Temporary Alimony in the UAE: Money While Your Case Is Pending

Can You Get Temporary Alimony in the UAE? The Short Answer

Yes, if you ask for it and the court agrees. Temporary alimony, also called interim maintenance, temporary spousal maintenance or temporary spousal support, is a short-term order that makes the paying spouse cover the basic costs of the wife and children while the court works out the final figures. How you get it depends on which family law governs your marriage.

• Muslim couples, and others under Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024: Article 100 lets the court, during the hearings of an alimony case and at the wife’s request, order temporary alimony for her and her children, enforceable immediately by force of law.
• Non-Muslims under Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022: alimony is claimed after the divorce judgment (Article 9), and the executive regulation lets the divorced wife ask for temporary alimony until her financial rights are decided.
• Non-Muslims at the Abu Dhabi Civil Family Court: under Abu Dhabi Law No. 14 of 2021 and its 2022 Regulation, a divorced woman can ask for provisional alimony by interim order (Article 21), and any interested party can seek a provisional order on temporary alimony or housing (Article 42).

In every track the word that matters is “may”: the court is allowed to order temporary alimony, not obliged to. This page covers only that interim period. For what the final judgment can award, see our main guide to alimony in the UAE.

Which Rules Apply to Your Temporary Alimony Claim?

The law that governs your marriage decides how and when you can ask, so settle this first. Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024, in force since 15 April 2025, applies to UAE citizens where one or both spouses are Muslim, and to non-citizens unless one of them insists on applying his or her own law or they agree on another permitted law (Article 1). Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022, in force since 1 February 2023, applies to non-Muslim foreigners living in the UAE and non-Muslim citizens, unless one spouse adheres to the law of their home country (Article 1).

Temporary Alimony at a Glance: Who Can Ask, When and How Fast

The table puts the tracks side by side. Every cell comes from the law text cited in it.

Muslim Couples: How Article 100 Works

Under Article 100 of Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024, a judge hearing an alimony case may, at the wife’s request, order the respondent to pay temporary alimony for her and her children, and that decision is enforceable immediately by force of law.

It hangs on an alimony case

The article applies “during the hearings of the alimony case”. A claim for maintenance, for you, the children or both, has to be before the court, and the temporary request sits inside it.

It is the wife’s request

A husband cannot use Article 100 to claim maintenance from his wife, and the children’s share is asked for through her. Payment comes from the respondent, usually the husband, since Article 106 places a child’s maintenance on the father.

The court may, not must

Nothing obliges the judge to grant the request. Expect the court to weigh what it uses for any alimony figure under Article 96: the payer’s means, your situation and the economic conditions of the time and place. A thin file makes a refusal or a low figure more likely.

No Family Guidance detour

Article 8 lets the supervising judge refer a dispute to Family Guidance if a settlement seems feasible, but expressly exempts urgent and temporary orders on alimony and custody. Your main alimony claim may still be referred; the temporary request is not held back. Family Guidance is discretionary, with no fixed statutory waiting period.

You do not have to divorce first

Article 99 makes a wife’s maintenance due even if she has money of her own, and the debt ends only by payment or release. A wife who is still married but no longer supported can bring an alimony case, and ask for temporary alimony within it, without filing for divorce. The same law separately allows a divorce for failure to maintain (Article 77).

Which court, and when maintenance can be lost

Article 3 lets a wife or children file where the plaintiff or the respondent lives, works or resides, or where the marital home is. Under Article 4, a UAE court can also hear an alimony claim for a wife or minor child resident in the UAE against a foreign husband with no domicile here. Article 103 says a wife loses alimony if, without a legitimate excuse, she denies herself to her husband, refuses to move into or live in the marital home, or refuses to travel with him. If you have left the home, expect this argument and be ready to show your reason with evidence.

What Temporary Alimony Can Cover

Temporary alimony covers the same ground as alimony generally: under Article 95 of the 2024 law that is food, clothing, housing, medical treatment and education, according to custom. The court asks what the household actually needs each month.

• Housing. A home is part of alimony itself (Article 95), and Article 96 lets the court accept housing provided in kind instead of cash.
• Food, clothing and medical treatment. The everyday and health costs of you and the children.
• Education. The children’s schooling according to custom. Whether a particular school fee is covered in full is for the court.
• The children. Under Article 106 the father maintains a child who has no money of their own: a girl until she marries or works, and a boy until the age at which his peers earn a living, longer if he is a student making normal progress.

At the Abu Dhabi Civil Family Court, the 2022 Regulation spells out the children’s side after divorce: the father pays for education, residence fees, treatment and the other daily or periodic expenses he was providing before the divorce (Article 23). Article 42 also lets the court temporarily provide the wife with housing, or temporarily restore utilities to her home, while the financial rights are pending. For the long-term rules on children, see child support in the UAE.

How the Court Sets the Temporary Figure

No UAE track has a statutory percentage or table for temporary alimony: the judge sets a figure from the evidence. Under Article 96 of the 2024 law, the court weighs the payer’s means, the recipient’s condition and the economic situation of the time and place, and may accept property or a benefit in kind instead of cash.

The civil rules say which evidence counts. Under Article 21 of the Abu Dhabi Regulation, the wife’s documents must show the spouses’ monthly income from their account statements for the last six months, and the court may reject the request if she has a job or a stable income covering her basic needs. The federal civil executive regulation uses almost the same wording.

The 25% figure is not an interim formula

Article 18 of the Abu Dhabi Regulation gives the court and its accounting expert a guide for the final financial compensation after divorce: a cash percentage of no less than 25% of the husband’s last monthly income, multiplied by the years of marriage, which the court can raise or lower. It belongs to the final award, not to temporary alimony, and the 25% is a minimum within the guide, not a cap. More in our guide to alimony in Abu Dhabi.

Three worked examples

These illustrations are built only from the articles cited. They are not real cases and give no amounts, because the amount always depends on the Article 96 factors.

Back Pay: The Months Before You Filed

You can claim the months before you filed, within limits, but filing early protects you twice. First, Article 98 of the 2024 law makes continuous alimony due from the date the claim is filed, for a wife, children or parents, a privileged debt that ranks ahead of the payer’s other debts; maintenance for earlier periods is an ordinary debt. Second, the look-back windows for past maintenance are short.

• The wife: a claim for her past maintenance is not heard for more than two years before the date of filing (Article 99).
• The children: a claim against the father for a child’s past maintenance is not heard for more than one year before the claim (Article 111).
• An undocumented talaq: if the husband pronounced a divorce and did not document it in court within 15 days without an excuse the court accepts, the wife is entitled to compensation equal to alimony from the date of the divorce to the date of documentation (Article 58).

Treat temporary alimony and back pay as two separate requests: the temporary order deals with current needs, while the arrears belong in the main alimony claim, backed by bank records showing when the transfers stopped.

Non-Muslims: Temporary Alimony in the Civil Courts

Non-Muslim wives can get temporary alimony, but in the civil tracks it comes after the divorce judgment and bridges the gap until the court decides alimony and the other financial claims.

Dubai and the other emirates: Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022

Article 9 of the federal civil law lets the wife apply for alimony after the divorce judgment, with the amount at the judge’s discretion and weighed against factors such as the years of marriage, the wife’s age, both spouses’ finances as assessed by an accounting expert, the husband’s fault and any harm. Among those factors, the father covers the costs of the mother’s custody of the children during joint custody for a temporary period of up to two years. Article 10 of the executive regulation, Cabinet Resolution No. 122 of 2023, then lets the divorced wife ask the court, after the divorce judgment and on the regulation’s form No. 4, for temporary alimony until her financial rights are decided. The court works from documents showing both spouses’ monthly income and the last six months of account statements, may refuse if she has a job or a fixed income covering her basic needs, and decides by an order on a petition.

Divorce cases under this law skip Family Guidance and go straight to court for a judgment at the first hearing (Article 3), so the period that needs bridging usually starts after the judgment.

Temporary spousal support at the Abu Dhabi Civil Family Court

• Article 8 of the Law: after the divorce judgment the wife claims alimony on the post-divorce claims form. The judge weighs the years of marriage, her age, both spouses’ finances per an accredited accounting expert, the husband’s part in the breakdown, damage, the father covering custody costs during joint custody for up to two years, and her care of the children. Her alimony is forfeited if she remarries.
• Regulation Article 3: the court issues interim and urgent decisions on provisional alimony, travel bans, seizure of funds and the appointment of an expert, among others.
• Regulation Article 14: the case manager refers urgent requests in the file to the judge the day after registration.
• Regulation Articles 19 and 20: a housing allowance from the father during joint custody, and housing support so the divorced wife has a temporary home.

The court’s own Civil Family Court page lists a Post-Divorce Application for a Financial Order, filed after the divorce judgment, and an Interim Order Application form, and directs divorce and custody applications to Abu Dhabi typing centres. If neither party speaks Arabic, the court may run the case in English (Regulation Article 44).

What about the weeks before the divorce judgment?

Article 21 and the federal rule are written for the divorced woman. In Abu Dhabi the divorce hearing is set at least 30 days after the application is approved (Regulation Article 14). For that window, Article 42 covers “any other provisional or urgent applications related to divorce, custody or visitation”. Whether that reaches maintenance before the judgment is for the judge, so take advice if the household has no money in the meantime.

How to Ask for Temporary Alimony, Step by Step

The route has the same shape everywhere: put a proper claim before the right court, ask for the temporary order inside it, and back the request with numbers.

1. Confirm your track and your court

   Muslim track: an alimony case where you or he lives or works, or where the marital home is (Article 3 of the 2024 law). Non-Muslims in Abu Dhabi: the Civil Family Court. Elsewhere: the court that hears civil personal status cases in your emirate.

2. Build the money file

   Use the evidence checklist below. The court needs both sides of the equation: his means and your monthly needs.

3. File the claim

   Under the Civil Procedure Code, Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022, a case is filed with the Case Management Office electronically or on paper (Article 44), and the fee must be paid within three business days, counted from the day after the payment notice, or the registration is void (Article 47). Check the current fee with your court.

4. Ask for the temporary order in the same filing

   Muslim track: request temporary alimony for you and the children under Article 100. Abu Dhabi civil court: use the interim order form, relying on Articles 21 and 42 of the 2022 Regulation.

5. Serve the other side and attend

   Service can be by SMS, email, smart applications or recorded call (Article 9 of the Civil Procedure Code), and hearings may be held remotely (Article 330).

6. Keep records once the order is made

   If a payment is missed, keep the bank record: it is your proof for enforcement.

Evidence that strengthens a temporary alimony request

• Marriage certificate, attested if issued abroad, plus passports and Emirates IDs.
• Bank statements for the last six months: yours, and his where you can obtain them.
• His salary certificate, employment contract or trade licence, and signs of his assets, such as car or property registrations.
• Your tenancy contract, utility bills, school invoices and medical bills.
• Proof that support stopped: transfers that ended, unpaid bills, messages refusing payment.
• In the civil tracks, evidence of your own income or the lack of it.

If He Does Not Pay the Temporary Order

An unpaid temporary order is enforced like any other court decision, and you do not need to wait for the final judgment. An Article 100 decision is enforceable immediately by force of law, so you can open an enforcement file with the court’s execution section as soon as a payment is missed.

At the Abu Dhabi Civil Family Court, the court itself enforces its judgments and decisions and settles enforcement disputes urgently (Regulation Article 46). Its judgments carry immediate enforcement, and in urgent cases the court may order enforcement without serving notice (Article 47). Judgments can include a protective seizure, a travel ban and an instruction to the bank to deduct the amount from the debtor’s accounts once seven working days have passed after he was notified (Article 48). Article 40 also lets the court fine a parent who ignores any order or measure the judge issued.

For Muslim wives, alimony running from the date of filing is a privileged debt that ranks ahead of the payer’s other debts (Article 98), which matters when he has loans. Salary attachment, travel bans and the rest of the execution process are covered in how to enforce unpaid alimony; for other urgent steps while the case runs, see emergency orders in a UAE divorce.

Changing or Challenging a Temporary Order

Either side can try to move the figure, but the route depends on the track. At the Abu Dhabi Civil Family Court, either the divorced man or the divorced woman may object to a provisional alimony decision under the usual procedure for objections to interim orders (Regulation Article 22).

In the Muslim track, a husband who thinks the temporary figure is too high contests it inside the alimony case, with evidence of his income and commitments, because the final judgment sets the lasting amount. Once there is a final alimony ruling, Article 97 governs changes: alimony can be increased or decreased when circumstances change, an increase cannot reach back more than six months, a decrease runs from the ruling, and no change can be claimed within one year of the ruling becoming final except in exceptional circumstances. Abu Dhabi’s civil law allows a new application to modify alimony every year or as personal economic conditions change (Article 8 of the Law).

Appeals against personal status judgments under the 2024 law must be filed within 30 days (Article 9), counted from the day after the judgment if it was issued in your presence, otherwise from the day after notice (Article 10).

What Temporary Alimony Is Not

Temporary alimony is a stopgap, easily confused with payments that follow different rules.

What Happens When the Divorce Is Final

Once the court rules on alimony, the final judgment takes over. What comes next depends on the track.

• Muslim track, the wife: after a revocable divorce she is maintained through the iddah and may live in the marital home, or a suitable one, during it (Article 101). The iddah after a court divorce runs from when the judgment becomes final (Article 83). After an irrevocable divorce, iddah maintenance is due only if she is pregnant, until birth. See the iddah waiting period.
• Muslim track, the children: maintenance continues under Article 106 on the terms of the final order.
• Civil tracks: the final financial order replaces provisional alimony. In Abu Dhabi, a Civil Family Court judgment on alimony and financial rights below AED 500,000 is final and enforceable as soon as it is issued (Regulation Article 49), and can be challenged only for breach of jurisdiction or a void judgment or procedure (Article 50).

Not sure which of these applies? This site can put you in touch with a UAE-licensed family lawyer for a free first consultation. We do not give legal advice ourselves; the lawyer does.

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