More About the Medical Examination in Dubai - New Expat Perspective

The medical examination is a fundamental part of the immigration process in Dubai and is required to obtain a full residence visa in the United Arab Emirates. While many people may be put off, nervous or even scared about a medical examination in a new country, it is a quick and easy process.

The immigration process in the United Arab Emirates is strict and without completing the medical assessment you will not be given a full residence visa. The medical assessment includes a blood test to check for diseases such as HIV and a chest x-ray to confirm the applicant doesn’t have TB. If the test results are positive, the applicant will be refused a residency visa and will be deported from the country.

Since this is a mandatory part of the visa process, I suggest you do it as soon after arriving as possible. So the first thing to do is to find your nearest medical center, however your employer or partners employer will probably advise you on this.

I can definitely recommend using Al Safa Health Centre to complete your medical assessment because the staff were great and they offer a VIP service. For a few extra hundred dirhams, you can skip a lot of waiting around in government buildings and get your results back in a matter of hours, rather than days. The extra money is well spent because if like me, you would probably rather spend your first few days in Dubai exploring your new surroundings than sitting in a waiting room in a government building.

When you go for medical examination I recommend you go early in the morning, preferably around 8am to ensure you are one of the first in the queue. You will need to take your entry visa papers with you, your passport and a copy of it, at least 4 passport photographs and the fees. First things first you need to have your Medical Assessment application and your Emirates ID application typed up into the system. Al Safa Medical Centre has a in house typing are. This process takes around 20 minutes depending on the queue and you will then be given several official papers and directed to give your blood sample.

The nurses in Al Safa Medical Centre were friendly and quick and in about 2 minutes they had my blood taken and I was onto the next part of the process, the chest x-ray. You will have to fill out a short form before having your chest x-Ray which for women asks stuff like whether you could be pregnant, your menstrual cycle etc. You will then be shown to a small changing room where you will be asked to remove your bra but you can leave your t-shirt/top on. You also have to remove any jewellery at this time.

The nurse will then place you in front of a large x-Ray machine and begin the x-ray procedure. They will ask you to breathe in and out and after about a minute you’re done.

One of the papers you will have been given from the typing centre is the application for your Emirates ID card and since your medical assessment results will take about four hours before they are ready for collection, if you went with the VIP service, it is advisable to use this time to go give your biometric information at the Emirates ID Authority Centre.

After four hours we you can return to collect your medical examination results and you will then need to visit the in-house typing centre one last time to have the results input into your central record. Unfortunately the typing and immigration offices close at 3pm so we were advised to return the next morning.

We returned at 8am the next day, had all my information typed and my full residence visa applied to my passport within about 40 minutes.

Although it sounds a little tedious, in reality my experience of the medical assessment process was rather seamless and since it is a fundamental part of the visa procedures, getting it out of the way early on is advisable. Then you have plenty of time to sit back, relax and soak up the sunshine and the new surroundings!

Feel free to have your say on this item. Go on... be the first!

• 
• 
• 
•