UAE Visa Cancellation Cost: Official Government Fees [2026]

Answer Capsule: Cancelling a residence permit in Dubai costs AED 100 in government fees, plus the AED 10 Knowledge Dirham and AED 10 Innovation Dirham — AED 120 in total — according to GDRFA Dubai's own service page. Cancelling an entry permit or visa costs AED 50, rising to AED 70 if the sponsored person is already inside the country. At federal level, ICP lists a AED 50 application fee and AED 100 smart-services fee for residency cancellation. GDRFA completes the service in 48 hours; ICP states 2 days. The figures below are quoted from the authorities' own pages and linked, not estimated.

What this page does differently

Most pages answering "how much is visa cancellation in Dubai" give a range with no source. The UAE authorities publish the actual numbers — they are just buried inside collapsed accordions on the service pages, which is why they rarely get quoted.

Every figure on this page is taken from the responsible authority's own service page, and every table links to it. Where an authority publishes nothing, this page says so instead of filling the gap with an estimate.

Two authorities are involved, and which one applies depends on where the permit was issued:

• GDRFA Dubai — the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs, for permits issued in Dubai.
• ICP — the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security, which runs the federal channel.

Residence permit cancellation — GDRFA Dubai

GDRFA Dubai publishes this on its Cancellation of all types of residence permits service page:

The AED 120 total is simple arithmetic on the three published lines — the page itself lists them separately and prints no total.

Expected completion time: 48 hours, as stated on the same page.

The Knowledge Dirham and Innovation Dirham are standard Dubai government surcharges applied across many services; they are not specific to cancellation.

Source: GDRFA Dubai — Cancellation of all types of residence permits (verified 2026-08-10).

What GDRFA requires before it will cancel

The same page lists three requirements: the sponsor's passport, the sponsored person's passport, and — for private-sector employees — "an extract of work permit cancellation issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation."

Its terms and conditions state this plainly: "A cancellation from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation." In other words the labour side must be unwound first, and only then will the residence permit be cancelled. That ordering is the single most common reason a cancellation stalls.

MOHRE publishes its own fee position for work-permit and employment-contract cancellation on a service page that was not reachable when this guide was verified, so no MOHRE figure is quoted here. Confirm that part directly with MOHRE or your PRO rather than trusting a third-party number.

Entry permit / visa cancellation — GDRFA Dubai

A different service page covers entry permits and visit visas:

So AED 50 if the person is outside the UAE, AED 70 if they are inside. Expected completion time is again 48 hours, and the only listed requirement is a copy of the sponsor's passport.

Source: GDRFA Dubai — Entry permit/visa cancellation (verified 2026-08-10).

Federal channel — ICP

ICP publishes an itemised list for Cancellation of residency permits (service code 377-006-003-006):

These are conditional line items, not a single bill. ICP lists what each element costs when it applies; adding them together would produce a number the authority never publishes and almost nobody actually pays. Which lines apply depends on the category you select on the service page — family member of a resident, retiree, property owner, student, employee, and so on.

ICP states a service completion duration of 2 days.

Source: ICP — Cancellation of residency permits (verified 2026-08-10).

For entry permits, ICP's separate Visa Cancellation service (code 377-005-001-007) lists AED 50 to cancel the entry permit plus AED 100 in smart application fees. Its terms add an important restriction: cancellation "is permitted only if the applicant has not entered the country, and the request must be submitted before the end of the visa's validity period prior to entry." Source: ICP — Visa Cancellation.

The AED 5,000 line most people have never heard of

If you cancel your own residence permit while leaving the permits of the family members you sponsor active, ICP requires a AED 5,000 guarantee. It is published on the ICP page as a normal fee line, and it dwarfs every other number in this guide.

Nobody plans for it, because the assumption is that a sponsor's cancellation and their family's cancellation happen together. When they do not — a sponsor changing employer while the family stays in place, for example — this is the figure that decides the sequencing. It is worth confirming which category you fall into before you start.

What these fees do not cover

The government fees above are the cancellation transaction only. A real departure or job change usually also involves:

• Final settlement — outstanding salary, unused annual leave, and end-of-service gratuity, calculated on the last basic salary at 21 days per year for the first five years and 30 days per year thereafter, capped at two years' total pay (u.ae — calculations for gratuity pay). Our gratuity calculator runs the same formula.
• Typing-centre charges at an Amer or Tasheel centre, which are commercial charges set by the centre and not published as a government fee.
• Repatriation — an air ticket, where the employer is obliged to provide one.
• Overstay fines if the grace period runs out, covered below.

Grace period and the overstay fine

ICP states the fine directly: "A fine of AED 50 per day is applied for remaining inside the UAE starting from the day following the end of the grace period of the residence permit, depending on its type."

Note "depending on its type" — the grace period is not one number. ICP's category-based grace periods run 30, 60, 90 or 180 days depending on the residence category, with most employer-sponsored residents in the 60–90 day band and Golden, Green and Blue Residence holders at 180.

GDRFA Dubai's cancellation page states something narrower, and it is worth reading in full: "After the cancellation or expiration of the residence permit, there is a grace period of (60) sixty days during which you may remain in the country."

Both statements are official. GDRFA's page speaks to the permits it cancels; ICP's wording is the general federal rule and explicitly makes the period depend on category. If your plans hinge on the exact date, confirm your own category with GDRFA or ICP rather than working from either headline number — the cost of getting it wrong is AED 50 for every day you are out by.

How the cost compares to the risk

The whole cancellation transaction is AED 120 in Dubai. A single month of overstay at AED 50 per day is AED 1,500 — more than twelve times the cost of the cancellation itself. The AED 5,000 family guarantee is more than forty times it.

The money in a UAE visa cancellation is never in the fee. It is in the sequencing: MOHRE before GDRFA, family permits before the sponsor's, and the exit or transfer before the grace period expires.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How much is the visa cancellation fee in Dubai? A: AED 100 for a residence permit, plus AED 10 Knowledge Dirham and AED 10 Innovation Dirham — AED 120 in total, per GDRFA Dubai's own service page. Cancelling an entry permit or visa is AED 50, or AED 70 if the sponsored person is inside the country.

Q: How many days does visa cancellation take in the UAE? A: GDRFA Dubai states an expected completion time of 48 hours for both residence-permit and entry-permit cancellation. ICP states a service completion duration of 2 days for the federal channel. Those are the processing times once the application is complete — the MOHRE work-permit cancellation that has to happen first is separate.

Q: How long can you stay in Dubai after your visa is cancelled? A: GDRFA Dubai's cancellation page states a grace period of 60 days. ICP's rule is category-based — 30, 60, 90 or 180 days depending on the residence type — and its fines notice refers to "the grace period of the residence permit, depending on its type". After it ends, overstaying costs AED 50 per day. Confirm your specific category with GDRFA or ICP.

Q: How do you get a visa cancelled in Dubai? A: For a private-sector employee, the labour contract and work permit are cancelled through MOHRE first — GDRFA's terms require "a cancellation from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation" and its requirements list asks for the MOHRE cancellation extract. The residence permit is then cancelled through GDRFA, digitally or at an Amer centre, with the sponsor's and the sponsored person's passports.

Q: Is there a fee for cancelling my visa but keeping my family's visas? A: Yes. ICP publishes a AED 5,000 guarantee for cancelling a sponsor's residence permit without cancelling the residence permits of their family members. It is the largest single figure in the cancellation fee schedule and it is easy to miss.

Q: Does MOHRE charge for cancelling a work permit? A: MOHRE's service page was not reachable when this guide was verified, so no figure is quoted here. GDRFA's requirements confirm a MOHRE cancellation extract is needed, but the amount should be confirmed with MOHRE directly rather than taken from a third-party site.

Cancelling visas for a departing employee — or a whole team? Book a call and we will run the MOHRE and GDRFA steps in the right order.