Gulf Licensing Exams for Doctors: DHA, MOHAP, DOH, SCFHS

The Gulf licensing exams are the assessments a doctor must pass before a Gulf health authority will issue a licence to practise. In the United Arab Emirates four authorities share one rulebook, so the real question is not which exam you sit but which authority licenses the emirate you want to work in.

Gulf licensing exams: key takeaways

• DHA, MOH and HAAD are authorities, not exams. DHA is the Dubai Health Authority, MOH in this context is the Ministry of Health and Prevention covering the northern emirates, and HAAD is the old name for the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi.

• Prometric is a test centre operator. It delivers exams for several authorities. Passing a test at a Prometric centre does not by itself give you a licence.

• The UAE now runs one standard across four authorities. The Ministry of Health and Prevention, the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi, the Dubai Health Authority and the Sharjah Health Authority jointly issue the Unified Healthcare Professional Qualification Requirements.

• You get three attempts, across all of them. The three attempts are counted across the authorities, not per authority, with one final attempt allowed at a different authority after three failures.

• An Indian MBBS graduate needs two years of experience after internship before applying for the General Practitioner title, where the one year internship was part of the degree programme.

• A gap in practice has its own rules. More than three years out of clinical practice triggers compulsory CME credits and supervised training, and more than five years closes the door for non-UAE nationals.

Which Gulf licensing exams let you work where?

Why the Gulf licensing exams confuse people

Search results about the Gulf licensing exams are full of advice on the "HAAD exam" and the "Prometric exam", and both labels mislead.

HAAD stood for the Health Authority Abu Dhabi. That body is now the Department of Health, Abu Dhabi, and its licence covers the emirate of Abu Dhabi. Material still using the old name is usually old in other ways too.

Prometric is a company that runs test centres. An authority may choose to deliver its assessment through Prometric, which is why candidates in India talk about booking a Prometric slot. The licence comes from the authority, not from the test centre, and the authority decides the content, the format and the pass mark.

Gulf licensing exams in the UAE: four authorities, one rulebook

This is the part most guides miss. The four UAE health regulatory authorities jointly publish the Unified Healthcare Professional Qualification Requirements, now in its third version, issued in April 2025. The document sets the educational, experience and licensure standards that all four apply when assessing an applicant within their own geographical jurisdiction.

In plain terms, the standard you are judged against is the same whichever emirate you apply in. What differs is which authority processes your file, and the internal licensing processes and privileges each one runs.

Who is eligible to sit the Gulf licensing exams as a GP?

The requirements for the General Practitioner title are set out plainly in the unified document:

• A medical degree of not less than five years, counted excluding the internship year.

• One year of internship after graduation. Every physician and dentist must complete it.

• Two years of clinical experience after the internship, where the applicant graduated outside the UAE and the one year internship formed part of the programme. The internship is accepted provided it was completed after the final degree examination.

• An additional two years of experience where there is no evidence of an internship at all.

• A valid licence or registration to practise in the home country, or the country of last employment, covering the minimum experience required for the title applied for.

That two year rule is the one Indian graduates most often discover too late. A fresh MBBS graduate with a completed internship is not eligible on the day they qualify, and the two years have to be documented, not described.

What are the Gulf licensing exams actually like?

The unified document sets the frame, and the detail sits with the authority you apply to.

• Passing the authority's examination is required to obtain a licence, except for UAE nationals and children of Emirati women, who are exempt.

• The mode depends on your title. It may be written, oral, an Objective Structured Clinical Examination, or a combination.

• Everything is in English. No translator is allowed to attend the oral examination.

• An oral examination runs at least five scenarios in areas related to the specialty, or more if the examining panel decides.

• Three attempts, counted across the authorities. One final attempt may be granted at a different authority after three failures at another, and you must declare how many attempts you have already used.

The attempt rule deserves a second reading. Candidates often assume that failing in Dubai leaves Abu Dhabi untouched. It does not. The authorities count together, and misdeclaring your attempts is its own problem.

Who is exempt from the Gulf licensing exams?

Doctors who have passed certain international examinations, or who hold an active registration with certain regulators, are exempted from the licensure examination. The unified document carries a full Exam Equivalency Criteria chapter setting out which exams and registrations count, broken down by title: consultant physician, specialist physician, general practitioner, dentist grades, nurses and midwives, and the allied health professions.

The exemption is narrow, and the document is explicit about its limits. It covers the examination only. Credentialing, experience, primary source verification and every other licensure requirement still apply in full.

If you are already working towards a British or American licence, our guides to working in the UK after MBBS and the USMLE route explain those exams, and both are the kind of registration that equivalency chapters look at.

Primary source verification, the slowest step

Before the Gulf licensing exams come into it at all, your paperwork is checked. Primary source verification, often called PSV, means the authority checks your documents directly with the body that issued them rather than accepting your copies. The unified document requires that educational qualifications, experience certificates, professional licences and anything else deemed necessary are verified from the original source.

Two practical consequences follow. First, your university and your past employers have to respond, so a college that is slow to answer verification requests becomes your problem. Second, anything that does not match, including dates and titles, surfaces during this step rather than at the exam.

Because verification starts at the issuing institution, it is worth confirming that your medical school is listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools, the international directory regulators use to confirm that a school exists and is recognised in its own country.

What is a Good Standing Certificate, and when does it expire?

It is a certificate proving you are not prohibited or restricted from clinical practice, and it has its own rules:

• Valid and not older than six months at the time you apply, covering the minimum experience required for the title.

• Issued by the health regulatory authority in the country of last employment, or by the last employer where that country has no regulator.

• Not issued until three months of clinical experience have passed from the date the licence was issued.

• Backed by a declaration that you have never been convicted of a felony, a misdemeanour involving breach of honour or trust, or a medical malpractice case, unless rehabilitated.

What happens if you have been out of practice?

A gap in clinical practice of more than three years triggers compulsory catch-up before a licence is issued, and the amounts are published.

The jump at the four year mark is steep. For physicians the credit requirement rises by 50%, from 80 to 120, and the training period goes from six months to eight. Nurses carry 50% of the physician requirement at every band, 40 credits against 80, and allied health professionals and pharmacists carry 25%, at 20 credits against 80. Training has to be done in an approved practice setting recognised by the authority, and surgical specialties must also produce a surgical logbook. Everyone in this position sits the licensure examination afterwards, including candidates who would otherwise have qualified for an exam exemption.

Can you move between the four UAE authorities?

Yes, and the unified document sets out the terms. A professional holding a valid licence from any of the four authorities is eligible for examination exemption when applying to another, provided they have not exceeded the permitted attempts for the same title. You are granted the same title you already hold, and you cannot move up or down a title without meeting that title's requirements.

The reverse also binds. If one authority suspends or revokes your licence, the other authorities in the UAE apply the same decision. An expired or cancelled licence must not be more than six months past expiry at the time you apply.

How to get a Gulf licence, step by step

1. Pick the emirate or country first. The authority follows from where you want to work, and that decision sets every deadline after it.

2. Check your degree length against the rule. The General Practitioner title needs a medical degree of at least five years, excluding internship.

3. Count your post-internship experience. Foreign graduates whose internship sat inside the degree need two documented years after it.

4. Check the Exam Equivalency chapter before booking anything. An existing international exam or registration may remove the examination requirement entirely.

5. Start primary source verification early. It depends on your university and past employers replying, which is the slowest part of the process and the part you control least.

6. Get the Good Standing Certificate timed correctly. It expires in six months, so requesting it too early wastes it.

7. Sit the authority's examination in English. Written, oral or OSCE depending on your title, with no translator in the oral.

8. Keep the attempt count in mind. Three attempts across all the authorities, then one final attempt at a different authority.

The rest of the Gulf

Outside the UAE the structure is simpler, because each country has one authority, and none of the Gulf licensing exams run by these bodies transfers to another country.

• Saudi Arabia: the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties classifies and registers health practitioners for the whole kingdom and runs the verification and professional classification process.

• Qatar: the Ministry of Public Health handles registration and licensing of healthcare practitioners.

• Oman: the Ministry of Health is the licensing authority for practitioners in the Sultanate.

Requirements differ between these countries and the UAE, so a licence in one Gulf state does not carry across the others the way a UAE licence carries between the four UAE authorities.

Common reasons a Gulf licensing exams application stalls

• Applying straight after internship. Two years of documented post-internship experience is the usual requirement for foreign graduates seeking the GP title.

• A university that does not answer verification requests. Primary source verification cannot complete without the issuing institution responding.

• A Good Standing Certificate that has aged out. Six months is the limit, counted at the time of application.

• Undeclared earlier attempts. Attempts are counted across the authorities and you are required to declare them.

• An unrecorded gap in practice. Over three years brings CME and training requirements, and over five years generally ends the application for non-UAE nationals.

Conclusion

The Gulf licensing exams are less a set of competing tests than one standard applied by different authorities. In the UAE the four authorities share a published rulebook, count your exam attempts together and recognise each other's licences, so choosing the emirate matters more than choosing the exam. Read the title requirements before booking anything, start verification early, and treat the two year experience rule as the real gate.

For the Dubai process specifically, our page on the DHA exam after an MBBS in Europe goes further on that authority, and studying MBBS in Dubai covers the route from the other end. If India is also on your list, our guides to medical registration in India and the FMG internship set out that paperwork, and the FMGE licence rule explainer covers the exam behind it.

Gulf licensing exams: frequently asked questions

Sources

• Department of Health Abu Dhabi, introduction to the Unified Healthcare Professional Qualification Requirements

• Unified Healthcare Professional Qualification Requirements, third version, April 2025

• Dubai Health Authority

• Saudi Commission for Health Specialties

• Ministry of Public Health, Qatar

• Ministry of Health, Oman

• World Directory of Medical Schools