RAKEZ: police clearance now required for ten more nationalities

From 20 July 2026, nationals of ten more countries need a Good Conduct Certificate, also called a Police Clearance Certificate, to apply for a new employment visa through the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ). The ten are Ghana, Lebanon, Lithuania, Morocco, Mozambique, Pakistan, Senegal, Syria, Tonga and Zambia. RAKEZ announced the change on 17 July 2026, citing the latest update from the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security (ICP). If you run a RAKEZ company hiring from these countries, or you are a founder from one of them applying for an investor visa, it applies to you.

What the rules say

The RAKEZ announcement makes the certificate mandatory for new employment visa applications, "including employee and investor visas". The ten new nationalities join fourteen that RAKEZ already lists as subject to the requirement.

The RAKEZ list now runs to twenty-four nationalities.

Where the applicant is at the time of applying decides how the certificate is obtained:

RAKEZ advises applicants to have the certificate ready before they submit a visa application.

Who is affected

Two groups in RAKEZ feel this directly. Companies recruiting employees of any of the twenty-four nationalities will need the certificate for each new employment visa application. Shareholders and partners of those nationalities will need it for a RAKEZ investor visa.

Because the announcement refers to an ICP update, the requirement looks like federal immigration policy rather than a RAKEZ-specific rule. RAKEZ's notice, though, speaks only for applications made through RAKEZ. If you are in another free zone or onshore, check the position with your own licensing authority before assuming the same list applies.

Key dates

What it means in practice

The cost is time. A certificate issued abroad has to come from the home country's authorities and then be attested by the UAE Embassy before the visa application can move. An applicant already in the UAE on a cancelled visa goes through the UAE Police instead. On either route the certificate comes first. It cannot run alongside the application.

Take a hypothetical Pakistani national who has agreed to join a RAKEZ trading company and is still in Karachi. Before 20 July 2026 the employer could have gone straight to the visa application. Now the employee first needs a police clearance certificate from the Pakistani authorities, attested by the UAE Embassy, before anything is submitted. If the start date was set without allowing for that step, expect it to slip.

Founders are in the same position. An investor from Lebanon or Morocco setting up a RAKEZ company should get the certificate early, so that the investor visa is not held up once the licence is issued.

If you are still deciding where to establish, licensing requirements are unchanged. What changes is how long it takes to get your senior people resident and working, which matters where, for example, a bank or counterparty expects a resident signatory.

What we do not yet know

The RAKEZ announcement does not say how long a certificate stays valid, whether any applicants are exempt, or whether the requirement reaches visa renewals or dependants. Nor does it say whether more nationalities are expected to be added. If any of these points matters to your case, get confirmation from RAKEZ before relying on an assumption.