Dubai Health, in partnership with the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and the General Directorate of Residency & Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA), has unveiled a Unified Health Screening service that merges two previously separate medical checks—residency medical fitness and occupational-health testing—into a single digital application. Announced on 19 February 2026 under the government’s City Makers initiative, the platform automatically issues a residence permit once an applicant’s medical results are cleared, eliminating an extra administrative step that often added days to processing.
Applicants begin by selecting their profession on the portal; the system then pre-populates the exact tests required and routes them to one of eight participating medical-fitness centres or Smart Salem facilities. All samples, X-rays and biometrics are taken in one visit, and results feed directly into GDRFA’s immigration database, triggering auto-issuance of the Emirates ID and residency visa sticker.
For individuals still sorting out their entry visas before they even land in Dubai, specialist agencies such as VisaHQ can simplify the paperwork long before the medical stage. Through its UAE portal (https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/), the company provides step-by-step guidance on tourist, visit and employment visas, courier pick-up of documents, and real-time application tracking—services that dovetail neatly with Dubai’s new one-stop medical screening to make relocation markedly faster.
![Dubai launches ‘Unified Health Screening’ to slash residency-visa processing time]()
Authorities estimate that the change will cut the typical visa medical timeline from three to five working days down to 24–48 hours, a boon for businesses onboarding foreign hires and for families converting visit visas to residency. The integration also reduces duplication of chest X-rays and blood tests, addressing long-standing employee complaints about multiple appointments.
Dubai Municipality, the Department of Finance and the Supreme Legislation Committee are connected to the data layer, enabling real-time enforcement of occupational-health and safety standards. Officials say the model supports Dubai’s Social Agenda 33 and the D33 economic agenda, both of which anticipate a growing expatriate workforce in high-skill sectors.
In practical terms, HR teams should update welcome letters to reflect the new ‘one-visit’ process and monitor centre capacity—especially at Al Garhoud, Al Nahda and Jebel Ali Free Zone clinics—where demand is expected to surge in the coming weeks. Companies operating free-zone entities should confirm that their internal PROs can access the Unified Screening API to pull completion receipts directly into corporate onboarding dashboards.
Applicants begin by selecting their profession on the portal; the system then pre-populates the exact tests required and routes them to one of eight participating medical-fitness centres or Smart Salem facilities. All samples, X-rays and biometrics are taken in one visit, and results feed directly into GDRFA’s immigration database, triggering auto-issuance of the Emirates ID and residency visa sticker.
For individuals still sorting out their entry visas before they even land in Dubai, specialist agencies such as VisaHQ can simplify the paperwork long before the medical stage. Through its UAE portal (https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/), the company provides step-by-step guidance on tourist, visit and employment visas, courier pick-up of documents, and real-time application tracking—services that dovetail neatly with Dubai’s new one-stop medical screening to make relocation markedly faster.
Authorities estimate that the change will cut the typical visa medical timeline from three to five working days down to 24–48 hours, a boon for businesses onboarding foreign hires and for families converting visit visas to residency. The integration also reduces duplication of chest X-rays and blood tests, addressing long-standing employee complaints about multiple appointments.
Dubai Municipality, the Department of Finance and the Supreme Legislation Committee are connected to the data layer, enabling real-time enforcement of occupational-health and safety standards. Officials say the model supports Dubai’s Social Agenda 33 and the D33 economic agenda, both of which anticipate a growing expatriate workforce in high-skill sectors.
In practical terms, HR teams should update welcome letters to reflect the new ‘one-visit’ process and monitor centre capacity—especially at Al Garhoud, Al Nahda and Jebel Ali Free Zone clinics—where demand is expected to surge in the coming weeks. Companies operating free-zone entities should confirm that their internal PROs can access the Unified Screening API to pull completion receipts directly into corporate onboarding dashboards.
