Before you fly · Everyone
Carrying medicines to Dubai from India
The short answer
Most ordinary medicines travel to Dubai without a permit, in their original packaging and with a prescription. Controlled and semi-controlled medicines need either a free MoHAP permit obtained before you fly or a declaration to customs on arrival with your prescription and medical report. Tramadol, ketamine and alpha-methylfentanyl are named by Dubai Customs as banned.
On this page
A strip of painkillers is the one thing in an Indian suitcase that can turn an arrival into a police matter rather than a customs one. Not because the UAE is unreasonable about medicine, but because the line between ordinary and controlled sits in a different place there, and codeine is on the wrong side of it.
The three tiers of medicine
Everything you are carrying falls into one of three groups, and the group decides what you have to do before you fly.
- Ordinary medicines for personal useRequired
- Controlled and semi-controlled medicinesConditional
- Banned medicationsDisqualifies
Codeine is the one people miss
Cough syrups sold over the counter across India routinely contain codeine, and so do some combination painkillers. In the UAE codeine is a controlled substance, so the bottle in your washbag is not the ordinary medicine you assume it is. Read the ingredients on anything you are packing for a cough, a headache, sleep or anxiety, and check it against the ministry’s list rather than against what it costs at a chemist in Ahmedabad.
Getting the MoHAP permit
The Ministry of Health and Prevention runs a service called Issue of Permit to Import Medicines for Personal Use. Two things about it are commonly reported wrongly: it is optional, and it is free.
By the numbers
Check the medicine against the ministry's list
MoHAP publishes a controlled and semi-controlled medicines document running to over two hundred entries, marking which can come in with a permit and which cannot come in at all.
Get a medical report your doctor stamps
It must carry the patient's full name, the diagnosis, the treatment plan with the medicine, dose, dosage form and duration, the date of issue and the physician's name. It must be issued within the last year and stamped by the healthcare facility.
Apply on mohap.gov.ae or the app
Fill the electronic form and attach the prescription, the medical report and your passport. There is no fee.
Or skip the permit and declare on arrival
The permit exists to save time at the airport, not to replace the declaration route. Without it you declare the medicine to customs on arrival and produce the prescription and medical report there.
How much you may carry
The cap is measured in months of treatment, not in strips or grams, and the two figures are different for the two groups.
- Controlled and semi-controlled medicines
- Other medicines for personal use
- Anything beyond that
A long trip with a chronic condition is where this bites. If you need more than a month of a controlled medicine, that is a conversation to have with the ministry before you fly rather than with an officer at Terminal 3.
Ayurvedic and homeopathic medicine
This is the half of the question nobody answers, and rather than guess, here is what is actually known and what is not.
What is documented: the UAE regulates herbal and health products through a registration regime, and any preparation containing a controlled substance is treated as controlled whatever the packaging calls it. What is not documented anywhere we could find is a plain published list saying which ayurvedic and homeopathic preparations a traveller may carry.
So the honest advice is narrow. Carry the original sealed packaging with a legible ingredient list, carry the prescription if one exists, declare it rather than bury it in a suitcase, and accept that an officer may ask what is in it and may keep it. Do not repackage anything into unlabelled boxes, which converts an answerable question into an unanswerable one.
What to do next
Read the labels on everything in your washbag tonight, not at the airport. If anything is for pain, sleep, anxiety or a cough, check it against the ministry’s list and start the permit if it is listed, since three working days is only three working days if you have them. Keep every medicine in its original box with the prescription in the same bag.
If the rest of your packing is still open, the wider prohibited list is worth a look, because medicines are not the only thing in an Indian suitcase that the UAE treats differently.
Common questions
Which medicines are not allowed in Dubai?
Dubai Customs names Tramadol, Ketamine and alpha-methylfentanyl as banned medications. Beyond those, the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention maintains a list of controlled and semi-controlled medicines, running to more than two hundred entries, which marks which may be brought in with a permit and which may not be brought in at all. Codeine, which appears in many Indian cough syrups, sits in the controlled group rather than the ordinary one.
Do I need permission to bring my medicines to Dubai?
Not for ordinary medicines. The Ministry of Health and Prevention has clarified that prior online permission is optional and applies to narcotics, psychotropic drugs and controlled medicines, where it exists to save time at the airport. Travellers are not obliged to seek permission for other medicines carried for personal use. Carry the original packaging and a prescription either way.
How do I apply for a MoHAP medicine permit?
Apply through the Ministry of Health and Prevention's service, Issue of Permit to Import Medicines for Personal Use, on mohap.gov.ae or its app. The application is free and is processed within three working days. You submit a prescription and a medical report naming the patient, the diagnosis, the treatment plan with the medicine, dose, form and duration, the issue date and the physician, issued within the last year and stamped by the facility.
How much medicine can I bring into the UAE?
Quantities are capped by how long the supply lasts rather than by weight. For controlled and semi-controlled medicines the limit is one month's supply. For other medicines carried for personal use it is three months. Anything beyond that is treated as an import rather than as personal use, whatever the prescription says.
Are ayurvedic and homeopathic medicines allowed in Dubai?
There is no clean published answer for ayurvedic and homeopathic preparations, which is why so much of what you will read on this is guesswork. What is documented is that the UAE regulates herbal and health products through registration, and that any preparation containing a controlled substance falls under the controlled rules regardless of what the label calls it. Carry the original sealed packaging and the prescription, declare it at customs, and expect to be asked what is in it.
What happens if I bring a banned medicine into Dubai?
It is treated as a narcotics matter rather than a customs one. That is the difference between having something taken off you at a desk and being detained, and it is why the medicines question deserves more care than the rest of the packing list. If you need a controlled medicine, the MoHAP route exists precisely so that you can carry it lawfully.
Related guides
Before you fly
The rules are the easy part. The visa is the file.
We file UAE visit visas from India every week, and we will tell you plainly if your case is one we would not take. Licence R710507 is Canadian and does not cover the UAE, so nothing on these pages is UAE legal advice.
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