<UAE - Wills> Wills for Non-Muslims

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“The Dubai Government’s official website states that ‘the UAE courts will adhere to Sharia law in any situation where there is no Will in place” 

-2016. 4. gulfnews- 

We've seen a newspaper article like the one above, but it cannot be concluded that Sharia is applied directly to foreigners who are not Muslims, so it is the same as Muslims in terms of inheritance and paternity.

However, the procedure may be a bit inconvenient because the heir must prove that he or she is a legitimate heir after the death of the ancestor.

UAE is a country with a very high proportion of foreigners, so it has a wills registration system for foreigners.

So, if you register your will in advance, you can arbitrarily set the rate of inheritance regardless of whether Islamic law is applied or not, and you can designate a parental authority for minors.

If you live in UAE and are concerned about a will or parental authority, we recommend using the "DIFC court" in Dubai. This is because a document translated into Arabic is not required, and registration forms, procedures, and fees are disclosed .

To register a will in DIFC court, you must not be a Muslim currently and you must never have been a Muslim in the past. In addition, you must be an adult over the age of 21 and have assets in UAE.

However, when you designate a parental authority for a child, it is difficult to designate a person living in Abu Dhabi as the parental authority because the person's permanent residence must be Dubai or Ras Al Khaimah. In this case, you can use the Abu Dhabi court, not the DIFC court.