Translation Services in Dubai

Ask who will receive the document. If a court, notary, government department or registry will receive it, you need the work of a legal translator registered with the Ministry of Justice, carrying that translator's name and registration number. If the document will only ever be read by people — a partner, a team, an audience — standard professional translation is the better and more flexible product. When in doubt, start from the destination, not from the price.

On the mainland, Arabic is the language of the courts under the Civil Procedure Law, and a foreign-language document needs an Arabic translation by a registered legal translator to be admissible. The law does allow specific proceedings to run in English, but only by a decision of the senior judiciary — it is not something a party can simply request. DIFC and ADGM courts, by contrast, work in English as their default.

The statutory scheme registers individuals and licensed translation houses, and it requires the translator's name and registration number to appear on the document. So always ask about the named individual: who they are, which language pair they are registered for, and whether the registration is current. A brand on its own gives the document no status.

For anything an authority will receive, no — the tier is defined by who produced the translation, and the law reserves official translation work for registered practitioners; practising without registration is an offence. Fluency does not substitute for status. A bilingual colleague is valuable for checking your own understanding of a draft, and self-translation is fine for private reading — but the moment a court, notary or registry is the audience, the work must come from a registered legal translator.

We have not found a published official rule that settles this in general terms, and the requirements UAE authorities do publish point to translators registered inside the UAE. The safe position: do not build a filing on a foreign certification without written confirmation from the receiving authority, and expect to need a local legal translation.

They are different functions: attestation authenticates signatures and seals, translation renders content. For a foreign document the practical order is to complete the chain first, then translate the final stamped original so the translation captures everything on it. The exception is a document in a third language, which needs a legally certified translation before MOFA will attest it at all.

Inside both jurisdictions, proceedings and filings are in English. Arabic returns at the crossings: a DIFC claim form served in the UAE outside the DIFC needs a certified Arabic translation with the translator's details, judgments enforced onshore must be translated into Arabic, and the ADGM notary requires dual-language documents certified by a licensed legal translator.

The statutory rule speaks of documents issued in a foreign language, and we have not read an official text that addresses bilingual originals directly. In practice a court may work from the Arabic version inside the document or may direct otherwise. Put the question to the receiving authority or your counsel before assuming either way — and we will tell you honestly if your document needs no work from us.

No. Its attestation certifies the authenticity of the signatures and seals on the document — nothing more. It does not examine content and it does not endorse the accuracy of any translation attached. Accuracy remains the statutory responsibility of the legal translator whose name is on the work, which is why choosing that person matters more than any later stamp.

The Ministry of Justice operates eServices for registering legal translators, renewing registration and adding languages, and registration is per language pair for fixed terms. Ask the translator for their registration number and verify through the ministry's channels. We could not point to a published public lookup tool, so verification means contacting the ministry or asking for evidence that the registration is current.

We have not read an official text that sets an expiry for the translation itself, and MOFA states that an attestation does not expire. But the underlying certificate may carry its own validity window at the receiving authority — police clearance certificates are the classic example — and an authority may ask for a translation that reflects the latest stamped version of the document. The receiving authority always has the final word.