How to renew a UAE residence visa

Check this first

Fees and procedures change without notice. Before you act on anything below, confirm it at the ICP, which is the authority that actually handles this.

The short version

• Where: GDRFA in Dubai, or the ICP app and website in the other emirates. Your employer or sponsor usually starts it.
• Cost: About AED 560 in government fees for a standard three-year renewal, plus AED 150 to 300 in service-centre charges, with the medical and insurance on top.
• Takes: 5 to 10 working days, including medical results.
• If you are late: AED 50 a day once the grace period ends, unified across every emirate since February 2026. The grace period is usually 30 days, and up to 180 for Golden and Green visa holders.
• Valid for: 1 to 10 years depending on the visa.

The steps

1. Establish who actually renews it. An employer, a sponsor, or you if you hold a Golden Visa or a freelance permit. This is the step people assume and get wrong.
2. Take the medical fitness test at an approved centre.
3. Renew or confirm your health insurance. The visa will not issue without it.
4. Apply through your residency authority, or an accredited service centre.
5. Your Emirates ID renewal is bundled into the same application.

The part people get wrong

Assuming the employer has it in hand. A lapse fines you rather than them, and the first you hear of it is often at the airport. If somebody else renews your visa, put a reminder on it anyway and ask them a month before, not a week.

The health insurance step also catches people out, because the insurance and the visa expire on different dates. Renewing the visa with lapsed cover stops the application.

And the medical result has a shelf life. It is valid for about 30 days, so a renewal that stalls at the sponsor’s end can mean sitting the test twice. Book it close to the submission, not weeks ahead.

Track it so you never read this page twice

Expyr photographs the document, reads the expiry date, and reminds you weeks ahead rather than the day before. It carries these same steps, the typical cost and the late fine, and opens the right portal for you. It is free for five items.