UAE residents: Tired of looking for documents? Keep everything handy on your phone!

Emirates ID fingerprint — Regardless of whether you have an Apple, Android or Huawei phone, you can use the UAE Pass app to store all the official documents issued by UAE’s government departments. Picture used for illustrative purposes only. Image Credit: Shutterstock

Dubai: Imagine never scrambling to find your driving licence or marriage certificate again. With the UAE's innovative digital infrastructure, you can store essential documents securely on your phone.

Over the years, the UAE government has set up a vast digital infrastructure, as part of its Digital Government strategy. This allows you to not just request for important documents from a government department, but also keep them in a single app on your phone, and also get the document verified on the spot.

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How can this be done and which documents can you save on your phone? Here’s all you need to know.

One app to keep them all – UAE Pass

Regardless of whether you have an Apple, Android or Huawei phone, you can use the UAE Pass app to store all the official documents issued by UAE’s government departments. These include your:

1. Driving licence
2. Emirates ID
3. Residence visa
4. Tenancy contract
5. Car registration
6. Ministry of Education attested degree (if it was attested after April 1, 2020)
7. Marriage certificate issued by Ministry of Justice (if it was issued after January 1, 2020)
8. Labour card
9. Labour contract
10. Title deed of a property you have bought

Overall, the app allows you to add up to 40 different types of documents, from 16 different government departments. Don’t have the UAE Pass app yet? Find out how you can set it up in minutes through our guide here.

How to add these documents

• Open the UAE Pass app and tap on the ‘Documents’ section on the bottom of the screen.
• Next, tap on ‘Request a document’.
• Select the government department relevant. For example, if you want to get your digital driving licence or car registration, you need to select ‘Ministry of Interior’. Similarly, if you want your rental contract, select ‘Dubai Land Department’, if you live in Dubai, or the ‘Department of Land and Real Estate Regulation, Ajman’, if you are an Ajman resident.
• The drop down menu will give you all the options for documents that the department can issue digitally. Select the document you want to get by tapping on the ‘Request’ option.
• Confirm your request and you will see a message confirming that the request has been received.
• While the document is issued almost immediately, you can give it a few minutes, before tapping once again on the ‘Documents’ section.
• You will then see that the document is now being listed in your ‘digital vault’.

How to use digital copies for services

Once you have the document saved on your app, there are three different ways in which you can use them:

1. Download the pdf of the digital document. You can do this by tapping on the ‘download’ icon and saving the document in your phone files. The document is a pdf, with a ‘UAE Verify’ stamp, confirming that it is a Digital Trusted Document.

2. Share the pdf of the digital document. Right next to the ‘download’ icon, you will also spot an icon which allows you to share the document easily with anyone online. When you tap on the icon, you will get the options to share it via email, Whatsapp, or any other app that you would like to use.

3. QR verification. If you are physically trying to present this document to someone for verification purposes, you can also use the ‘QR verification’ option that is provided at the bottom of the screen. Tap on the option, and the app will generate a QR code, which is active only for five minutes. The person who wishes to verify the authenticity of the document can then scan the code and will be directed to the ‘UAE Verify’ website, which will issue a digital authenticity certificate, which reads something like this: [add image of certification]. This certificate proves that the digital document is authentic and valid and has not been tampered with.

What is UAE Verify and what are ‘Digital Trusted Documents’?

‘UAE Verify’ is a digital platform that helps government and private entities, and individuals to verify the authenticity of digital documents issued by any of the ‘UAE Verify’ partners. The platform uses blockchain technology to verify the authenticity of these digital documents, which are given the ‘Digital Trusted Documents’ mark.

Quick access through your phone wallet

samsung phone rta licence vehicle car registration — Image Credit: Supplied

Apart from saving documents on your UAE Pass app, you can also upload some of them on to your phone’s wallet, whether you have an Apple, Android or Huawei device.