What a Gulf licence costs, and how many times you can sit the exam

Everything below comes from the authority’s own published document or is marked as not published. That distinction matters more here than anywhere else on this site: fees and attempt limits are the figures most often quoted without a source, because almost nobody checks them.

One of those is not paid by you. The DHA licence activation fee is charged to the employing facility through its own Sheryan account, and where several facilities invite you the licence activates with whichever pays first. Registration is portable; the licence is not. No Dubai employer, no licence — however many exams you pass.

Saudi Arabia publishes a single combined figure. Classification plus registration, from the Commission’s own fee schedule: SAR 2,300 for Consultant, SAR 1,900 for Registrar or Fellow, SAR 1,420 for General Practitioner or Resident. The amount is the same whether you are decided directly, evaluated, or examined. Half the service fee is refundable if you cancel within a month and before sitting the assessment; the administrative part is not.

And the DHA advertises a fee schedule it no longer serves. Its own service catalogue points to a standalone fee PDF whose URL returns a 404 today. The live portal pages are the current source, and on one figure they already disagree with that catalogue — part-time activation is AED 3,000 on the portal and AED 4,000 in the PDF. Cite the portal.

A missed exam is not a failed attempt in the UAE — but the fee is gone. DHA exam fees are non-refundable on rescheduling, cancellation or no-show. One free reschedule is allowed if you ask more than five working days ahead; inside five days you pay again. Qatar charges through Prometric on a sliding scale: USD 25 at thirty days or more, USD 40 between five and twenty-nine days, and the entire exam fee inside five days, for a no-show, or if you arrive more than thirty minutes late and are refused entry.

The one requirement that is yours because you are a surgeon. Everything above applies to any doctor. The operative logbook does not.

Two consequences worth planning around. If you cannot produce a logbook in Dubai, the authority may restrict your practice or send you to train — and where a surgical practice gap has to be calculated, it is counted from the date of your last operation. Start keeping it signed and stamped now, not when the application is open.