Sick Leave Attestation in the UAE — How It Works by Emirate (TAMM, DHA & MOHAP)
How do I get a sick leave attestation in the UAE?
A UAE sick note is attested by your emirate's health authority so your employer accepts it — Abu Dhabi via TAMM, Dubai via Dubai Health and the DHA, the northern emirates via MOHAP, and Sharjah via the Sharjah Health Authority. It is done digitally with UAE PASS, usually free. This is not the MOFA or embassy chain, which applies only to a sick note issued outside the UAE.
About Sick Leave Attestation
Sick leave attestation in the UAE means having a medical sick note officially confirmed as genuine so an employer — or, in a dispute, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) — will accept it, particularly for longer absences. The first thing to understand is that this is a health-authority step done inside the UAE, not the embassy-and-MOFA legalisation most people picture when they hear the word attestation. It is now almost entirely digital and, in most emirates, free: you request it yourself through your emirate's official channel using UAE PASS — Abu Dhabi through the TAMM platform (Department of Health), Dubai through Dubai Health and the Dubai Health Authority, the northern emirates through the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP), and Sharjah through the Sharjah Health Authority. Where AttestPort genuinely helps is the harder cases: a sick note issued outside the UAE that you need recognised here, or a UAE note you need to use abroad, which does take the full legalisation chain; translating a foreign note; and handling the paperwork for an insurance claim or a labour dispute. This page walks you through the free official route for each emirate first, then shows exactly where we add value — we will never charge you for a step you can do yourself for free.
First, the Part Most People Get Wrong: This Is Not the Embassy or MOFA Chain
The word attestation does a lot of work in the UAE, and it means two completely different things depending on where your sick note came from. Getting this distinction right saves you the most time.
If your sick note was issued in the UAE — by a clinic or hospital here — attesting it is a health-authority step, done entirely inside the country. Your emirate's health authority confirms the note is genuine so your employer will accept it. There is no embassy involved, no Ministry of Foreign Affairs stamp, and in most cases no fee. It is a digital request you make yourself.
The embassy-and-MOFA legalisation chain — the one this website mostly deals with — only comes in when a document crosses a border: a sick note or medical report issued abroad that you need to use in the UAE, or a UAE note you need to use in another country. That is a genuinely different, longer process, and it is the part where a service like ours does real work. So before anything else: was your sick note issued in the UAE, or outside it? The rest of this page is organised around that single question.
How to Attest Your UAE Sick Leave, By Emirate
Which authority attests your sick note depends on where in the UAE it was issued. Each runs its own official, digital channel, and you log in to all of them with UAE PASS. Here is the correct route for each emirate.
- Abu Dhabi — the Department of Health (DOH), through the TAMM platform. On TAMM's Sick Leave Attestation service you log in with UAE PASS, submit the application, and receive the certified sick leave; the patient's Emirates ID is the document you need, and TAMM states the service has no additional cost. This is the route behind the very common search for sick leave attestation on TAMM.
- Dubai — Dubai Health and the Dubai Health Authority (DHA). A DHA-licensed clinic issues the certificate through the DHA Sheryan system, and you then request it through Dubai Health's online service, which lets you download both an attested and a free non-attested version. It is fully digital — website or the Dubai Health smart app, with your Emirates ID.
- Northern emirates (and federal or private facilities there) — the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP). You log in to the MOHAP website or smart app with UAE PASS and request the attestation of your sick leave or medical report. MOHAP's own rule is that a sick leave of five days or less is attested instantly, while a longer one is reviewed by a medical committee first.
- Sharjah — the Sharjah Health Authority (SHA), for a note issued by an SHA-licensed facility, through its electronic portal. Sharjah asks for a medical report where the sick leave runs beyond four days.
- One useful rule ties it together: MOHAP says that if your sick leave has already been attested by the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi, the Dubai Health Authority, or the Sharjah Health Authority, there is no need to attest it again with the Ministry. So you use one authority — the one for the emirate that issued the note — not several.
The Digital Process, and When a Medical Committee Steps In
For a short, ordinary sick leave the process is genuinely quick and self-service. You log in to your emirate's channel with UAE PASS, submit the request against your Emirates ID, and the attested certificate is issued to you digitally — often instantly. This is the same free, official process the health authorities have been promoting as sick-leave attestation going digital.
Longer absences are treated more carefully, and the threshold is set by each authority — so do not assume a single UAE-wide number. MOHAP attests a sick leave of five days or less instantly and sends anything longer to a medical committee, which typically needs about a working day. In Abu Dhabi, sick leave for Abu Dhabi government employees that runs beyond seven consecutive days — or more than twenty-one cumulative days in a year — is reviewed and attested by the Medical Committee. Sharjah asks for a supporting medical report beyond four days. The pattern is the same everywhere: short leave is instant, longer leave needs a doctor's report and a committee review.
Because the whole thing runs on UAE PASS and the certificate is issued to you directly, the domestic attestation is one of the few UAE processes you really can complete yourself in a few minutes. We would rather tell you that plainly than sell you a step you do not need.
Is It Mandatory, and Is It Free?
Two honest answers, because both are widely misunderstood. First, attestation is not a blanket legal requirement for every sick day — Dubai Health, for example, issues a free non-attested certificate alongside the attested one. Attestation is the mechanism that makes your note carry weight: it is what an employer, an insurer, or MOHRE in a dispute will treat as proof the note is genuine, which is why it matters most for extended leave, contested absences, and formal claims.
Second, the official government attestation is largely free and digital. Abu Dhabi's TAMM service states it carries no additional cost, MOHAP promotes the instant attestation as free through its app, and Dubai issues a free non-attested certificate. Across the emirates, only certain longer or attested versions carry a small official government fee, paid online to the authority itself. There is no reason to pay a third party for the free step — and we do not ask you to. Where a fee genuinely applies, it is the government's, paid to the government, not to us.
When You Do Need More Than the Portal: Sick Notes From Abroad
This is the part where the embassy-and-MOFA chain returns, and where AttestPort does genuine work. If your sick note or medical report was issued outside the UAE and you need it recognised here — for an employer, an insurer, or a residency matter — the free emirate portals do not cover it. As MOHAP puts it, a medical report or sick leave issued by an institution outside the UAE must be certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Prevention.
In practice that means the standard legalisation chain: the document is authenticated in the country that issued it, legalised by the UAE embassy or consulate there, and attested by MOFA in the UAE, after which the health-ministry step confirms the medical content. If the note is not in Arabic or English it also needs a legal translation by a Ministry of Justice-approved translator before it will be accepted. A UAE-issued note you need to use in another country runs the same chain in reverse, on that country's requirements.
This is our core service, and it is where a facilitator earns its place — coordinating the origin-country authentication, the embassy and MOFA steps, translation, and doorstep collection and delivery, so you are not managing a multi-country paper trail yourself.
Sick Leave and UAE Labour Law: Your Entitlement, and What Your Employer Can Ask
Attestation makes more sense once you know the rule it supports. Under the UAE Labour Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021), a private-sector employee who has finished probation is entitled to up to ninety days of sick leave per year of service — full pay for the first fifteen days, half pay for the next thirty, and no pay for the remaining forty-five.
The same law sets a duty on the employee: you must notify your employer of the illness within a maximum of three days and provide a medical report on your condition, issued by the medical entity. That medical report is exactly the document the attestation process makes verifiable. An employer is within its rights to want confirmation that a sick note is genuine — especially for a long or repeated absence — and an attested note is what removes the doubt. If an absence is contested and reaches MOHRE, an attested medical certificate carries far more weight than an unattested one.
Sick Leave Attestation Is Not the Same as Medical Certificate Attestation
These two get confused because both involve health documents, but they serve completely different people. Sick leave attestation — this page — is about an employee's own sick note for their own absence, verified by the emirate health authority so the employer accepts it.
Medical certificate attestation, by contrast, is about a healthcare professional's own qualifications — a doctor's, nurse's or pharmacist's degrees and certificates — for their UAE employment and licensing. That is a different process again: professional licensing with the DHA, DOH or MOHAP runs largely on primary source verification, where the regulator confirms the qualification directly with the issuing institution, rather than on applicant-supplied attestation. If you are a health professional moving to the UAE, our medical certificate attestation page is the one you want; if you are an employee attesting a sick note, stay here.
How AttestPort Helps — Honestly
Most people who land here for a UAE-issued sick note do not need us at all, and we will say so: use your emirate's free official channel above. That honesty is the point of this page.
Where we genuinely add value is the harder ground: a sick note or medical report issued abroad that needs the full UAE legalisation chain; a UAE note you need to use in another country; legal translation of a foreign note into Arabic or English; and the document handling around an insurance claim or a labour dispute, including doorstep collection and delivery anywhere in Dubai, with updates on WhatsApp. We coordinate and carry the paperwork — we do not, and cannot, replace the government's own attestation, and we never charge you for a step the health authority provides for free. If you are not sure which situation you are in, send us a photograph of your document on WhatsApp and we will tell you honestly whether you need us, and get you an instant quote if you do.
Documents Required
- Your Emirates ID — the key document for the emirate health-authority channels (TAMM, Dubai Health, MOHAP, SHA)
- The original UAE sick note or medical report issued by the treating clinic or hospital
- A medical report supporting the leave, where the duration passes your emirate's threshold (for example, beyond five days for MOHAP or beyond four for Sharjah)
- For a sick note issued ABROAD: authentication by the health authority in the issuing country, then the UAE embassy or consulate and MOFA — the cross-border chain we handle
- A legal translation into Arabic or English by a Ministry of Justice-approved translator, if a foreign note is in another language
- Passport and employment details, where an employer or insurer requests them
How Sick Leave Attestation Works
Work Out Which Emirate Authority Applies
The route depends on where the sick note was issued: Abu Dhabi through the Department of Health on TAMM; Dubai through Dubai Health and the DHA; the northern emirates through MOHAP; Sharjah through the Sharjah Health Authority. A note issued outside the UAE does not use these portals at all — it takes the cross-border legalisation chain (step 4).
Log In With UAE PASS on the Official Channel
For a UAE-issued note you request the attestation yourself, digitally, on your emirate's own website or smart app using UAE PASS, with your Emirates ID. There is nothing to post and, in most emirates, nothing to pay — the government provides this step free or for a small official fee on longer or attested versions.
Submit and Receive the Attested Sick Leave
Short sick leave is attested instantly and issued to you digitally. Longer leave is reviewed by a medical committee first — MOHAP sends anything over five days for review (about a working day), Abu Dhabi reviews government-employee leave beyond seven consecutive days, and Sharjah asks for a medical report beyond four days.
For a Sick Note From Abroad — the Legalisation Chain (Where We Come In)
A note issued outside the UAE is authenticated in its country of origin, legalised by the UAE embassy or consulate there, attested by MOFA, and confirmed by the health ministry, with a legal translation into Arabic or English where needed. AttestPort coordinates this whole chain — this is our actual service.
Handling, Translation and Delivery
For cross-border documents, translation, or paperwork tied to an insurance claim or labour dispute, we collect from your home or office in Dubai, manage the steps, keep you updated on WhatsApp, and deliver the finished document to your door.
Processing Time
For a UAE-issued note the domestic process is fast: short sick leave is attested instantly through your emirate's app, while longer leave that needs a medical committee typically takes about a working day (MOHAP) or follows the committee's schedule (Abu Dhabi, Sharjah). A sick note issued abroad is different — it runs the full legalisation chain (origin authority, UAE embassy, MOFA and translation), which takes as long as that corridor requires rather than a fixed number of days. We confirm a realistic timeline for your specific case up front.
Sick Leave Attestation — Areas We Serve in Dubai
Free doorstep document pickup and delivery for sick leave attestation across all of Dubai:
Why Choose AttestPort for Sick Leave Attestation?
| Feature | AttestPort |
|---|---|
| Free Doorstep Document Pickup | |
| Free Doorstep Delivery | |
| Updates on WhatsApp | |
| Transparent, Upfront Quotes — No Surprises | |
| Embassies & Ministries Covered | |
| Same-Day Document Collection |
Sick Leave Attestation — Frequently Asked Questions
For a UAE-issued sick note you request it yourself, digitally, through your emirate's health authority using UAE PASS: Abu Dhabi via the TAMM platform (Department of Health), Dubai via Dubai Health and the DHA, the northern emirates via MOHAP, and Sharjah via the Sharjah Health Authority. Short leave is attested instantly; longer leave goes to a medical committee. It is usually free. This is not the MOFA or embassy chain — that applies only to a sick note issued outside the UAE, which is where AttestPort helps.