How to Open a Bank Account in Dubai, and What Banks Ask For

Post-dated cheques are still the most common way to pay rent in Dubai, and you need a UAE bank account to write them, so this is worth doing early. With an Emirates ID in hand, some banks let you apply in their app in a few minutes, and the government portal puts approval at a few hours to a few days.

What you need before you start

If your bank asks for proof of address, that usually means your Ejari or a recent utility bill. If you have no permanent home yet, a letter of stay from a hotel or corporate apartment is sometimes accepted. Ask HR for your salary certificate early too, since it is on most banks’ lists.

Which bank, for which situation

At several banks, a salary transfer does the job of the balance. At Emirates NBD, Liv and Mashreq NEO, a salary transfer of AED 5,000 or more takes the place of the balance requirement or the monthly fee. ADCB sets the bar at AED 15,000, unless you also hold one of its credit products. Wio’s Salary Plan also needs AED 15,000. The FAB and RAKBANK fee documents we read list no salary waiver on these accounts: RAKBANK ties its waiver to its Everyday Banking Packages and its Elite and Select segments. If your salary goes elsewhere, plan to keep the balance or pay the fee. Have the opening deposit ready as well: ADCB lists AED 5,000 to open a current account, and RAKBANK asks for an initial deposit of AED 3,000.

You may read that the minimum balance has gone up to AED 5,000. Several banks were reported to be making that change in May 2025, but the Central Bank asked them not to while it studied the impact on the labour market (Khaleej Times, 27 May 2025). The fee documents we read from Emirates NBD (January 2026), FAB (September 2026) and RAKBANK still say AED 3,000.

The digital route

Liv (a brand of Emirates NBD) and Wio are run through their apps, Mashreq NEO opens online, and Hayyak is ADCB’s app for opening an ADCB account without visiting a branch. With a valid Emirates ID you can open an account entirely in the app. A salary transfer is not needed to open it, although it often removes the monthly fee, and Mashreq NEO does ask for a minimum monthly income of AED 5,000.

The banks advertise application times in minutes, but an account that is open is not always ready to use. ADCB says a Hayyak account is set up instantly, then keeps withdrawals blocked until it has verified your documents, which it says happens within one working day.

App accounts are not automatically free either. Wio’s Standard Plan costs AED 25 a month if your average balance is below AED 3,000, and Liv charges AED 25 a month plus VAT unless you meet one of the four conditions listed in the table.

You do not necessarily give up a chequebook. Wio issues one on request for the AED account, Mashreq NEO gives the first one free, Liv gives the first one free to customers who meet its criteria, and ADCB Hayyak opens a current account with a chequebook. Liv, Wio and ADCB also offer personal loans, subject to eligibility.

If you do not have residency yet

The accounts in the table above, apart from the last row, are for UAE residents. Non-resident accounts exist, but the terms are tougher. The minimum balance varies by bank, typically AED 30,000 to 100,000 according to Property Finder, and RAKBANK asks for USD 100,000. The products are narrower too: Emirates NBD offers current accounts to residents only, with savings accounts open to non-residents, and RAKBANK’s non-resident account is a savings account with a debit card but no chequebook.

Opening takes days, sometimes weeks, rather than minutes. These accounts suit people who invest here without living here. As a stopgap before your residence visa, they rarely make sense. If the visa is only days away, wait and open a resident account. Our visa guide covers the sequence.

The traps

None of this is hidden. The banks in this guide publish their fees in a Key Facts Statement or a schedule of charges, and those documents, not the product pages, are where most of the figures above come from. Read the one for your account and ask the bank to confirm anything unclear in writing.

Sending money home

If you send money abroad, compare providers one by one. The World Bank’s latest survey of the UAE to India corridor, with data collected in August 2025, shows how far apart they are.

Compare the amount that actually lands at the other end, not the fee alone. On the main UAE corridors the fee is usually the bigger cost: for AED 735 sent to India, the average fee was AED 21.77 and the average exchange rate margin 0.75%, about AED 5.50, and the World Bank figures for Pakistan and the Philippines show the same pattern. The margin is not shown as a fee, though, and at Emirates NBD, which charged no fee, it was the whole cost.