UAE Residence Visa Cancellation
Cancelling a residence visa ends your residence permit and the Emirates ID linked to it. The route depends on where the visa was issued, and for employees in Dubai there is an extra step first. Cancel in the right order — especially if family members are on your sponsorship — or the cancellation will stall.
Dubai or the rest of the UAE? Start here
ICP handles residence permits outside Dubai; GDRFA handles Dubai. The steps, fees and the MOHRE question all differ between the two routes, so follow only the route for your emirate.
Cancel through ICP (outside Dubai)
ICP’s cancellation service runs in five steps: submit, review or adjust the retrieved data, attach documents if retrieval fails, pay, and then the permit and its linked Emirates ID are cancelled. Completion takes 2 days, and you sign in with UAE Pass to start.
Fees are listed separately on the service page — there is no single total:
- Application: 50 AED
- Exceptional residence cancellation: 100 AED
- Smart Services: 100 AED
- Family category additions: Financial Guarantee Deposit 20 AED; and a 5,000 AED guarantee for cancelling the sponsor’s permit without cancelling the family permits.
Documents: your passport; for an investor or partner, a commercial licence cancellation or waiver certificate; a death certificate where applicable.
Family members must come first (ICP)
ICP states this plainly: family members’ permits under a foreign worker’s sponsorship must be cancelled before his residence is cancelled, or placed on hold for a limited period with applicable fees. If you sponsor your family, sort their permits before you submit your own cancellation.
Cancel through GDRFA Dubai
Dubai’s “Cancellation of all types of residence permits” service requires the sponsor’s passport and the sponsored person’s passport, plus — for an employee in the private sector — an extract of work permit cancellation issued by MOHRE. Its terms state: “A cancellation from MOHRE.” Steps: log in with UAE Pass or a username, search, fill in the details, and pay if any amount is due. Fees: cancellation 100 AED, plus Knowledge 10 AED and Innovation 10 AED (no summed total is stated). Completion takes 48 hours.
The MOHRE question — two different official positions
This is the one point where the two routes genuinely differ, so both positions are stated as written:
- Dubai (GDRFA): MOHRE cancellation is confirmed as a requirement — a private-sector employee needs the MOHRE work-permit cancellation extract, and the service terms require a cancellation from MOHRE.
- Outside Dubai (ICP): ICP states no ordinary MOHRE-first rule for employment cancellation. The only MOHRE route ICP names is for domestic workers, whose cancellation runs through MoHRE and the Domestic Work Bundle.
MOHRE’s own page was not publicly verified, so this guide does not add MOHRE steps of its own. Practical reading: Dubai private-sector employees get the MOHRE cancellation first; elsewhere, follow the ICP steps above.
After cancellation: the grace period
GDRFA’s Dubai cancellation page separately states a grace period of 60 days after cancellation or expiration of the residence permit. That is a Dubai-only statement. The ICP general grace bands after expiry or cancellation are 180, 90, 60 and 30 days depending on permit category (see the overstay fine guide for the full list) — the two wordings are not merged here; use the one for your route and permit type.
Related guides
- Emirates ID Status
- Visa Status Check UAE
- UAE Visa Rules
- UAE Overstay Fine Check
- UAE Family Visa Sponsorship
- UAE Pass Registration
- UAE Guides
Sources (official only)
- ICP, Cancellation of residency permits: https://icp.gov.ae/en/services-details/?serviceid=64afe3c1035448005bd52e68
- GDRFA Dubai, Cancellation of all types of residence permits: https://www.gdrfad.gov.ae/en/services/0613ab0e-5858-11ea-0320-0050569629e8
