Driving in Dubai as a visitor: what is published
No UAE or Dubai authority publishes a speed tolerance or buffer. Every figure in circulation comes from news reports and commercial blogs. On licences, three authorities publish three different country lists — 25, about 50, and 57 — and only one of them is about tourists driving at all. And the traffic law changed on 29 March 2025, while u.ae’s own pages still serve the superseded 2017 regime as current.
Can you drive, and on what licence?
Only one authority publishes a list aimed at a visitor renting a car: the Ministry of Economy and Tourism, which publishes, verbatim:
“The legal driving age is 18, while the minimum age to rent a car is 21.” · “A UAE resident would require a valid UAE licence to rent a car” · “visitors or tourists from the GCC nations can drive with the license issued by their home countries” · “For all other nationalities, an international driving license is mandatory.”
Its list runs to 25 countries whose home licence a visitor may use: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.
| Source | Countries | What it is actually about |
|---|---|---|
| Ministry of Economy and Tourism | 25 | A visitor renting a car. The only tourist-facing list published |
| RTA driving licence exchange service | ~50 | A resident exchanging a foreign licence for a UAE one. 20 “exception countries” plus about 30 with nationality-specific restrictions. Fee AED 1,050 |
| RTA news, 20 January 2026 | 57 | Also exchange. Recent additions named include Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Croatia and — RTA’s own wording — “the State of Texas” |
There is no RTA page that publishes a tourist-driving list at all, and no authority states that RTA’s list is exchange-only. A visitor cannot be expected to infer it, so we say it here: the RTA lists are not your list.
The federal law itself treats things differently again. Federal Decree-Law No. (14) of 2024, Article 9(3) exempts “Holders of valid international or Foreign Driving Licences or temporary Driving Permits who are permitted to remain in the State for non-residence purposes” — treating a foreign licence and an international permit as alternatives, where the Ministry says the permit is mandatory. Both are official. And Article 9(3) closes with “in accordance with the controls specified in this Decree-Law and its Executive Regulations” — those executive regulations are not published, so the controls governing a tourist’s right to drive are, in published form, undefined.
On age, three official figures again: the federal law sets the minimum licence age at 17, the Ministry says “the legal driving age is 18”, and u.ae reconciles them by category — 17 for motorcycles, 18 for cars and light vehicles, 20 for heavy vehicles, 21 for buses. The rental minimum of 21, and any “licence held one year” requirement, are company policy, published by no authority.
The speed buffer does not exist in published form
This is the single most-asked question about driving here, and the answer is clean. We searched Dubai Police, RTA, u.ae, the Ministry of Interior and the state news agency. No authority publishes a speed tolerance, buffer or grace margin. u.ae publishes only: “It is mandatory to adhere to the speed limits set on highways, internal streets, and residential areas.”
Every figure in circulation — 20 km/h, zero on specific roads, and the variations — traces to news reports or to commercial blogs and car-hire brokers. Not one traces to an authority publication. We publish no number, because there is none to publish.
The 2024 law, and what it publishes
Federal Decree-Law No. (14) of 2024 on Traffic Regulation, issued 30 September 2024, in force 29 March 2025. Article 51 repeals Federal Law No. 21 of 1995 outright.
Two defects in the official English text are worth reproducing rather than tidying, because they are exactly what this site exists to show. Article 52 reads “shall come into force sixty (180) days” — the word and the numeral contradict each other. Article 38, on leaving the scene, reads “a fine that is not less than (AED 50.000) fifty thousand AED and is not exceeding (AED 100.000) one million AED” — the numeral says a hundred thousand and the words say a million. The portal’s own notice says the Arabic prevails. We do not pick a number.
Published provisions a visitor could actually hit:
- Driving without a valid licence — Article 37(2): “imprisonment for a period not exceeding (3) three months and a fine of not less than (5,000) five thousand AED and not more than (50,000) fifty thousand AED”.
- Drink driving — Article 35, AED 20,000 to 100,000 and imprisonment, with suspension of three months, six months, then cancellation. Details on alcohol rules.
- Impoundment — Article 32, including where a driver violates licensing requirements twice.
- Black points — the 2024 law contains no black-points article at all. The points system is not in the primary legislation.
The fine amounts a visitor can find are all on u.ae, all attributed to the 2017 resolutions: AED 400 and four points for seat belts, for a child safety seat violation and for phone use; AED 1,000 and twelve points for a red light, with a 30-day impound; AED 2,000 and 23 points for reckless driving, 60-day impound; AED 3,000 and 23 points for exceeding the limit by 80 km/h. The child rules, verbatim: “Children up to four years of age must be provided with a child safety seat” and “The front seat passenger should also be at least 145 cm tall and not younger than 10 years old.”
Tailgating: no authority page publishes an amount. Neither does any page publish the cumulative black-points threshold or the suspension ladder — u.ae refers to “a specified schedule” and does not link it, and Dubai Police’s black-points page serves no readable content.
Official pages still serving the repealed law
Three of these, and the third is the most striking.
- u.ae’s “UAE traffic law” page still opens “The UAE’s amended federal traffic law came into effect on 1 July 2017” and cites Ministerial Resolutions 177 and 178 of 2017. It makes no mention of the 2024 law anywhere, more than a year after that law came into force, and carries no last-updated date.
- u.ae’s road safety page, last updated 23 December 2025, cites both regimes at once — the seatbelt rule to the 2017 resolution, the points and speed rules to the 2024 law. A recently dated page is more dangerous than an obviously old one.
- The UAE Legislation Portal itself lists the 1997 executive regulation of the repealed 1995 law with status “Active” — on the same site that serves the repealing instrument.
There is also a publicly reachable, search-indexed staging copy of the UAE government portal serving traffic-fines content, while the production equivalent returns 404. A visitor searching for UAE traffic fines can land on a staging server. All of this goes in the catalogue.
Fines, rentals and Salik
Dubai regulates car-rental companies as businesses — permits, fleet size, safety standards, vehicle tracking, the company name “inscribed clearly and legibly on the body of each Vehicle” — under Executive Council Resolution No. (47) of 2017. It publishes no rule about what a rental company may charge a customer for a traffic fine, a Salik toll or an administrative handling fee. Those are contractual. We publish no broker or rental-company commercial material.
The only enforcement hook u.ae publishes is that fines must be paid before renewing a driving licence or a vehicle ownership card — which is useless to a tourist, who renews neither. Nothing published connects unpaid traffic fines to a non-resident’s departure. Salik tolls themselves are on the Salik page, and street tariffs on public parking.
Questions no authority answers
- Is there a speed buffer? No authority publishes any figure.
- Which country list applies to me? No authority states that RTA’s lists are exchange-only.
- Do black points apply to a foreign licence, and where do they go? Nothing published.
- What is the black-points threshold? Referred to, never published.
- What is the fine for tailgating? No authority publishes an amount.
- What are the fine amounts under the 2024 law? The executive regulations promised within six months of 29 March 2025 are not on the legislation portal. Every schedule a visitor can find still traces to a repealed law.
- Which speeding tier applies at 20 or 40 km/h over? Only the +80 km/h tier is published — the intermediate tiers, the ones a visitor will actually trigger, are not.
- Am I liable for a fine on a rental car, or is the company? Not published.
- Can I leave the country with an unpaid fine? No rule published for a non-resident.
- What police report will my rental company demand after a prang? No authority publishes it, and it is the practical crux of every minor accident.
This transcribes the 2024 traffic law and the authority pages, not legal advice. The law's executive regulations are not published, so every fine schedule a visitor can find still traces to a repealed instrument — that is stated rather than papered over.
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Common questions
Is there a speed buffer in Dubai?
No UAE or Dubai authority publishes a speed tolerance or buffer. We searched Dubai Police, RTA, u.ae, the Ministry of Interior and the state news agency. Every figure in circulation traces to news reports or commercial blogs. We publish no number because there is none to publish.
Can a tourist drive in Dubai on a foreign licence?
The only tourist-facing list is the Ministry of Economy and Tourism's 25 countries; for all other nationalities it says an international driving permit 'is mandatory'. The federal law treats a foreign licence and an international permit as alternatives. RTA's lists of ~50 and 57 countries are about residents exchanging a licence, not about tourists driving — and no authority says so.
What is the minimum age to drive or rent a car in Dubai?
Three official figures: the federal law sets the minimum licence age at 17, the Ministry of Economy and Tourism says 'the legal driving age is 18', and u.ae splits it by category — 17 motorcycles, 18 cars, 20 heavy vehicles, 21 buses. The rental minimum of 21 is company policy, published by no authority.
What are the traffic fines in Dubai under the new law?
The 2024 traffic law publishes penalties for serious offences — driving without a licence, AED 5,000 to 50,000 and up to three months; drink driving, AED 20,000 to 100,000. Its executive regulations, promised within six months of 29 March 2025, are not published, so every ordinary fine schedule a visitor can find still traces to the repealed 2017 framework.
Do black points apply to a tourist on a foreign licence?
No authority publishes an answer. The 2024 traffic law contains no black-points article at all; u.ae refers to 'a specified schedule' and does not link it; Dubai Police's black points page serves no readable content. The cumulative threshold is not published anywhere.
Who pays a traffic fine on a rental car in Dubai?
Not published by any authority. Dubai regulates rental companies as businesses — permits, fleet, safety, tracking — and publishes no rule about what a company may charge a customer for a fine, a Salik toll or a handling fee. Those are contractual.
Can I leave the UAE with an unpaid traffic fine?
No authority publishes a rule for a non-resident. The only published enforcement hook is that fines must be paid before renewing a licence or a vehicle ownership card — which a tourist never does.