Child Travel Consent in the UAE: Letters, Court Permits and Passports

Do You Need Consent to Take Your Child Out of the UAE?

If you are separated or divorced, yes: the law expects the other parent’s written approval or a court permit before a child leaves the country. If you are still married and simply flying without your spouse, we found no UAE rule requiring a letter at the border, but the airline or the country you land in may ask for one. Which rule applies depends on three things.

• Your family law. Muslim families follow Article 116 of Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024. Non-Muslim expats usually fall under Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022, or Abu Dhabi Law No. 14 of 2021 in Abu Dhabi.
• Who has custody. The rules are written around the custodian and the guardian, so your custody judgment or agreement decides who asks whom.
• Where you are going. Canada, the US and Ireland advise a signed letter from a parent who is not travelling; the UK may ask you to prove your relationship.

The Rule for Muslim Families: Article 116 in Plain English

Article 116 of Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024, in force since 15 April 2025, lets the parent with custody take the child out of the UAE only with the other parent’s written approval or the court’s permission. It governs Muslim families and other residents whose family matters fall under the 2024 law. It has four parts.

1. Written approval of the other parent

   The custodial parent may travel with the child with the written approval of the other parent. If the father has died, the approval comes from the child’s guardian over the person (wali al-nafs) instead (Article 116(1)).

2. A court permit of up to 60 days a year

   Without that approval, the court may authorise travel for one or more periods totalling no more than 60 days a year, with a guarantee acceptable to the court that the child will return. The year runs from the first permit (Article 116(2)).

3. Longer trips for a reason

   The court can go beyond 60 days if the travel is for the child’s benefit, for medical treatment or for another necessity it accepts, after hearing the other parent unless that is impossible (Article 116(2)).

4. Custodians who are not parents

   A grandmother or other non-parent with custody needs the written consent of both parents, of one if the other has died, or of the wali al-nafs. The court can permit the same 60 days a year with a guarantee (Article 116(3) and (4)).

Who needs whose consent in practice

After a separation, custody goes first to the mother (Article 114), while the father stays the guardian, so in most separated Muslim families the mother needs the father’s written approval. A father who has custody needs the mother’s. The two roles are explained in guardianship vs custody.

Article 116 speaks only of the custodial parent. A parent without custody has time with the child under the visitation agreement or order (Article 121), so a trip abroad during a visit needs the custodian’s written agreement or a court decision. Custody, and with it these rules, runs until the child is 18 (Article 123).

What Article 116 does not cover

A travel permit is for trips that end with the child coming home. A move abroad is a different case: custody can lapse if the custodian moves somewhere with the intention of living there and the child’s interests are not met (Article 115). If that is your plan, read child relocation after divorce before you ask for consent to a “holiday”.

Travelling without the permission the law requires is also a criminal offence. Under Article 252 of the 2024 law, a custodian who travels with the child without the permit of the guardian or the court, or uses the child’s documents unlawfully, faces imprisonment and a fine of AED 5,000 to AED 50,000, or either penalty. Under Article 255 a prosecution needs a complaint from the person concerned, and a waiver before final judgment ends the case.

Who Keeps the Child’s Passport and ID Documents?

The guardian, usually the father, may keep the child’s passport, but must hand it to the custodian when the child travels (Article 117(1)). Consent and passport go together: a signed letter is of little use if the passport stays in the other parent’s drawer.

If the guardian obstinately refuses to hand the passport over when it is needed, the court can order that it stay with the custodian (Article 117(2)). Ask for that order with a travel permit, so the passport stops being a bargaining chip before every trip. Refusing without justification to hand over a minor’s papers to the person entitled to them is a separate offence under Article 251(3), with imprisonment and a fine of AED 5,000 to AED 100,000, or either penalty. At 18 the child keeps their own passport unless the court decides otherwise (Article 117(4)).

Non-Muslim Parents: Joint Custody in Dubai, the Northern Emirates and Abu Dhabi

Non-Muslim parents share custody after divorce, so neither can take the child abroad alone over the other’s objection; the answer is agreement or a court decision.

Federal civil law (Dubai and the northern emirates)

Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022 makes custody a joint and equal right of both parents after divorce (Article 10). The law itself has no travel article. A disagreement about a trip is a joint-custody dispute: either parent can apply to the court on the prescribed form to decide it (Article 10(3)), and the court decides in the child’s best interests (Article 10(4)).

The executive regulation of that law, Cabinet Resolution No. 122 of 2023, is more specific. Under its Article 21, while joint custody is in effect neither parent may travel abroad with the child by a unilateral decision; if the other parent objects, the trip needs the judge’s permission on an application to the court, which may require sufficient guarantees that the child returns on the set date. Under Article 22, after the divorce either parent may ask the court to stop the child travelling for a temporary period, stating their objections. Both decisions are at the court’s discretion.

Abu Dhabi Civil Family Court

In Abu Dhabi, non-Muslim families fall under Abu Dhabi Law No. 14 of 2021 and the court’s 2022 regulations, which spell travel out. Under Article 37 of the regulations, a parent may travel with the child during joint custody only if one of these applies:

• The other parent’s written consent, authorised by the court on the court’s form, stating the details, purpose and duration of the trip and any security offered.
• The judge’s permission, applied for on the court’s form, if the other parent objects.
• Either parent may also ask the judge to require sufficient security for the child’s return on the agreed date, at the judge’s discretion.

Article 38 lets either parent, after divorce, petition for a temporary travel ban on the child, and Article 42 allows provisional orders that temporarily allow or ban travel or order the handover of documents. The practical point: a notarised letter on its own may not meet Article 37, so use the court’s form. More in child custody in Abu Dhabi.

Married Parents Travelling Alone With a Child

If you are married and one of you flies with the children, we found no published UAE immigration rule requiring a consent letter at exit. What stops a child at a UAE airport is a travel ban. The paperwork demands usually come from the airline and the country you land in.

At the UAE airport

A lawyer answering a Gulf News reader advised a notarised no-objection letter from the other parent for a couple separated but not yet divorced. With reason: a parent who objects can ask the court for a travel ban on the child, and an unagreed trip can be raised later in a custody dispute. If your marriage is under strain, treat the letter as protection, not a formality.

Airlines

Emirates and Etihad set their own rules for children flying alone. Etihad says a child aged 5 to 11 flying alone must have its free unaccompanied minor service booked before reaching the airport, and that under-5s cannot fly alone. Emirates asks the parent of a child flying alone to sign a Declaration of Indemnity, available at Emirates airport offices, and strongly advises a consent letter for a child flying to Canada alone or with an adult who has no legal custody.

Coming back matters too. Since 2018, following a GDRFA Dubai notice reported by Gulf News, minors flying into the UAE without their parents have needed a parental authorisation naming who will receive them, even when a relative travels with them. Ask your airline what it currently requires.

Destination countries

Official guidance from four common destinations, as published on each government’s own site:

Who Must Consent and What to Carry: Decision Table

Find your situation below. “Required” means UAE law asks for it; “advised” means airlines or border officers abroad may ask for it.

What a Child Travel Consent Letter Must Say

A good letter lets a stranger at a border see in one minute who consents, for which child, with whom, where to and until when. There is no official UAE format. Include:

• The consenting parent’s full name, passport and Emirates ID numbers, address and a phone number reachable from abroad.
• The child’s full name exactly as in the passport, date of birth, nationality and passport number.
• The travelling adult’s full name, passport number and relationship to the child.
• Every destination, including transit countries where you clear immigration, the travel dates and the address abroad.
• A plain sentence of consent, and a passport sentence if the consenting parent holds it.
• An end date, and a line that the letter does not change custody or any court order.
• Signature and notarisation, with copies of the signer’s ID and the child’s birth certificate attached.

If you expect to show the letter to UAE authorities or a UAE court, prepare it in Arabic and English. If you travel often, put a standing travel clause in your separation terms instead (notice period, maximum days, who holds the passport), as covered in our divorce settlement guide.

Model consent letter (adapt the bracketed parts)

For a child travelling with grandparents or other relatives, both parents sign. Where a court order exists, refer to it by case number, and never use a letter to describe a trip the order does not allow.

Signing, Notarising and Attesting the Letter

Have the letter notarised in the UAE before you travel, so an airline or border officer can trust the signature. Attestation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a further step, needed only when a foreign authority asks for a legalised document.

Where to notarise

Bring the signer’s original passport and Emirates ID. Public notaries generally work in Arabic, so a bilingual letter saves a translation step.

Attestation for use abroad

If a foreign authority asks for a legalised letter, the chain is: notarisation in the UAE, then attestation by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), then legalisation by the destination country’s embassy or consulate if that country requires it. MOFA lists a fee of AED 150 for personal documents (AED 2,000 for commercial ones), applied for through its website or app. The UAE is not a party to the Apostille Convention, so if a foreign office asks for an “apostille”, explain that the UAE uses this legalisation chain instead.

If the consenting parent lives abroad

They sign before a notary where they live; Canada, for example, recommends a notary and lets a parent abroad use a consular officer as witness. For use before a UAE court or authority, the foreign document must be legalised in that country, attested by the UAE embassy or consulate there, then by MOFA in the UAE, and translated into Arabic. Start weeks before the trip.

When the Other Parent Will Not Sign: Getting a Court Permit

If the other parent refuses, ignores you or cannot be found, you can ask the family court for a permit. Where the 2024 law requires the court’s permission, you apply by “order on petition” to the court where you live (Article 6), and for travel the court can allow up to 60 days a year (Article 116(2)). Non-Muslim parents apply under Article 10(3) of the 2022 law, or Article 37 of the Abu Dhabi regulations, but the preparation is the same.

1. Ask in writing first

   Send the trip details by email or message and give a reasonable deadline. A written refusal, or silence, is your evidence that the court’s permit is needed.

2. Check for a travel ban

   If a ban is registered on the child, ask in the same application for it to be lifted for the trip.

3. Build the file and offer a guarantee

   Itinerary, return ticket, purpose, address abroad, residence visas valid beyond the return date, school enrolment, your job and tenancy, and your record of returning from past trips. Say what security you offer; the court decides whether it is acceptable (Article 116(2)).

4. File the petition

   In Dubai this is reported as an online Dubai Courts request, “Permission to travel with children during a specific period”, also available through a licensed lawyer or an Al Adheed service centre. The court may investigate and ask for more documents (Article 6). For more than 60 days, it must first hear the other parent unless that is impossible (Article 116(2)).

5. Plan around the appeal window

   Any interested party may appeal the order within one week (Article 6). Ask your lawyer whether you can rely on the order before that week ends, and avoid non-refundable bookings until you know.

6. Travel with certified copies

   Carry a certified copy of the permit, translated for the destination if it is in Arabic, and return within the permitted days.

What counts as a guarantee

The law only says it must be acceptable to the court. Press reports of the Dubai procedure describe the court approving a sponsor who undertakes the child’s return, and law-firm guides also mention financial security. Ask what your court accepts before you file.

How long it takes

No court publishes a fixed decision time. Gulf News reported in June 2024 that Dubai’s old process, where the court sent a letter to the police to lift a child’s travel ban, could take several days, and that a judge’s approval now lifts the ban automatically in the system for the trip and reinstates it when the child returns. Add the one-week appeal window and apply several weeks before you fly.

When the passport is the problem

If you have consent or a permit but the guardian will not release the passport, ask the court for an order under Article 117(2) that the custodian keep it. In an Abu Dhabi civil case, a provisional order for the handover of personal documents is available under Article 42 of the 2022 regulations.

Leaving without consent or a permit risks criminal liability and your credibility in any custody case, and leaves the other parent with few remedies abroad, as set out in international child abduction from the UAE.

Travel Bans on Children

A court travel ban on a child overrides any consent letter: the child cannot leave until the court lifts the ban, permanently or for a specific trip. Either parent can ask for one after a divorce, and a court can also impose one while custody is disputed.

Check whether a ban exists before you book, because an airport is the worst place to find out. If you fear the other parent will take the child abroad, a ban is the tool that works at the border. How bans are imposed, checked and lifted is covered in our travel ban guide.

Mistakes That Stop Families at the Airport

These are the paperwork gaps that cause trouble at a departure gate:

• A letter with no end date, or one signed months earlier for a different trip.
• A letter that leaves out the transit country where you clear immigration.
• Consent in hand, but the passport still with the other parent.
• A different surname from the child and no birth certificate to prove the relationship.
• A travel ban nobody checked, which no letter can override.
• A WhatsApp message treated as consent: useful evidence of agreement, but not a signed letter.

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