Power of attorney from the UAE for use in India
There are two routes from the UAE into India and the Indian missions here publish both, which is the thing most people do not know. Route A is the UAE process: prepare the document here, have it attested by UAE MOFA, and present it to the mission. Route B is to sign the document itself in front of a Consular Officer at the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi, attending in person with your original passport. Neither is automatically the right one - it depends on the transaction and on what the person acting in India needs to see. On apostille: India issues them, but the UAE is not listed as a Contracting Party to the Convention, so India's membership does not by itself remove the UAE-side steps. What no Indian government source we read describes is what happens after the document lands in India - stamping, adjudication and registration are real questions and we do not answer them here.
When people need this
The common ones are property: selling, buying, letting or mortgaging something in India while living in the UAE, or dealing with an inherited share that several relatives hold between them. After that come bank and demat matters, company signatures, and appearing in a court or revenue proceeding through a representative.
The reason a UAE-executed document is so common is simple. Flying back to sign one page is expensive, and the alternative - sending an unattested document by courier and hoping - is how transactions stall. The corridor exists because the UAE has a very large Indian community and India's missions here handle this volume as routine consular work.
Route one: sign it at the Indian mission in the UAE
The Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi publishes what it needs for a power of attorney, and the requirements are specific. The document is submitted as an original plus a duplicate, and the embassy states that both are "signed before a Consular Officer". Personal presence is not optional: the embassy states that the personal presence of the executant with the original passport is compulsory.
You also bring a photocopy of the first five pages of the passport together with the valid residence-visa page, and a recent passport-size photograph of the executant - and of the attorney too, if the attorney is present - affixed to the front page of the document. The embassy states the service is rendered the same day.
The Consulate General of India in Dubai lists Power of Attorney among its attestation categories, and Will Execution alongside it. What the Dubai consulate does not publish is the requirements, the fees or the steps: those categories route to an appointment portal. So if you are in Dubai, the categories tell you the service exists but not what to bring, and the Abu Dhabi requirements are the ones actually written down.
Route two: a UAE document, attested and then presented
Where the document is issued by an organisation in the UAE rather than signed in front of a consular officer, the Embassy of India states the input plainly: the original document attested by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Consular Section, together with photocopies of the document and the passport.
That is the UAE stage of the chain, and it is the same stage described on our guide to using a UAE power of attorney abroad. MOFA attests the signatures and seals on the document; it does not read the wording or vouch for what the document does.
The reverse direction, for completeness
If the document starts in India instead, the Embassy of India publishes that chain too: authentication by the concerned State Government authorities, then attestation by the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, then attestation by the UAE Embassy in New Delhi or the UAE Consulate in Mumbai.
The UAE side agrees, and is unusually explicit: UAE MOFA's New Delhi mission page states that India-issued documents must be attested by the Ministry of External Affairs first, and it expressly names "Legal documents (powers of attorney)" among the types it will attest. Legal documents need the local notary or authority signature in India before that.
Whose fee is whose
Costs on this route belong to different bodies, and it is worth keeping them apart rather than adding them into a single number.
The Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi publishes a consular fee schedule denominated in dirhams. Civil and real-estate attestations sit in a band from AED 40 to AED 155. Administration of property is charged differently again - AED 960, or 2.5 per cent of the value, with a higher figure for concurrently accredited countries.
What the schedule does not do is name "power of attorney" as its own line with its own price, so we do not quote one. The Dubai consulate publishes no fees at all. And UAE MOFA's attestation fees sit inside an attestation guide we have not read, so the UAE stage is unpriced here as well.
- UAE government fee - UAE MOFA attestation. Published inside MOFA's attestation guide, which we have not read. We quote no figure.
- Mission fee - the Indian consular fee, published in dirhams as a band rather than a per-service price for a power of attorney.
- Indian-side costs after arrival - stamping, adjudication or registration where they apply. Not published in anything we read.
- Our own professional fee for preparing the document is separate again, and is never bundled into any of the above.
Source: Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi - attestation fee structure 2026
Language
Neither Indian mission in the UAE publishes a translation requirement for a power of attorney, and neither does UAE MOFA for this corridor specifically. MOFA states generally that a document may need to be accompanied by a legally certified translation, and that a document should be in English or Arabic or have an official translation with it.
Because a power of attorney for India is normally drafted in English, translation is usually not the obstacle. Where the receiving body in India is a state authority working in a regional language, that body sets its own expectation, and it is worth asking it rather than assuming.
Where this page stops
A power of attorney that has been executed or attested here still has to be usable at the other end. Indian practice around stamp duty, adjudication and registration of a power of attorney - particularly one dealing with immovable property - is a real and consequential subject, and no Ministry of External Affairs or mission page we read addresses it.
We are not going to fill that in from inference. If your document concerns land, ask the sub-registrar or the person handling the transaction in India what they will require before you sign anything here. Getting the wording and the stamping right at the outset is cheaper than discovering the problem after the document has crossed a border.
Questions
Do I have to attend in person?
For the consular route, yes. The Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi states that personal presence of the executant with the original passport is compulsory, and that the document is signed before a Consular Officer. There is no postal or representative substitute published for that route.
Can I do this in Dubai rather than Abu Dhabi?
The Consulate General of India in Dubai lists Power of Attorney and Will Execution among its attestation categories and takes appointments through an outsourced portal. It does not publish the requirements or fees, so what to bring is set out only on the Abu Dhabi embassy pages. Confirm with the Dubai consulate before travelling to it.
Does an apostille work for India?
India is a party to the Apostille Convention and issues apostilles for documents going to other member countries. That does not, by itself, remove the UAE-side steps here, because the UAE is not listed as a Contracting Party. What your document needs is set by the mission handling it and by the authority in India that will act on it - so treat India's Convention membership as something that governs its other traffic, and ask about this corridor specifically.
How many copies do I need?
The Embassy of India states an original and a duplicate for a power of attorney, both signed before the Consular Officer, plus photocopies of the passport pages. A recent passport-size photograph goes on the front page.
What does the mission actually certify?
The consular act is about the signature and the identity of the person signing, not about whether the document achieves what you want in India. No mission page we read states that a consularised power of attorney is thereby valid for any particular Indian transaction.
How long does it take?
The Embassy of India states that the service is rendered the same day for the consular route. The UAE MOFA stage, where it applies, is published separately: within two hours for eligible digital documents, or one to three business days through an approved courier.
What this page does not do
- What India requires of the document after it arrives - stamping, adjudication, registration, and anything specific to immovable property - is not published in the sources we have read. Ask the receiving body in India before you sign.
- The Consulate General of India in Dubai publishes categories and an appointment route, not requirements or fees. Treat the Abu Dhabi requirements as the written ones and confirm locally.
- We quote no power-of-attorney fee, because the published fee schedule bands attestations rather than naming this service, and UAE MOFA's own fees sit in a guide we have not read.
- The Deedbox prepares documents. We do not carry out attestation or legalisation, do not act for you before any mission, and are not a law firm. The receiving authority in India decides whether to act on your document.