Taw-Theeq · Deira, Dubai
Documentation, Translation and Procedural Support Services in Dubai
Most people arrive here holding a document and a deadline, not a service name. Tell us what you need to get done and we will tell you which route applies, what the authority will ask for, and what we can handle on your behalf.
What we do
We turn a requirement into a completed file
Taw-Theeq Corporate Services and Legal Translation LLC is a documentation and legal support services provider based in Deira, Dubai. We are not a law firm, we do not give legal advice, and we do not appear before courts. What we do is the work that sits between you and an authority's counter.
Identify the route
The same document can need three different treatments depending on who is receiving it. We work backwards from the authority to decide what is actually required.
Assemble the file
Document lists, sequencing, translations, forms and supporting evidence — checked before submission rather than after a rejection.
Submit and follow through
Where the service allows it, we lodge the application and track it to the next step, so you are not making repeated trips.
What we do not do. We do not provide legal advice or representation, we are not a government authority, and we do not promise outcomes that belong to a court or a ministry. Where a matter needs a licensed lawyer, we say so.
Choose a service
The five things we handle
Each of these is a full service area with its own pages, procedures and documentation requirements. Start with whichever describes your situation.
Legal Translation
MOJ-certified translation of certificates, contracts, court documents and corporate papers — into Arabic for UAE authorities, or out of Arabic for use abroad.
Explore translation 🏛️Rental Disputes
Landlord and tenant support at the Rental Disputes Centre: notices, case preparation, certified Arabic translation and filing.
Explore rental support ✅Document Attestation
Legalising foreign documents for use in the UAE, and UAE documents for use abroad — embassy chain through to MOFA.
Explore attestation ✍️Notary Public Support
Powers of attorney, declarations and corporate resolutions prepared, translated and readied for the Notary Public.
Explore notary support 📰Legal Announcements
Publishing legal notices in UAE newspapers — liquidation, partner exit, lost documents and other statutory announcements.
Explore announcements 🧭Not sure which?
Describe the outcome you need rather than the service. The finder below maps common situations to the right starting point.
Use the finderLegal Translation
The largest part of our practice · 34 service pages
A translation is accepted in the UAE because of who signed it, not because it reads well. The Ministry of Justice keeps a register of legal translators and licenses them individually — an approved translation qualification, and for every additional language, equivalency from the Ministry of Higher Education plus at least five years of post-graduation experience. A translation carries weight when it bears that translator's name, licence number and stamp.
That is the whole reason certified translation exists as a separate service. A fluent bilingual colleague, an agency letterhead, or a sworn translation produced in your home country will all be turned away at the counter, however accurate the language is.
When people need us
Filing or defending a case in a UAE court. Registering or amending a company. Sponsoring a spouse or children. Notarising a power of attorney. Getting a foreign degree recognised. Applying for a Golden Visa. In each of those, an Arabic version of a foreign document is not optional.
Where files go wrong
Translating before attestation is finished, so the Arabic version is missing the stamps that make the original valid. Translating a certificate without its transcript. Name spellings that do not match the passport. Each of those costs weeks, and each is avoidable in a five-minute check.
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Rental Disputes
Landlord and tenant support · 22 service pages · office minutes from the RDC
Dubai's Rental Disputes Centre will not look at an incomplete file, and will not accept a document that is not in Arabic. Most of the difficulty in a rental matter is therefore procedural rather than legal: serving a notice through the right channel, waiting the period the law actually requires, choosing the correct case type, and arriving with a file the Centre will register.
We prepare that file. That means drafting the notice for notarisation, assembling the contract, Ejari, payment record and evidence, producing the certified Arabic translation in-house, registering the case and following it through.
Both sides of the contract
Landlords come to us for eviction, unpaid rent and executing a judgment. Tenants come for rent increases, deposits held back, early termination, maintenance the landlord will not carry out, and interference such as cut utilities or changed locks. The two pathways are separated across the site so you are not reading the other side's material.
Before you spend anything
Our Case Pre-Check asks ten questions and tells you what your situation needs. It qualifies an enquiry — it never issues a legal verdict and never predicts an outcome. That is not our role.
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Document Attestation
Legalisation for and from the UAE · 9 service pages
A document issued in another country has no standing in the UAE until it has been legalised. The chain runs from authentication in the issuing country, through UAE embassy attestation there, to attestation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here. Only then is it a document a UAE authority will act on.
This is also where the most expensive misunderstanding in cross-border paperwork lives. The UAE is not a contracting party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so an apostille alone does not make a document valid here — people pay for one abroad and discover the full chain is still required.
Attestation and translation are sequential
Attestation adds stamps; a certified translation has to reproduce the document including those stamps. Translate first and the Arabic version is already incomplete. We handle both, in the right order, which is the single most common reason files come to us for a second time.
Documents we see most
Degree certificates and transcripts, birth and marriage certificates, police clearance certificates, commercial documents and company records — each with its own chain depending on the country that issued it.
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Notary Public Support
Documents prepared for notarisation · 2 service pages
The Notary Public works from the Arabic text. That single fact governs the whole service: a power of attorney, declaration or corporate resolution has to exist in correct Arabic, saying exactly what you intend, before it can be notarised.
The risk here is subtle and expensive. A power of attorney translated with slightly wider powers than you meant grants those powers; translated with slightly narrower powers, it fails to authorise the person you sent. We prepare the Arabic text, translate supporting documents, and get the file into a state the notary will accept.
Common instructions
Powers of attorney for property, litigation or company matters; declarations and affidavits; board and shareholder resolutions; and documents signed on behalf of an overseas principal.
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Legal Announcements
Statutory newspaper publication
Several UAE procedures require a notice to be published in a newspaper before the next step can happen — company liquidation, a partner leaving, a change of legal form, or a lost document that has to be replaced. The requirement is procedural: the authority wants evidence that the announcement ran.
We draft the notice in the correct form, arrange publication in an approved newspaper in Arabic where required, and return the proof the authority asks for.
Typical triggers
Liquidation of a company, exit or replacement of a partner, conversion of legal form, and replacement of lost commercial or personal documents.
Explore this service
Reference
Which service does your document need?
The fastest way to place a document is to ask who is going to receive it. This table maps the receiving authority to the service, and to the thing that usually determines how long it takes.
| What you are doing | Who receives it | Service | What drives the timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Filing or defending a court case | UAE courts | Certified translation of pleadings and evidence | Volume of documents and hearing dates |
| A rental dispute | Rental Disputes Centre | Case preparation, translation and filing | Statutory notice periods before you may file |
| Sponsoring family | Immigration / GDRFA | Attestation then certified translation | Attestation abroad, not the translation |
| Recognising a foreign degree | Ministry of Higher Education | Attestation, translation, equivalency file | Embassy letters and transcripts |
| Registering or amending a company | DED / free zone authority | Corporate translation, sometimes notarisation | How many corporate documents are foreign |
| Granting authority to someone in Dubai | Notary Public | Arabic drafting and notary preparation | Whether the principal is inside the UAE |
| Closing a company or removing a partner | Licensing authority | Announcement, translation, notarisation | Newspaper publication window |
| Using a UAE document abroad | Foreign authority | MOFA attestation then destination-embassy attestation | The destination country's own requirements |
One rule underneath all of it. If the document was issued outside the UAE, it needs legalising before it is translated. If it was issued inside the UAE, it usually needs neither — local documents are already in a form the authorities accept, and paying to translate an Ejari contract or an Emirates ID is money spent for nothing.
Translation in detail
What we need from you, and what you get back
Translation is the service most people reach us through, so it is worth being specific about how it actually runs. Four pieces of information change the work, and giving them at the start avoids almost every avoidable delay.
Tell us four things
The receiving authority. A court, a notary, immigration and the Ministry of Higher Education each scrutinise different elements of the same document. Knowing the destination changes terminology choices and sometimes the format.
Your passport spelling. Arabic transliteration is not standardised, and a name spelled one way in the translation and another way in the passport reads as two different people at the counter.
Whether it is already attested. If the attestation chain is not finished, the translation will have to be redone afterwards — so we would rather tell you to wait than take the work twice.
Your deadline. It determines whether same-day handling is needed and whether the sequence can be compressed at all.
What a certified translation looks like
Every page carries the translator's name, licence number, stamp and signature. Stamps, seals, marginal notes and reverse-side endorsements on the original are all reproduced, because the receiving officer compares the two documents side by side. A translation that omits a stamp is not a stylistic choice — it reads as a different document.
Languages we work in
Arabic is one side of nearly every pair, because that is what UAE authorities read. The other side covers the languages our clients' documents actually arrive in — English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Hebrew, Persian, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Tagalog among them, each with its own document conventions rather than a generic template.
The documents we translate most
Birth certificates
Family sponsorship, school admission and personal status files.
ViewMarriage certificates
Spouse sponsorship and personal status matters.
ViewDegree certificates
Employment, professional licensing and equivalency files.
ViewPolice clearance
Residency, employment and licensing applications.
ViewContracts
Commercial agreements where the Arabic version governs.
ViewPowers of attorney
Drafted for the notary to work from in Arabic.
ViewCourt judgments
For enforcement here or recognition abroad.
ViewTenancy contracts
Required in Arabic for rental cases at the Centre.
ViewCost
Why we quote rather than publish a price list
A published figure for "a certificate" is misleading, because the same certificate type varies by a factor of several depending on things you can see on the document itself. We would rather quote on your actual document than advertise a number that changes once we open the file.
Four things move the price. Length, counted in the source document rather than estimated. Language pair, since availability differs sharply between a common pair and a rare one. Urgency, where same-day handling displaces other work. And complexity — a certificate with eight attestation stamps, handwritten marginal notes and a reverse side is a different job from a clean single page, even though both are "a birth certificate".
What does not change the price is asking us first. Telling you what a file needs, and what it does not, costs nothing and regularly reduces the scope people expected to pay for.
Where money is usually wasted
Translating UAE-issued documents that never needed it. Translating before attestation and paying twice. Translating a certificate without the transcript that had to accompany it. Ordering a fresh certificate after translating the old one. All four are avoidable in the first conversation.
Attestation in detail
The legalisation chain, step by step
This is the sequence a foreign document follows before a UAE authority will act on it. Skipping or reordering a step is the most common reason a file comes back.
Issued
Obtain the document in the form the UAE will want — often a long-form or full extract rather than an abbreviated copy.
Authenticated at home
Notary and then the relevant government department in the issuing country. This is normally the slowest stage.
UAE embassy abroad
Attestation by the UAE mission in that country, subject to its appointment availability.
MOFA in the UAE
Attestation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here, which is usually the quickest formal stage.
Certified translation
Now, and not before, so the Arabic text reproduces every stamp the chain has added.
Submission
To the authority that asked for it — immigration, a ministry, a court or a licensing body.
Apostille does not shortcut this. The UAE is not a contracting party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so an apostille alone does not make a document valid here. If you already hold one it is not necessarily wasted — in several countries it is issued by the same authority that performs the authentication step — but the embassy and MOFA stages still apply. The detail is in does the UAE accept an apostille.
Rental disputes in detail
Two pathways, deliberately kept apart
Rental matters are the one area where the two sides want opposite things from the same set of facts, so we keep the material separated rather than writing neutral guidance that helps neither.
If you are the landlord
The common instructions are eviction at the end of a tenancy, recovering unpaid rent during one, and executing a judgment once you have it. Each begins with a notice served through the right channel — a notary public or registered mail — because a notice sent by message does not start any clock. We draft the notice for notarisation, prepare and translate the file, register the case and follow it through.
If you are the tenant
The common instructions are a rent increase above what the index allows, a deposit not returned, ending a contract early, maintenance the landlord will not carry out, and interference such as cut utilities or changed locks. The evidence that matters is usually documentary and time-sensitive, which is why we ask for the contract, the payment record and any notice on the first contact.
What the Centre will not accept
An incomplete file, and any document that is not in Arabic. Those two rules explain most of what our rental service actually consists of: making the file complete, and making it Arabic.
Corporate work
Where the five services meet on one file
Company matters rarely stay inside a single service, which is the main practical argument for handling them in one place.
Setting up
Foreign shareholder documents translated, a memorandum of association prepared in Arabic, and powers of attorney notarised so someone can sign locally. See MOA translation.
Changing
Amendments, partner changes and conversions of legal form usually need notarised resolutions, translated documents and — for some changes — a published announcement.
Closing
Liquidation requires resolutions, translation and a newspaper notice before the licensing authority will complete the file. See legal announcements.
A practical note for company files. Company names are transliterated as they appear on the trade licence, never translated by meaning. A name rendered as its English sense rather than its licensed Arabic form will not match the register, and the file will be returned.
Tell us what you need
Describe the outcome, not the service
Most people do not know whether they need attestation, translation, notarisation or all three. Pick the sentence closest to your situation.
I have a document in another language and a UAE authority wants it
My document was issued abroad and nobody here will accept it
I am bringing my spouse or children to the UAE
I am applying for a Golden Visa
I have a problem with my landlord or my tenant
I need someone in Dubai to act for me while I am abroad
I am setting up, changing or closing a company
My translation was rejected and I do not know why
How it works
What happens after you send us something
The same six steps apply whichever service you need. Nothing starts costing money until step three.
You tell us the goal
A photo of the document and one line about what you are trying to achieve is usually enough to start.
We identify the route
Which authority, which service type, and whether anything has to happen before we can begin.
We tell you what it needs
The document list, the sequence, the realistic timing and the cost — before you commit.
You send the documents
In person at our Deira office, or digitally where the service allows it.
We do the work
Translation, file preparation, attestation handling, notary readiness or publication, depending on the service.
You get the output and the next step
The finished document, plus what happens next and what falls outside our scope.
An honest note on timing. Translation is usually the fast part — often same-day for a single certificate. What consumes the calendar is attestation abroad, which runs on another country's timetable and cannot be accelerated from Dubai. We will tell you which part of your timeline we control and which part we do not.
Who we help
Individuals, businesses and clients outside the UAE
Individuals and families
Residency and family sponsorship documents, certificates, degree recognition and personal status papers.
Companies
Incorporation and licensing documents, contracts, resolutions, powers of attorney and statutory announcements.
Landlords and tenants
Notices, case preparation and filing at the Rental Disputes Centre, on either side of the contract.
Clients outside the UAE
People with a matter in Dubai who are not in Dubai — usually through a power of attorney and documents sent ahead.
What that looks like in practice
An engineer applying for a Golden Visa
A German degree and transcript, a marriage certificate and a child's birth certificate — five documents needing attestation abroad and then certified Arabic translation, in that order. The employment contract and Emirates ID, both UAE-issued, need neither.
A landlord facing unpaid rent
A notice served through the correct channel, thirty days observed, then a case at the RDC with the contract, Ejari, payment record and evidence — assembled and translated so the Centre will register it.
A company closing down
Shareholder resolutions notarised, corporate documents translated, and a liquidation notice published in the press so the authority has the proof it requires.
An owner abroad selling property
A power of attorney drafted in Arabic, prepared for notarisation or for legalisation abroad, so someone in Dubai can act without the owner flying in.
Why Taw-Theeq
What we can actually claim
No awards, no rankings, no invented statistics. These are the things that are true and that make a practical difference to a file.
MOJ-certified translation in-house
Translation is our core discipline rather than something we outsource, which is why it can move at the speed the rest of the file needs.
Five services under one roof
Most real matters cross service lines. Handling attestation, translation and notary readiness together removes the gaps where files usually stall.
Located where the work happens
Our office is in Deira, opposite the Rental Disputes Centre building, in the same district as the authorities most of these files pass through.
Arabic and English throughout
Every service area on this site exists in both languages, and you can deal with us in either.
Requirements stated before you pay
We tell you the document list and the sequence up front, including the parts you can do yourself.
Clear about our limits
We are not a law firm and do not give legal advice. When a matter needs a licensed lawyer, we tell you rather than taking the work.
Before you start
Guides worth reading first
Written from primary government sources, and updated when the sources change.
When you need MOJ-certified translation
The situations that always require it, and the ones where you probably do not.
Read the guide 🌐Does the UAE accept an apostille?
Verified against the Hague Conference status table, and what the UAE requires instead.
Read the guide 🛑Why certified translations get rejected
Six procedural causes that have nothing to do with the quality of the language.
Read the guideQuestions
About working with us
Questions about the services as a whole. Each service area has its own detailed answers on its own pages.
What services does Taw-Theeq actually provide?
How do I know which service I need?
Are you a law firm?
Can I send documents online?
What do you need from me to begin?
Do you work with both individuals and companies?
Can I request more than one service at once?
Does the order of steps matter?
Do you translate into languages other than Arabic?
How long does a service take?
Do you publish prices?
Can you help if I am not in the UAE?
What if my document has already been rejected?
Do requirements differ by authority?
Where are you located and when are you open?
Not sure which service you need?
Send us what you are trying to get done. We will tell you which route applies, what the authority will ask for, and what it will take — before you commit to anything.
Taw-Theeq Corporate Services and Legal Translation LLC · Office 012, Floor G, Creek Tower, Riggat Al Buteen, Deira, Dubai · Monday–Friday 8:30–17:00