ADJD vs DIFC will: which registry is right for you

By MyHaven Team·Published 7 September 2026·7 minute read

Expats in the UAE who want a will have more than one place to register it. The two most often compared are the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department and the DIFC Wills Service. Both are real routes and both produce a registered will. They differ on coverage, on language, on process and on cost, and this guide sets those differences out without picking a fight with either.

Two registries, one decision

Federal Decree-Law 41 of 2022 on civil personal status lets non-Muslims in the UAE choose how their estate is distributed instead of leaving it to the default rules. Registering a will is how that choice is recorded. The ADJD keeps a register for non-Muslim wills covering assets across the UAE. The DIFC Wills Service is a separate registry, run under the DIFC Courts, with its own rules and its own fee schedule. Dubai Courts register wills as well, which is why the comparison below has three columns rather than two.

There is no single right answer. There is a right answer for your assets, your family and your budget, and the differences that decide it are few enough to hold in your head.

ADJD and DIFC side by side

Government fees are paid to the relevant court and are separate from any service fee. The ADJD figures are the ones MyHaven works to. The DIFC and Dubai Courts figures are marked with a tilde because they are approximate and set by those registries, so check the current schedule with them before you decide on price alone.

Coverage and enforcement

A will registered with the ADJD covers assets held across the UAE, in all seven emirates. You do not have to live in Abu Dhabi to use it, and a Dubai apartment with a Sharjah bank account is one will rather than two.

DIFC Wills are administered through the DIFC Courts and can extend to certain assets held outside the UAE as well, which is the main structural difference between the two. If your estate is genuinely spread across borders, that reach is worth understanding properly before you choose, because it may change how many documents you end up needing.

Neither registry covers everything you own everywhere. Assets in another country generally follow that country’s law, and the usual answer is a separate will made there, written so it does not contradict your UAE one.

Language and witnesses

A DIFC will is made in English. An ADJD will is registered in Arabic with the English alongside it, which means an ADJD will has to be translated by a certified legal translator before it is submitted. That translation is a real step with a real cost, and it is one of the things a service fee should include rather than surprise you with later. MyHaven includes it.

The DIFC route involves witnesses to the signing. The ADJD route does not use witnesses; the will is signed in front of a notary on a video call instead. Whether that matters to you is mostly practical: two witnesses is two more diaries to coordinate.

Process and how long each takes

Both registries work online. With the ADJD, the sequence is submit, court review, pay the fee, book the appointment, attend a video notarization, and receive the registered copy. The step by step version is in the ADJD registration guide. MyHaven customers who would rather not deal with the portal themselves can ask the MyHaven team to handle it end to end, from uploading the will to the ADJD portal through to the registered copy.

The drafting side is the same problem in both cases: someone has to turn what you want into a document that the registry will accept. That is the part MyHaven does, and the part where the seven working days between approving your draft and receiving the final bilingual will comes from. What sets the total elapsed time is usually the appointment slot, not the paperwork.

Cost, and what the fee buys

Every UAE will has two costs: the government registration fee and the fee for preparing the document. Comparing registries on the government fee alone is only half the picture, because the preparation cost varies far more between providers than the court fees do between registries.

• The ADJD court fee is 950 AED for a single will and 1,900 AED for a mirror pair, paid directly to the court.
• DIFC and Dubai Courts set their own fees, shown in the table above as approximate figures. Confirm them against the current schedule.
• On top of either sits the cost of drafting, review and, for an ADJD will, certified translation. MyHaven publishes that figure on the pricing page rather than quoting case by case.

Who each one suits

Reduced to the decision people actually face:

• The ADJD tends to suit an expat whose assets are in the UAE, who wants coverage across all seven emirates, and for whom the registration fee is a real part of the decision.
• The DIFC route tends to suit someone who wants an English-only document, who is comfortable with a higher registration fee, or whose estate includes assets the DIFC register can reach.
• Dubai Courts register wills as well and are worth knowing about, particularly if your assets and your advisers are already concentrated in Dubai.

How to choose

Start with the assets. Write down what you own and where it sits. If it is all in the UAE, the registries mostly differ on fee, language and process rather than on outcome. If a meaningful share of it is outside the UAE, that is the fact that should drive the decision, and it may mean more than one document.

Then look at the total: registration fee plus preparation. A low court fee attached to an open-ended hourly bill is not cheaper than a fixed price. Our FAQ covers the questions that come up most, and the assessment asks about your assets and tells you what you need before you pay anything.

Still working out whether you need one at all? Read do I need a will in the UAE.

MyHaven is not a law firm and this guide is not legal advice. It explains how the process works so you can make your own decisions. What that means