FDLE Background Check Authentication for United Arab Emirates

Some UAE employers and licensing bodies, particularly in education, healthcare and childcare, ask for a police clearance from where you lived before moving. Many accept or require an FBI record; some accept a state record. If yours accepts an FDLE check, ask FDLE for the notarized version when you request it, since a plain printout can't be authenticated. Confirm which record your employer wants before ordering; we handle Florida records only.

The certified result of FDLE's Certified/Non-Certified Search, notarized at issuance with a complete Florida notarial certificate and kept in its original, unaltered form. Instant Search results, screenshots, PDFs and printouts notarized later by another notary cannot be apostilled.

Request it yourself online at fdle.state.fl.us (FDLE stopped accepting mailed forms on July 1, 2020): choose the Certified/Non-Certified Search ($24 from FDLE), select certified results and ask for the notarized version. FDLE asks you to allow 5–7 business days for processing plus USPS mail. FDLE's fee is not included in our $220.

State fee for this document: $10 — included in our price. Full details on the fdle background check page.

After we return your document with its Florida authentication certificate, it must be authenticated by the U.S. Department of State; the UAE Embassy states that personal and educational documents need that attestation before submission. Next comes attestation by the UAE Embassy in Washington, D.C., through the processing center it designates. Finally, the document is attested in the UAE by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs through its website or app. We don't handle, arrange or refer anyone for those steps.

We don't handle or arrange the U.S. Department of State or embassy steps. See how non-Hague authentication works.

Inside the UAE, attested documents are used by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (which performs the final attestation), immigration and residency authorities for family sponsorship, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation and professional regulators for employment and licensing, free-zone authorities and economic departments for company setup, and the courts and land departments for estates and property. In the U.S., attestation is done by the UAE Embassy in Washington, D.C., which accepts submissions through an outside processing center it designates.

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it accepts documents in English or Arabic, or an official translation. Courts, land departments and some ministries may still ask for a legal Arabic translation, often made in the UAE by a legal translator. Ask the receiving office before you translate anything in Florida; if it accepts a Florida translation, it should be certified by the translator, notarized by a different notary and authenticated in Florida.

We found no single published UAE rule on document age. Employers and authorities may want recently issued vital records or background checks, so ask your sponsor or the receiving authority how recent each document must be before you start the chain.

Consular office serving Florida: Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, Washington, D.C.

$220 per document, $380 for two and $160 each for three or more — the state fee, request form, in-person filing in Tallahassee and FedEx shipping inside the U.S. are included. Shipping the finished authentication to United Arab Emirates is a flat $100 per order.

Not included: whatever the issuing office charges for the certified copy or certificate, and notarization (online notarization is $40 for the first document — $10 notarization fee + $30 technology platform fee — and $20 for each additional one).