its ministry of foreign affairs — authenticates the notary's signature and seal. Each link in the chain certifies only the signature before it, which is why no step can be skipped or reordered.
UAE embassy or consulate legalisation
The UAE mission in the issuing country adds its own attestation over the foreign ministry's stamp. Missions publish their own procedures and they differ — some accept and return documents only by post.
MOFAIC attestation in the UAE
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs completes the chain inside the UAE. Its stamp certifies the signatures and seals on the document — not the truth of its contents, and not the accuracy of any translation attached to it.
Certified Arabic legal translation
The Arabic translation is generally produced after the chain closes, so it reproduces every stamp and endorsement the document now carries. One nuance: a POA written in a third language — Russian, Spanish, Urdu — may need a certified translation earlier, because the ministry works from documents in Arabic or English, or accompanied by a legally certified translation.
Verification and submission
The receiving authority checks the instrument before acting on it. For Dubai property transactions that check happens electronically through official portals, and the physical legalised original — never a scan — is what the trustee office works from.
The apostille misconception
The UAE is not a contracting party to the Hague Apostille Convention. The convention's own status table — listing well over a hundred contracting parties — does not include the UAE, so the single-certificate apostille route simply does not operate for documents coming here.
An apostilled POA from London, Madrid or Manila therefore still needs the consular chain: the issuing country's authentication, the UAE mission's legalisation there, and MOFAIC attestation in the UAE. Where the apostille is the issuing country's own authentication step — as it is for UK documents — it starts the chain. It never replaces it.
Property POAs after DLD Circular No. 29/R/2025
In July 2025 the Dubai Land Department issued Circular No. 29/R/2025, and — as professional briefings on it report — it changed what a property power of attorney has to say, not just how it is stamped. Every POA used in a real-estate disposition must now be verified electronically through named official portals — the Dubai Courts notary document service, the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department's enquiry service, or the Ministry of Justice e-notary search — before the Registrar processes the transaction. Verifying a POA by scanning the QR code printed on it is expressly prohibited. The Registrar also cross-checks the principal's name, Emirates ID number and passport number against the DLD's own records, so a transliteration that drifts from the title deed can stall a transfer.
The circular's sharpest edge is terminology. A POA authorising a sale must use the approved formulations — ‘sale of real estate’, ‘transfer for consideration’, ‘waiver for consideration’ and their siblings. Purchases, gifts, mortgages, usufruct rights and musataha rights each have their own approved wording families, down to distinctions such as ‘purchase for oneself with explicit specification of the ownership share’ and a mortgage that secures a third party's debt. Wording like ‘full authority to manage my property’ — the phrase most POAs drafted abroad actually contain — is insufficient. For a translator this is the whole game: the Arabic verb chosen for the transaction decides whether the disposition completes.
For POAs issued abroad the circular adds hard conditions: the instrument must have been issued within the two years preceding submission, notarised in its country of origin, legalised by the UAE embassy or consulate there, attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and presented as the physical original — uncertified electronic or scanned copies are not accepted. A POA older than two years at submission is refused regardless of any longer validity written inside it. And where it is not in Arabic, a full legal translation by a UAE-licensed translator must accompany it.
Two further practice points sit alongside the circular. Dubai practice distinguishes the special POA — naming the property by its title deed number and carrying transaction-specific authority — from the general POA, which may support management acts such as leasing and service-charge matters but is not accepted for the disposition itself. And the rules on sale proceeds have tightened: per practitioner analysis of the circular, the manager's cheque is issued in the title-deed owner's name unless both the POA and the sale agreement explicitly authorise payment to the agent, with written confirmation of receipt. Payment authority must be drafted and translated expressly, never implied.
Where a minor or an interdicted person is involved, the briefings describe additional approvals layered on top of the POA — written approval from the Awqaf and Minors Affairs Foundation for Dubai-national minors, a court order for minors from other emirates, and a local judicial order for non-nationals, while a guardian's signature suffices where the minor is the transferee. Files like these arrive at our desk as a bundle — POA, guardianship approval, title deed — and the bundle has to read consistently in Arabic, one set of names, one set of terms.
Where POAs fail at the counter
The mistakeAn English-only POA is presented to a Dubai notary with no Arabic version at all.
The fixRoute it through Article 27 before the appointment: rebuild it as one continuous bilingual instrument, or attach a certified Arabic translation signed alongside the original.
The mistakeThe Arabic and English are printed as two separate documents and stapled together.
The fixThe law requires one continuous instrument, texts side by side, signatures on every page opposite each text. We typeset it that way before anyone signs.
The mistakeThe POA grants ‘full authority to manage my property’ and is submitted for a sale.
The fixReplace generic scope wording with the DLD's approved transaction formulations, and name the property by its title deed number in a special POA.
The mistakeA foreign POA arrives with an apostille and nothing else.
The fixComplete the consular chain — issuing-country authentication, UAE mission legalisation, MOFAIC attestation — then produce the Arabic translation against the fully stamped original.
The mistakeA scanned copy of the legalised POA is emailed to the trustee office for the transfer.
The fixFor DLD purposes the physical legalised original travels with the file. The scan is useful only for preparing the translation in advance.
The mistakeThe agent verifies the POA by scanning the QR code printed on it.
The fixUse the official verification portals. QR-code verification is expressly prohibited for Dubai real-estate purposes.
The mistakeThe principal's name is transliterated three different ways across the POA, the passport and the title deed.
The fixFix one transliteration before translation begins — the one on the identity documents the notary and the Registrar will actually check against.
Have a question about your case?
Send us the draft POA — or the deed and ID details it must match — and we will tell you which route fits before you book the notary.
Request a POA translationDubai is not the whole UAE: forum differences that matter
Dubai onshore
- Instruments are notarised in Arabic, or through the two Article 27 routes: a bilingual continuous instrument, or the foreign text plus a certified Arabic translation.
- The e-Notary channel performs notarial acts with remote identity verification and electronic signature, without personal attendance.
- For property POAs the Land Department layers its own circular over the notary rules: approved wording, electronic verification, and a two-year limit for foreign instruments.
Abu Dhabi and ADGM
- The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department has operated an English Notary Services Bureau since October 2023, notarising English-language documents — POAs, contracts, board resolutions — without Arabic translation.
- ADGM Courts require bilingual Arabic-English documents certified by a legal translator licensed by the UAE Ministry of Justice, wet-ink signatures on all pages, and all signatories at the same appointment.
- Whether an English-only or ADGM instrument will be accepted onshore is not published anywhere authoritative. Confirm with the receiving authority before relying on it.
The litigation POA: a different instrument entirely
A power of attorney for court is not a property or management POA with different names in it, and UAE procedure treats it formally: a representative in civil proceedings proves the appointment through an official POA attested by a notary public. Once appointed, the attorney can file the lawsuit, manage the proceedings, present defences and take precautionary measures through to the final-decision stage.
Two translation consequences follow. First, courtroom representation belongs to advocates licensed by the Ministry of Justice and entered on the roll of practising lawyers — so the Arabic text must identify the advocate precisely and grant the procedural powers in the terms Dubai courts expect, not in a paraphrase of a common-law litigation clause. Second, the language rule reaches past the POA itself: documents submitted to UAE courts must be in Arabic or translated by a legal translator approved by the Ministry of Justice, which pulls the statement of claim and its supporting exhibits into the same discipline.
When a dispute begins abroad — a foreign judgment to enforce, an assignment of claim, a POA signed at a UAE mission — the litigation bundle mixes legalisation questions with translation ones. We sequence both so the first hearing is spent on the case, not the file's paperwork.
Ending a POA properly: the revocation nobody writes about
A power of attorney does not die quietly. Practitioner guidance is consistent that telling the agent, or tearing up the paper, has no legal effect: revocation is done through a formal notarised revocation instrument, followed by notification of the agent and of the authorities that were relying on the POA. Until then the instrument keeps working in the agent's hands.
The revocation has its own translation discipline. It must identify the original instrument unambiguously — its number, its date, the notary before whom it was made — and cancel the authorities in the same terminology the original granted them. Where the original was bilingual, or was used before an Arabic-language authority, the revocation needs the same Arabic treatment: a cancellation the Land Department or a bank cannot read does not protect the principal.
A POA also ends by its own terms, or by events: under the guidance we rely on, the principal's death or loss of capacity brings it to an end. If a transaction is mid-flight when that happens, the receiving authority — not the agent — decides what it will still accept, one more reason revocations and their notifications should be documented in Arabic from the start.
Which journey is yours?
You own a Dubai apartment, live abroad, and want to sell without flying in.
What is usually neededA special POA naming the property by title deed number and using a DLD-approved sale formulation; executed before a notary where you live, legalised through the UAE mission there, attested by MOFAIC, translated into Arabic by a UAE-licensed translator, issued within the previous two years, and presented as the physical original.
Your foreign parent company is appointing a manager for its Dubai mainland LLC.
What is usually neededA company-management POA plus the documents behind it — board resolution, certificate of incorporation, memorandum of association — all through the legalisation chain if executed abroad, and all in certified Arabic translation so the bundle reads as one file.
You need to appoint an advocate for a civil claim in Dubai Courts.
What is usually neededA litigation POA attested by a notary public, naming a licensed advocate on the roll of practising lawyers, with the procedural powers stated in the Arabic terms the court expects; the claim and its exhibits filed in Arabic or in certified legal translation.
You are outside the UAE and cannot attend any notary appointment.
What is usually neededConsider the Ministry of Justice digital POA service — a ratified digital POA issued remotely, on a platform in Arabic and English, usable from outside the country — or Dubai's e-Notary channel with remote identity verification. Where neither fits the transaction, the classic route remains: execute abroad and legalise through the chain.
You gave a POA years ago and want it out of circulation.
What is usually neededA notarised revocation instrument, notification of the agent and of every authority relying on the POA, and Arabic versions of all of it wherever the original operated in Arabic.
You hold an apostilled POA from a Hague Convention country.
What is usually neededThe apostille alone does not satisfy UAE requirements. The instrument still needs UAE mission legalisation and MOFAIC attestation, then certified Arabic translation against the completed original.
What to have ready before translation begins
- Passport and Emirates ID copies for principal and agent, with names exactly as they should appear in Arabic.
- The title deed or Oqood number for any property POA, plus the precise transaction intended — sale, gift, mortgage, usufruct or musataha.
- The draft POA or the existing signed instrument — every page, including all stamps and endorsements.
- For corporate POAs: the board resolution authorising it, the trade licence, and the memorandum of association.
- For foreign POAs: the fully legalised physical original, photographed clearly, so the translation can reproduce every stamp.
- The receiving authority — notary, court, DLD trustee office or bank — since format expectations differ between them.
- For revocations: the original POA's number, date and notarising authority.
- Any earlier translations or title documents whose transliteration of names must be matched.
The language pairs behind Dubai POAs
- English ↔ ArabicThe default notary pair. Bilingual instruments are typeset as one continuous document; standalone English POAs receive a certified Arabic translation for attachment.
- Russian → ArabicPOAs executed before Russian notaries arrive with layered stamps; as third-language documents they may need a certified translation just to enter the attestation chain.
- Urdu → ArabicFamily, property and inheritance POAs executed in Pakistan travel with supporting civil documents that need the same certified treatment.
- Spanish → ArabicSpanish and Latin American POAs typically carry notarial protocol numbers and apostilles — and the apostille still needs the consular chain for UAE use.
Not sure which route applies to your document?
Power of attorney translation: your questions
For notarisation in Dubai, the instrument must be in Arabic or take one of the two forms permitted by Article 27 of Dubai Law No. (4) of 2013: a bilingual continuous document signed on every page opposite each text, or a foreign-language document with a certified Arabic translation attached and both versions signed. An English-only POA, without more, is not notarised.
Dubai's notary law defines the Translator as a legal translator certified by the competent authority to work between Arabic and the foreign language in both directions. A translation by a bilingual employee, a relative or an unaccredited agency does not meet that definition, however faithful it is.
Not by itself. The UAE is not a contracting party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so an apostille does not replace consular legalisation. The POA still needs the UAE mission's legalisation in the issuing country and MOFAIC attestation in the UAE, followed by certified Arabic translation against the completed document.
Dubai practice expects a special POA for the disposition itself — naming the property by title deed number and using the DLD's approved transaction wording. A general POA can support management acts, but the briefings on the DLD's 2025 circular are clear that generic authority wording is insufficient for a sale, gift, mortgage, usufruct or musataha transaction.
No general statutory validity period appears in the sources we work from: an instrument runs until it expires by its own terms, is revoked, or ends with the principal's death or loss of capacity. The verified two-year limit is specific — the Land Department refuses a foreign-issued POA older than two years at submission, whatever validity is written inside it. For anything else, confirm the position with the receiving authority.
Two remote channels exist. The Ministry of Justice launched a digital power of attorney service in 2022 — a ratified digital POA issued remotely, on a platform in Arabic and English, usable from outside the country — and its second phase in 2023 covers eight POA types, including real estate, legal cases and company management. Separately, Dubai's e-Notary, created by Law No. (26) of 2021, performs notarial acts with remote identity verification and electronic signature. Confirm the receiving authority accepts the digital instrument for your transaction before relying on it.
Not from the QR code — that method is expressly prohibited. The Registrar verifies the instrument electronically through the official portals the circular names, and cross-checks the principal's name, Emirates ID number and passport number against DLD records before processing the transaction.
For a bilingual instrument, yes — Article 27 requires the parties to sign each page opposite each text. For the attached-translation route, the law requires both the foreign-language version and the Arabic translation to be signed by the parties.
A corporate POA rarely travels alone. The Land Department's own service requirements ask for the memorandum of association and its annexes in legal Arabic translation for LLCs and for foreign or GCC companies, with foreign-ministry ratification for foreign and GCC corporate documents — and the board resolution authorising the POA follows the same logic. We treat the corporate bundle as one file so its terminology stays consistent.
Through a notarised revocation instrument, followed by notifying the agent and the authorities that hold the POA — informal cancellation has no legal effect under the practitioner guidance we rely on. If the original operated in Arabic before a notary, a court or the Land Department, prepare the revocation in Arabic too, mirroring the original's terminology.
A power of attorney is priced per page in most cases, and the total depends on its length, because POAs range from a single-page authorisation to a multi-page instrument with detailed powers. Documents executed abroad also carry notary certificates and attestation stamps, and these pages are normally translated too because the notary or authority will read them. MANJAZ reviews the full document and confirms the quote before you commit.
Yes, as a rule. Dubai notaries public work in Arabic, so a document written in another language, such as a power of attorney or company resolution, is normally accompanied by an Arabic legal translation from a licensed translator before it can be notarised. Bilingual documents with an Arabic column are also commonly used. Where a foreign document is involved, attestation usually comes first; the notary confirms the exact format it will accept.
A translated power of attorney is typically presented to notaries public in Dubai and other emirates, onshore courts, the Dubai Land Department and developers, banks, government departments, and free-zone or licensing authorities. Whether it is accepted depends on the translator's Ministry of Justice licence, on the original being properly attested if it was issued abroad, and on the authority's own formalities. Ask the receiving authority what it requires before you translate.
If the power of attorney was signed abroad, have it notarised and attested in the issuing country, legalised by the UAE embassy there, then stamped by UAE MOFA; only then is it legally translated into Arabic by a licensed translator. If it is being executed in Dubai, it is usually drafted bilingually or translated and then signed before the notary public. Confirm the wording and format the notary or receiving authority expects first.
Official references
- Dubai Legislation Portal — Law No. (4) of 2013 Concerning Notaries Public in the Emirate of Dubai
- Dubai Legislation Portal — Law No. (26) of 2021 Amending Law No. (4) of 2013
- u.ae — Civil cases (litigation procedures)
- UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Attestation of Official Documents and Certificates
- HCCH — Status table of the Apostille Convention
- Abu Dhabi Judicial Department — English Notary Services Bureau
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.
Ready to translate your document?
Send the document and we confirm the exact certification the receiving authority expects.