Arrive · people search “move to Dubai from Europe Canada Australia”
From Europe, Canada, Australia, South Africa
Licence swap lists are country-specific. Tax residency follows you if you keep a home. School fees are the family shock.
- Licence
- RTA publishes who can swap — UK, many EU, some others
- South Africa / others
- Often a driving school, not a swap
- Health
- Employer network, not your home public system
RTA’s exchange list is the source, not a Facebook group. Many EU photocard licences swap; plenty of others (including some African and Asian licences) go through a school. You must be a resident. Eye test, original licence, fees in the hundreds of dirhams if it is a swap — thousands and weeks if it is a school.
Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Netherlands: no UAE salary tax does not close your file at home. Days in the old country, a rented-out flat, a spouse who stayed — that is a tax-residency conversation. Public healthcare does not travel; the employer card and its network do.
Family math is school fees plus rent. A ‘comfortable’ European salary that skipped private school will not skip KHDA. Try the commute in peak before you sign a villa in the desert because the brochure looked like Perth.
Practical notes, not official law. Confirm on ICP, MOHRE, RTA, KHDA and your employer before you act.