POAS Podcast – Episode 12

Welcome back to the POA’s desk.

In the last episode we covered the Bank Account POA. In this episode we cover remote notarisation — one of the most significant developments in UAE POA work in the last few years, and the route that allows overseas clients to issue valid UAE POAs without flying to Dubai.

Until recently, issuing a UAE POA from outside the country meant going through the consular attestation route. The principal would notarise the document in their home country, get it attested by their foreign affairs ministry, then by the UAE embassy or consulate, then by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then translated and stamped in the UAE. The process took weeks and cost between AED 3,000 and AED 6,000 or more depending on the country.

Remote notarisation changes this. The Dubai Courts and licensed private notaries now offer a service where the principal joins a verified video session with a UAE notary, presents identification, signs the document electronically or with a witness, and the notary registers the POA in the UAE notarisation system. The whole process happens in a single session, usually within an hour, and the notarised PDF is delivered digitally.

The conditions matter. The principal must hold valid identification recognised by the notary. The internet connection must be reliable enough for the verification session. The principal must be in a location where the notary can confirm their identity and capacity. And the document must be drafted in the format the notary accepts, including bilingual English and Arabic.

The benefits are substantial. Time. What used to take three to four weeks now takes a few days from drafting to delivery. Cost. The remote notarisation fee plus drafting is significantly less than the consular chain. Accessibility. Principals in countries without strong UAE consular presence can now issue POAs without travelling to a third country for embassy attestation.

The limits are also worth understanding. Remote notarisation is not available in every country. Some jurisdictions are not yet integrated with the UAE remote notarisation system. The principal needs the right identification documents — usually a passport with biometric data. And the document type matters. Most personal POAs work well with remote notarisation. Some specialised documents still require the consular route.

A common scenario we handle. A property owner is in London, needs to sell their Dubai apartment, and cannot fly to Dubai to sign at the trustee. With remote notarisation, the owner can issue a Property Sale POA to a trusted attorney in Dubai within days. The attorney then represents the owner at the trustee. The transaction completes without the owner ever boarding a plane.

Another scenario. A businesswoman based in Singapore needs to authorise her finance manager in Dubai to operate the company’s bank account. Without remote notarisation, this would have taken three to four weeks of consular attestation. With remote notarisation, it takes three to four days.

The verification process is robust. The notary will check the principal’s identification against government databases. The video session is recorded. The principal must confirm understanding of the document and the powers being granted. The signature is captured digitally. The whole process is auditable.

A common mistake we see. Clients try to schedule remote notarisation before the document is properly drafted. The notary needs the final document, in the correct format, in both languages, before the session. Showing up to the session with a draft that has not been finalised wastes the appointment slot. So drafting is finished first, then the session is booked.

Another common mistake. Clients assume remote notarisation works for every authority. It mostly does, for personal POAs, Property Sale POAs, Property Management POAs, and standard Bank Account POAs. But some specialised authorities — particularly courts for litigation matters — still prefer or require traditional notarisation. We confirm the route before drafting.

At POAS, remote notarisation is the default route for overseas clients. Our fixed fees include the notarisation, the drafting, the bilingual preparation, and the digital delivery. The principal joins a single video session, and the notarised POA is delivered within hours of the session ending.

In Episode 13 we cover bilingual drafting. Why every UAE POA must be in both English and Arabic, and what makes a translation legally sufficient.

I’m Patrick. Thanks for joining me at the POA’s desk.