Countries that can exchange their driving licence in the UAE

Certain nationalities have the good fortune to be able to obtain a Dubai driving licence simply by showing their own driving license, and going through a bit of paperwork. The procedure takes an hour or so. If you're not one of the lucky ones, you'll have to pass a driving test first - an annoyingly time-consuming
and bewildering procedure. Expats with licences from other GCC countries may or may not - they're supposed to have a license from the country of nationality. The list of countries that can obtain a Dubai driving licences without the driving test from dubai.ae/dubaipolice.gov.ae is below. A * means you need to get license translated into Arabic. Canadians need to get a letter from the Canadian Consulate in Dubai to state the license is genuine. Countries for driving licence exchange in Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, RAK, Sharjah, and UAQ should be the same or similar.

• Australia
• Austria
• Bahrain
• Belgium
• Canada*
• Cyprus*
• Czech Republic*
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece*
• Iceland
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan*
• South Korea
• Kuwait
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Oman
• Poland*
• Portugal*
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Singapore
• Slovakia*
• South Africa
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Turkey*
• United Kingdom
• United States

Note that your original driving licence is supposed to be from the same country as your passport nationality. If it's not, try to get a Dubai driving licence anyway. People have succeeded before - possibly because they have something like an EU passport with a UK driving licence or vice versa. An Australian/NZ combination might work also. As of 2007 this is less likely to be possible.

Update 05 August 2009: A UAE traffic department representative (Ali Mohammed Al Jasem from the Dubai RTA driver's licence department?) was interviewed on the Dubai Eye radio station, and during the show said that a citizen of one of the driving licence exchange countries could freely exchange their license even if it was from a different country, as long as it was from one of the countries on the list. Citizens of countries not on the list could not exchange a licence even if the licence was from a driving licence exchange country.

If you have an Asian passport and a non-Asian driver's license, you may find it more difficult as many Asian driving licences are not accepted for a simple conversion - a driving test has to be done before getting a driver's licence for Dubai.
The following 2 paragraphs may be out of date from 01 March 2008, depending on how the new Federal Traffic Law is implemented.

• Each Emirate issues their own driving licenses and procedures, which, whilst generally the same, occasionally have some odd differences. For example, apparently New Zealanders cannot do an exchange with a Sharjah driving licence (rumour has it that someone important from Sharjah got a traffic ticket while in NZ several years ago - maybe the person concerned has calmed down and NZers can do a simple exchange again).
• You will have to get a driving license from the Emirate which you received your residency visa from although if you live in a different Emirate and have a tenancy contract in your name, you may be able to try and get a driving licence from that Emirate (as can be done with car registration).