The paperwork · built to be printed
Enrolment documents: the full list, and the three rules that unblock families
This is the dull page, and it is the one that decides whether your child starts in September or in January. Three rules in KHDA’s own admissions guidance remove obstacles most families assume are fixed — they are at the top, because they are the ones nobody tells you.
Three rules worth knowing before you panic
1. You can start before your visa is finished. Where a student’s residence visa and Emirates ID are pending, KHDA allows schools up to one academic year to upload those documents. Schools can begin the admission process while your residency is being processed. In practice most will still want a passport copy and evidence the visa application is under way — but a pending visa is not, on its own, a reason to wait a year.
2. If a school admits your child with documents outstanding, completing them is the school’s responsibility. KHDA’s guidance is explicit: where a Dubai school chooses to admit a student with some admission documents pending, the onus of completing the documentation lies with the school, which must undertake this in writing, signed and stamped, and upload it to the KHDA school system with the documents it does hold. If you are admitted on that basis, ask for that written undertaking.
3. Young children do not need a transfer certificate. A transfer certificate is required for enrolment into Grade 2 or Year 3 and above. Below that, placement is based on age at admission. Families arriving with a four-year-old routinely chase a document they do not need.
The list
- Child’s passport with valid UAE residence visa page or entry permit.
- Emirates ID for the child and at least one parent. Originals are generally required for KHDA registration; see rule 1 above if yours is pending.
- Both parents’ passport and visa copies.
- Birth certificate, attested. Attestation requirements vary by nationality, and a certified translation is needed if it is not in English or Arabic.
- Vaccination or immunisation record matching the UAE schedule — a Dubai Health Authority health card or equivalent, with preschool vaccinations up to date.
- Passport photographs, typically four to six.
- School reports for the last two years.
- Transfer certificate, where required — see the section below, because which document you need depends on where you are coming from.
- Educational psychology or therapy reports, where your child needs learning support. These are not a barrier to admission — see our rights page — but they help a school plan properly, and some schools identify need through their own specialists rather than requiring a diagnosis at all.
Which certificate you actually need
- Moving between schools inside Dubai: a KHDA Leaving Certificate from the current school. This is not the same document as an attested transfer certificate, and asking for the wrong one wastes weeks.
- Arriving from another emirate or from overseas, into Year 3 or Grade 2 and above: an attested Transfer Certificate.
- Arriving into the early years: neither. Placement is by age.
- Changing curriculum, or coming from outside the UAE: a Ministry of Education equivalency may also be required. Ask the receiving school which of these applies to your child, in writing, before you start paying for attestation.
Attestation: start it before you think you need to
An attested transfer certificate runs through a chain: the education ministry in the country of origin, then the UAE embassy in that country, then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the UAE. Allow roughly six to eight weeks in total, and more during the September and January peaks when schools are processing hundreds of transfers.
For a September start, begin by June. For a January transfer, begin by October. Without proper attestation a school may delay or refuse admission, and a school cannot complete KHDA registration without the certificate where one is required. KHDA charges AED 120 for Transfer Certificate attestation.
The single most common trap: the certificate is issued by your current school, and it is normally conditional on fees being settled in full. So the document you need in order to leave is controlled by the people you are leaving. Clear the account before you give notice, not after. Our fees and refunds page covers what you are owed back and what you are not.
The order to do things in
- Request the transfer or leaving certificate from the current school, and ask what must be cleared first.
- Start attestation immediately if the certificate is from outside the UAE. It is the longest item on the list by weeks.
- Apply to three to five schools rather than one. Waitlists are commonly first-come, first-served with sibling and staff priority, and there is no guarantee of a place.
- Sit the assessment. Foundation Stage entry is typically observation-based; Year 2 and above usually involves a written assessment such as CAT4, GL or an in-house test.
- Accept and pay the deposit. Offers commonly carry a short acceptance window, and under KHDA rules the deposit is 10% of annual tuition.
- Complete the KHDA registration file, then uniform, transport and medical records.
Scope, honestly. Requirements vary by school and by nationality, and KHDA revises its guidance. This page reflects KHDA’s published admissions and transfer guidance as we read it — confirm the list with your receiving school and with KHDA before you rely on it. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it publicly: hello@dubaischoolguide.com
The school visit checklist · The admissions timeline · Back to the register
The whole journey, in order
Most guides start at FS1 and stop at Year 13. A family with more than one child is never at only one stage, so every stage links to every other.
- Applying