New UAE Visa Requirement 2026: Good Conduct Certificate Now Mandatory for 45 Nationalities

If you’re applying for a UAE visa — or sponsoring someone who is — there’s an important update you need to know about.

Starting 16 June 2026, the UAE’s Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security (ICP) is introducing a new requirement for visa applicants from 45 specified nationalities. Applicants from these countries will now need to submit a Good Conduct Certificate, also known as a Police Clearance Certificate, issued by their home country and properly attested by the relevant UAE Embassy or Consulate.

This isn’t a small administrative tweak. It affects new visa applications, it’s being rolled out in three separate phases through to November 2026, and depending on your nationality, the attestation has to be obtained from a specific country — which isn’t always the applicant’s home country.

Here’s everything you need to know, broken down clearly.

What Is a Good Conduct Certificate (Police Clearance Certificate)?

A Good Conduct Certificate — interchangeably called a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) — is an official document issued by the police or relevant law enforcement authority in a person’s country of nationality. It confirms whether that person has a criminal record, or provides details of one if it exists.

For UAE visa purposes, simply holding the certificate isn’t enough on its own. Under the new ICP requirement, the certificate must also be duly attested by the relevant UAE Embassy or Consulate before the visa application is submitted. That attestation step is what makes the document officially recognised by UAE authorities — and it’s also the step that trips people up most often, since it can take time and isn’t something most people deal with regularly.

Why Is the UAE Introducing This Requirement?

This update is part of the UAE’s broader push to strengthen immigration compliance and security screening across new visa applications. By requiring a verified, embassy-attested criminal record check upfront, authorities get a clearer picture of an applicant’s background before a visa is even issued — rather than relying solely on checks carried out after someone has already arrived in the country.

It’s a similar direction to what several other Gulf and international jurisdictions have moved toward in recent years: shifting background verification earlier into the visa process itself.

The Three-Phase Rollout

Rather than applying to all 45 nationalities overnight, ICP is rolling this out gradually, in three phases:

Each phase applies to a different set of nationalities. So depending on which group an applicant falls under, the requirement may already be in effect, or it may not kick in until later this year.

Full List: Affected Nationalities, Attestation Country & Effective Date

This is the part that matters most for employers and applicants — and it’s also where things get a little more nuanced than people expect. For most nationalities on this list, the attestation must be obtained from the UAE Embassy or Consulate in that same home country. But for a number of nationalities, it has to be obtained in a different country entirely — often because the UAE doesn’t maintain an embassy in that applicant’s home country.

Phase 1 — Effective 16 June 2026

Phase 2 — Effective 15 August 2026

Phase 3 — Effective 15 November 2026

Notice the mismatches? Applicants from Cameroon, Gambia, Lithuania, Tonga, Albania, Mauritius, Fiji, Nicaragua, and Slovenia all need to get their attestation done in a different country from their nationality. This is one of the most overlooked details in the entire requirement, and it’s exactly the kind of detail that can derail an otherwise straightforward visa application if it’s missed.

What This Means for Employers

If your business sponsors employees from any of the nationalities above, this is now a mandatory step in the visa process — not optional, and not something that can be fast-tracked around.

A few practical implications worth planning for:

Lead time matters more than ever. Obtaining a Good Conduct Certificate from a home country, then getting it attested by the correct UAE Embassy or Consulate — sometimes in a third country — can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks depending on the nationality and current processing volumes. If you’re hiring someone from an affected nationality, build this into your onboarding timeline now.

Know your phase. If you’re recruiting someone from a Phase 1 nationality, this requirement is already active. Phase 2 and Phase 3 nationalities have a bit more runway, but it’s worth preparing early rather than scrambling closer to the effective date.

HR and PRO teams need updated checklists. Visa application checklists that don’t yet account for this requirement will need to be updated, especially for businesses hiring across multiple nationalities.

What This Means for Individual Applicants

If you’re applying for a UAE visa yourself — whether for employment, family sponsorship, or another category — and your nationality appears on this list, you’ll need to start the Good Conduct Certificate process well before submitting your visa application.

The general sequence looks like this:

1. Apply for the Good Conduct Certificate through the relevant police or law enforcement authority in your home country.

2. Identify the correct UAE Embassy or Consulate for attestation — checking carefully whether it’s your home country or a different designated country (see the tables above).

3. Submit the certificate for attestation at that embassy or consulate.

4. Include the attested certificate as part of your UAE visa application documents.

Each of these steps can carry its own processing time and, in some cases, fees — so starting early gives you the best chance of a smooth visa process without delays.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Assuming attestation happens in your home country. As the tables above show, that’s not always the case. Always confirm the designated attestation country before starting the process.

Leaving it too late. Police clearance certificates and embassy attestations are not same-day services in most cases. Factor this into your overall visa timeline.

Submitting an outdated certificate. Good Conduct Certificates often have a limited validity window. If too much time passes between issuance and visa submission, you may be asked to obtain a fresh one.

Incomplete attestation. A Good Conduct Certificate that hasn’t been properly attested by the correct UAE Embassy or Consulate won’t be accepted — even if the certificate itself is genuine and valid.

How Nexture Can Help

This is exactly the kind of regulatory shift that creates confusion — not because the rule itself is complicated, but because the details (which country, which phase, how long it takes) vary by nationality and are easy to get wrong.

At Nexture Corporate Services LLC, our Attestation and Document Legalization team handles exactly this type of process daily, alongside our broader visa processing and PRO services. If you’re an employer managing visa applications across a multinational team, or an individual trying to figure out where your Good Conduct Certificate needs to be attested, we can manage the entire process for you — from coordinating the certificate request to handling embassy attestation and incorporating it into your visa application.

Rather than trying to track 45 different country-specific rules yourself, you get a single point of contact who already knows the process and stays current as ICP rolls out each phase.

Need help figuring out what this means for your specific visa application or hiring plans? Reach out to our team at nexture.ae — we’ll walk you through exactly what’s needed for your nationality and phase.

Conclusion

This new ICP requirement adds an extra step to the UAE visa process for applicants from 45 specified nationalities — but it’s a manageable one, as long as you know exactly what’s required, when it applies to you, and which country your attestation needs to go through.

For employers managing visa sponsorships across diverse teams, and for individuals navigating this for the first time, getting ahead of the requirement now — rather than at the last minute — makes all the difference.

If you’d rather have an experienced team handle the certificate coordination and attestation process for you, Nexture is here to help.

Get in touch with our team today at nexture.ae to make sure your visa application stays on track.

Nexture Corporate Services LLC — Your trusted partner for business setup, PRO services, visa processing, attestation, and compliance in the UAE since 2013.