New UAE Personal Status Law 2025: What Changed

What the Law Is and When It Took Effect

For nearly twenty years, divorce, custody, and maintenance for Muslims in the UAE ran under Federal Law No. 28 of 2005. That text has now been replaced. Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024 was published on 14 October 2024 and entered into force on 15 April 2025. Cases filed on or after that date are decided under the new articles.

The new law applies to UAE Muslims and to Muslim expatriates living in the country. Under Article 1, a party can still ask the court to apply their home-country law instead of UAE law. Non-Muslim residents are not affected by this law at all: they fall under the civil regime, Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022, which has run UAE-wide since 1 February 2023. For the full picture of how both systems sit together, see our overview of UAE divorce law.

Old 2005 Law vs New 2024 Law: Key Points

Article numbers cited here are for Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024. The new custody ages override older government service pages that still list 11 and 13 due to content lag. For how this plays out in a real case, read our guide to child custody in the UAE.

New Divorce Law UAE: Every Major Change, One by One

The new personal status law reworks several rules at once. Here is each major change from Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024 on its own, so you can see how the new text differs from Law 28 of 2005 point by point.

1. Custody now runs to age 18 for boys and girls

The old law ended a mother's custody at roughly 11 for boys and 13 for girls. Article 123 of the new law extends custody to 18 for both, keeping children with the custodial parent through their school years instead of transferring them to the father as guardian at a young age.

2. A child aged 15 can choose which parent to live with

Article 122 gives a child of 15 or older the right to choose which parent they live with. The 2005 law had no fixed statutory choice age, so this gives older children a formal voice that a judge weighs when deciding custody.

3. Repeated talaq counts as a single divorce

Under the new law, if a husband repeats talaq more than once in a single sitting, or pronounces it in anger during one episode, it is treated as one revocable divorce rather than several. This matters because three separate divorces make the split irrevocable. Counting a repeated pronouncement as one keeps the door open to reconciliation within the waiting period. For how the pronouncement itself works, see our guide to talaq in the UAE.

4. The reconciliation period is cut from 90 to 60 days

Where the old law allowed arbitrators up to 90 days in a harm-based dissolution, the new law caps that window at 60 days (Article 72, subject to confirmation). Family Guidance reconciliation stays mandatory for Muslim couples, but the shorter arbitration period means a contested case can reach a judge sooner. Our guide to the Family Guidance Section in the UAE explains what happens in that stage.

5. Divorce must be documented in court

Documenting a divorce is no longer optional or open-ended. A husband who divorces or reconciles must register that step before the court within 15 days (Article 58). If he misses the deadline, the wife can claim compensation equal to her maintenance for the delay. This gives both parties a dated record for the waiting period and financial rights.

6. Addiction to intoxicants is a new ground for divorce

The new law lists a spouse's addiction to narcotics or intoxicants as a standalone ground for dissolution, which the 2005 law did not spell out. A spouse can now build a case on documented addiction rather than fitting it under a broader harm claim. See how this sits with the other reasons a court accepts in our page on the grounds for divorce in the UAE.

7. The marriage age is firmly set at 18

Article 19 fixes the minimum marriage age at 18 Gregorian years for both parties. The 2005 law left more room for a guardian or court to approve an earlier marriage. Setting a clear floor of 18 removes that discretion and lines the rule up with the custody age used elsewhere in the law.

8. Backdated maintenance is limited to the preceding two years

A claim for spousal-maintenance arrears cannot reach back indefinitely. Article 99 caps backdated maintenance at the two years before the claim, so a spouse who waits too long loses the older months. This is a change in favour of certainty, since it draws a firm line around how far a financial claim can look back.

The Biggest Changes for Divorce

The most practical change for anyone divorcing is the 15-day documentation rule in Article 58. A husband who pronounces a divorce, or who reconciles, must register that step before the court within 15 days. If he does not, the wife can claim compensation equal to her maintenance for the period of delay. Before this, an undated or unregistered divorce could leave a wife uncertain about when her waiting period and financial rights actually started.

The harm-based dissolution route also moved faster. Where the old law allowed arbitrators up to 90 days to attempt a fix, Article 72 caps that arbitration window at 60 days. Family Guidance reconciliation is still mandatory for Muslim cases, and the non-settlement referral letter stays valid for three months. The number of reconciliation sessions is not fixed by statute. The new law also lists a spouse's addiction to narcotics or intoxicants as a ground for dissolution. To see where these routes fit among talaq, khula, and judicial divorce, read our breakdown of the types of divorce in the UAE.

Custody Changes: Age 18 and the Child's Voice

Custody is where the 2024 law moved furthest from 2005. The old text ended a mother's custody at roughly age 11 for boys and 13 for girls, after which custody usually shifted toward the father as guardian. Article 123 now extends custody to age 18 for both boys and girls. That is a large change for day-to-day life, because it keeps children with the custodial parent through their school years.

Two further points matter. First, Article 122 gives a child aged 15 or older the right to choose which parent to live with. Second, the custodial mother now holds educational guardianship, meaning she can make schooling decisions, with disputes referred to the urgent-matters judge rather than left to the guardian alone. These provisions sit alongside the older distinction between custody (day-to-day care) and guardianship (legal and financial authority). Our child custody guide walks through how a court weighs the best interests of the child under the new rules.

Maintenance and Alimony Under the New Law

The new law keeps maintenance broad rather than reinventing it. Under Article 95, maintenance covers food, clothing, housing, medical treatment, and education, measured by what is customary for the family's circumstances. A claim for spousal-maintenance arrears is capped at the last two years (Article 99), so a long-delayed claim cannot reach back indefinitely.

According to UAE legal practitioners, backdated maintenance may also be claimed for up to six months under Article 97, though that point rests on a single source, so treat it as a question for your lawyer rather than settled law. What has not changed is the basic structure of maintenance during and after marriage, including iddah maintenance for the waiting period and ongoing child support. For how amounts are calculated and enforced, see our guide to alimony in the UAE.

Muslims, Non-Muslims, and What It Means for Expats

The UAE now runs two parallel personal status systems, and which one applies to you depends on religion, nationality, and where you file. Muslims, including Muslim expats, fall under Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024, which applies Islamic-law principles and keeps Family Guidance reconciliation mandatory. The new articles cited above, on custody, documentation, and arbitration, all live in this law.

Expats should not assume the new Muslim law applies to them automatically. A non-Muslim couple usually proceeds under the 2022 civil law, while a Muslim expat can elect home-country law under Article 1. Read our pages on non-Muslim divorce in the UAE and Sharia divorce in the UAE to see which track fits your situation.

What the New Law Means for Your Case: Step by Step

If you started a divorce before 15 April 2025, ask your lawyer how the transition affects your custody and maintenance terms. For a plain walkthrough of the process from filing to decree, see our guide to getting a divorce in the UAE.

Cases Filed Before 15 April 2025: Transitional Provisions

A common worry is what happens to a divorce that was already underway when the new personal status law took effect. As a general rule, procedural steps that a court had already completed under Law 28 of 2005 stand, and a case does not restart from scratch. What can shift is the substantive rule the court applies going forward, especially on matters that are still open, such as custody arrangements that had not yet been finalised.

In practice this means an ongoing custody dispute can be judged against the new age-18 standard even if the divorce itself was filed earlier, because custody is treated as a live question in the child's interest. Maintenance and financial terms already set by a final ruling are generally not reopened by the change alone. The exact article numbers governing the transition are not always clearly reported, so treat any single citation with caution. If your case straddles the 15 April 2025 line, the safest step is to ask your lawyer which specific parts of your matter fall under the old text and which now follow Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024.

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