Q: Dear Lawyers, Is it mandatory to register the marriage in MOFA to live together here in the UAE? We are both Muslims from different nationalities and nikah was done in another country. 1. We both have our own visas and have no dependency on each other in terms of any legal ground. 2. We do not have any plan to have a child since we both are over 45 years old. 3. We have no requirement to register the marriage in our home country. Still, is it mandatory to register the marriage with MOFA? We appreciate your valuable input to clarify this.

Q: Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing to enquire about my legal marriage status. I had a non-legal nikah marriage in the UK. Myself and my then husband moved to Dubai. This nikah certificate was attested/ certified for visa/ legal purposes, however, I'm unsure of whether the UK would now recognise this nikah as a legal marriage, as another country has recorded it as such. If so then I would have to also legally divorce. As my divorce currently is an Islamic one. Please, could you advise me further of if there are any ways of checking this or confirming etc? I had no legal marriage ceremony in Dubai. The second question I have is that if I get a court order here in the UK for child maintenance. Is this then able to be registered in Dubai (can this be used to seek to enforce) in case he failed to pay? If so how much would this mirror order cost? Kind regards, Sarah

Q: Dear Sir/Madam, My husband and I are both Muslim. We got our marriage certificate online from Utah, USA. It has an apostille stamp and is fully authentic. We want to legalize our marriage certificate here in the UAE, but we have been told that it is not possible unless we go to the USA and have it stamped at the UAE embassy there. This doesn't make sense, as we are not American citizens and we do not have residency there. How can we attest and legalize our marriage in the UAE?

In accordance with the UAE Law of Personal Status, marriage is a legal contract between two people (man and a woman), focusing on protecting the rights of married people and their children. This contract requires certain conditions to be achieved before it becomes valid.

UAE Personal Status Law (also known as Personal Affairs Law) governs marriage, divorce, inheritance and other personal affairs in the United Arab Emirates. The law equally applies to citizens of the UAE and non-citizens unless one of them asks for the application of his home country law.