Clinic licensing in Sharjah, Ajman, and the other northern emirates

Private clinics in Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, and Umm Al Quwain are licensed by the federal health regulator. Its facility licensing services, published fees, and engineering standards are the same in all four emirates, and you apply through its website or smart app with UAE PASS.

Sharjah is different. On 15 July 2025 the Sharjah Executive Council issued a decision on regulating health activities and professions in the emirate. The decision applies to local government health facilities and to private health facilities in Sharjah and its free zones, and the Sharjah Health Authority licenses those facilities and the professionals who work in them. It does not apply to federal government health facilities in Sharjah. The Sharjah Health Authority has its own initial approval service for opening or reopening a healthcare facility, inside and outside Sharjah Healthcare City, through its electronic portal at shaportal.shj.ae. If you already hold a federal license for a Sharjah facility, ask the Sharjah Health Authority which authority will process your next renewal.

A group with clinics in more than one emirate deals with each authority separately: the federal regulator for Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, and Umm Al Quwain; the Sharjah Health Authority for Sharjah; and Dubai's health regulator, through its Sheryan system, for Dubai. Each has its own portal, documents, inspections, and renewals.

Confirm the emirate and the authority before you sign a lease. The federal regulator recommends that you sign the rental contract only after the site has been evaluated and approved through the initial approval application.

The federal health regulator licenses a new facility in three steps.

Initial approval. First, send the introductory statement for security approval to the regulator's representative office in your emirate. Then log in to the regulator's website or smart app with UAE PASS and apply for initial approval for licensing a health facility. The system shows a site self-assessment checklist for your facility category, which you complete with the guidance of a specialised healthcare engineering consultant. The published review times are 1 to 2 business days for the regulator's auditor and 4 to 7 business days for its engineer. The initial approval is valid for one year and can be extended if you ask before it expires. It does not allow the facility to operate; it is the period you have to meet the technical requirements. Construction, finishes, and furnishing must not start before the facility drawing plan has initial approval.

Engineering inspection. When the premises are ready, apply for the inspection service. You need an active initial approval, location photos, and your consent to the engineering inspection checklist. The regulator's engineers schedule a visit, and when they approve, you download the inspection report and the final approved drawing plan. The published completion time is 7 to 10 working days. Tell the licensing department about any change to the approved drawing.

Final license. The facility must hold the final license before it delivers services or employs medical or technical staff, and it must recruit the staff its classification requires. The license is renewed every year.

The regulator has moved facility licensing to a new system, and its older issue-a-license service page now leads to the initial approval service. Applications already in progress in the old system do not need to be submitted again.

The regulator does not publish an end-to-end time from first application to final license. The published durations cover each review step only; your own fit-out and staffing time comes on top.

Incomplete submissions slow the initial approval. The federal regulator's service card lists these documents.

Facility documents. Trade name reservation, the facility drawing plan, and location photos. A facility site assessment report is needed only for general, specialised, or rehabilitation hospitals, one-day surgery centres, fertility centres, and gastroenterology or endoscopy centres.

Individual owner. Profile photo, passport, family book (for UAE citizens), the introductory statement, and the memorandum of facility or authorisation letter.

Company owner. The trade license and an authorisation letter that names an individual as the company's authorised representative. The representative provides a profile photo, passport, family book, introductory statement, and power of attorney.

Partners. Profile photo, passport, and family book.

Engineering drawings. The drawing plans must be reviewed and stamped by an engineering consultant that specialises in healthcare design and planning, and put into the standard form published on the service card. The regulator publishes a list of specialised engineering consultants.

Manager. An outpatient facility, diagnostic centre, or specialised clinic must be managed by a physician licensed by the health authority in one of the specialties listed in the facility's activities.

Foreign ownership. Non-UAE nationals may own a health facility if the local authority in the emirate approves the foreign ownership percentage.

The service accepts documents authenticated with the UAE PASS Digital Seal. Keep copies of everything you submit.

Riayati is the federal health regulator's national health information exchange and the platform for the National Unified Medical Record. A ministerial decision of 16 November 2021 required health facilities licensed by the federal regulator to join the unified health record system within a year, under the controls the regulator sets.

Under Riayati's confidentiality and data privacy policy, every facility connected to Riayati must upload patient electronic health records to the exchange, digitally and to the interoperability standards that Riayati publishes. Facilities do not need explicit patient consent to upload records. Patients can opt out of caregivers viewing their records.

A clinic connects through its software. The regulator publishes a list of electronic medical record, practice management, and laboratory systems that meet Riayati's integration criteria and are connected to the exchange. Check that your vendor is on that list before you sign a contract.

Other emirates have their own exchanges: NABIDH in Dubai and Malaffi in Abu Dhabi. Riayati is integrated with both. If you plan clinics in more than one of these zones, ask each software vendor which exchanges it connects to.

The federal health regulator publishes its fees on each service card. Check the card before you budget, because the schedules change.

Initial approval: AED 1,000 for clinics and most other facility types; AED 2,000 for hospitals, one-day surgery centres, fertility, oncology, and gastroenterology endoscopy centres, ambulance service centres, home health care centres, and long-term care homes. Site plan verification costs a further AED 1,000 for most types (AED 2,000 for hospitals and the larger centre types), and each re-verification costs AED 500 (AED 1,000 for the larger types).

Engineering inspection: the first visit is free, the second and third visits cost AED 2,000 each, and the fourth and later visits cost AED 5,000 each.

Annual license fee, paid at each renewal with a AED 100 application fee: general medicine clinic, general dental clinic, or home health care centre AED 5,000; specialised clinic or specialised dental clinic AED 6,000; medical centre AED 12,000 for two specialties, up to AED 18,000 for three; medical imaging centre or laboratory AED 6,000 for one specialty, AED 12,000 for two, up to AED 18,000 for three; allied health or traditional and complementary medicine centre AED 5,000 for one specialty, up to AED 15,000; one-day surgery or assisted reproductive medicine centre AED 20,000; hospitals AED 20,000 to AED 40,000 by bed count.

Renewal documents include the trade license with the list of partners, the medical waste agreement, a photo of the external sign, a valid civil defence certificate, the service price list, the facility's internal rules, and a radiation protection license where it applies. All outstanding facility and professional fines must be paid first. The published completion time is 1 to 2 working days.

Late renewal: a late renewal is fined 25% of the facility's basic fee for every 30 days, up to 6 months. After 6 months the license is cancelled automatically.

For comparison, Dubai's health regulator charges AED 1,000 for initial approval of a general clinic and AED 2,000 for a general hospital, adds Knowledge and Innovation Fees at checkout, and publishes an average processing time of 5 working days for a new facility license.

The federal fees above do not include the trade license, civil defence approvals, engineering consultant fees, software, or staff licensing. Get itemised quotes and check each item with the authority concerned.

The federal regulator, the Sharjah Health Authority, and Dubai's health regulator all use an initial approval followed by a final license, but their portals, fees, and health information exchanges are separate.

Portals. Federal applications go through the federal regulator's website or smart app with UAE PASS. Sharjah applications go through the Sharjah Health Authority's electronic portal. Dubai applications go through Sheryan. Each needs its own account and submission records.

Health information exchange. Federally licensed facilities connect to Riayati, Dubai uses NABIDH, and Abu Dhabi uses Malaffi. Riayati is integrated with both.

Professional licenses. The federal regulator's professional license services run through the employing facility. To move a clinician's license to another facility, that facility applies for a license transfer. A facility can also apply for a visiting doctor permit for a limited period. The permit requires an active professional license from the federal regulator, Dubai's health regulator, or Abu Dhabi's health regulator. It costs AED 4,000 for 12 months for a visiting physician from inside the UAE, AED 3,000 for 3 months for one from outside the UAE, or AED 1,000 for 12 months for a visiting surgeon, plus a AED 100 application fee. A facility can hold one visiting physician permit and one visiting surgeon permit.

Timelines. The federal regulator publishes a duration for each step: 1 to 2 business days for the auditor and 4 to 7 business days for the engineer at initial approval, 7 to 10 working days for the engineering inspection, and 1 to 2 working days for renewal. Dubai's health regulator publishes an average of 5 working days for a new facility license. The Sharjah Health Authority lists 8 working days for its initial approval service.

If you operate in more than one regulatory zone, keep separate portal accounts, renewal dates, exchange connections, and staff license records for each.

A federal facility license covers one location. A second clinic in another federally regulated emirate needs its own initial approval, stamped drawings for those premises, engineering inspection, and annual renewal. The services and published fees are the same in Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, and Umm Al Quwain, so you deal with the same regulator, but each site is a separate application with its own timeline.

A group that opens in Ajman and then in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah pays three initial approval fees, needs three sets of site-specific drawings, goes through three engineering inspections, and renews three licenses every year.

Sharjah is the exception. A Sharjah clinic is licensed by the Sharjah Health Authority under its own requirements, portal, and fees, not as an extension of a federal license.

Staff licensing is separate from facility licensing. Federal professional licenses are managed through the employing facility, so plan license transfers or visiting doctor permits when clinicians will work across your sites.