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Indian Will for NRIs Living in the UAE: Your NRI Will in Dubai, Signed Without Travel
A DIFC or UAE will looks after what you own in the UAE. Your flat, land, NRE and NRO balances and investments in India need their own will, written under Indian law and signed in front of two witnesses in Dubai, so your family does not have to ask an Indian court for permission to act.
- Signed in the UAE before two independent witnesses, with no flight to India
- Worded so it works beside your DIFC or other UAE will and never cancels it
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Can You Make an Indian Will From Dubai? The Direct Answer
Yes. An NRI will in Dubai is a normal Indian will that happens to be signed in the UAE. It is written in English for your Indian assets only, signed by you in front of two independent witnesses, and it is valid without stamp paper and without registration. It does not replace your DIFC or other UAE will. It sits beside it, so each document is limited to the assets of its own country and neither one cancels the other. Indian banks, housing societies and registrars are generally far more comfortable acting on an Indian-law will for Indian assets than on a foreign one.
- Signing: you sign in the UAE in front of two witnesses who watch you sign; no visit to India is needed
- Paper: plain paper is enough, no stamp duty applies to a will, and the original stays with you or your executor
- Registration: optional in India; a registered or deposited will is easier to prove but is not required for validity
- Your UAE will: stays in force for UAE assets; the two wills are drafted so that neither revokes the other
Which Will Does Your Situation Need? Find Your Row
Most families in the UAE already hold one will and assume it covers everything. The rows below show the usual starting points for Indians living in the Emirates. If more than one row fits you, we sort the order on the first call, because the wording of one will often depends on the other.
| Your situation | What you likely need | Who acts | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| You have a DIFC or Dubai court will and an Indian flat, plot or bank accounts | A separate Indian will Written for Indian assets only, with an executor who lives in India and a clause that leaves your UAE will untouched. | You sign in Dubai; our advocates draft and review | A few weeks from asset list to signing |
| Your DIFC will already says it cancels all earlier wills | Read first, then align The cancellation wording is checked against the geographic scope of the will. Often the UAE will is narrowed by your UAE lawyer and the Indian will carries a matching carve-out. | Your UAE lawyer for the UAE will, our advocates for the Indian will | A few weeks, depending on how quickly the UAE side can amend |
| You are a couple working in the UAE with children, Indian property and no will at all | Two mirror wills Each spouse signs a separate will naming the other first and the children next, with a survivorship clause and a named guardian wish. | Both of you sign on the same day before the same two witnesses | A few weeks, usually one signing session |
| You are a Muslim NRI with property in India | A will inside the one-third limit Muslim personal law limits what can be left by will without the consent of the other heirs. The draft reflects that and records who the heirs are. | An advocate familiar with Muslim personal law, plus your UAE lawyer for the UAE estate | A few weeks, with extra time for the heir list |
| You want an Indian will you can lodge safely in India | Optional registration or deposit A registered will or a will deposited with a Registrar is easier to find and to prove. Ask whether your state allows an agent to deposit it for you. | The Sub-Registrar of the district, through you on a visit or an authorised agent where allowed | Depends on the appointment calendar of the office |
| Your parents in India hold the property and you will inherit, but you have no will of your own | Your own will for what you hold now, plus a plan for what you inherit later An Indian will can only dispose of what you own at your death. Anything you inherit before then is covered if the will is written to include it. | You, with our advocates | A few weeks |
Timing depends mostly on how fast you gather the asset list and how soon two suitable witnesses can be in the same room as you. Read the last column as a rough guide. We give a firm plan after the first call.
Not sure which row is yours? Most families are not. One call with an advocate settles it.
Book an assessmentWhy a DIFC Will Is Not Enough for Indian Assets
A DIFC will is a good tool for what you own in the UAE. A non-Muslim resident can register one with the DIFC Courts, and UAE institutions generally recognise it. The weakness is not the document. It is where your Indian assets sit. Every office that holds them is an Indian office, and each one is trained to act on Indian paper.
Read more
Picture what happens after a death. A bank manager holds your NRO account. A housing society secretary holds your flat's share certificate. A mutual fund registrar holds your units, and an insurer holds your policies. Each wants a document it can verify, an executor it can reach and a law it recognises. A foreign will tends to meet a polite request to prove it first in an Indian court, usually through probate or letters of administration. Indian law does have a route for a will that has already been proved abroad, where an authenticated copy can support a grant, but the family still has to start a court case before anything moves.
There is also a legal point under the Indian Succession Act, 1925. Section 5 says that succession to immovable property in India follows the law of India, wherever you live, while succession to movable property follows the law of your domicile. Domicile is a question of fact, and many Indian passport holders in the Emirates keep an Indian domicile, but it is not something to leave to chance. An Indian will removes the doubt for the assets that matter most to your family.
These are the Indian assets people most often forget to list:
Your DIFC will may well name a friend or a UAE professional as executor. That person can handle your Dubai estate, but an Indian bank is unlikely to hand over your balances to someone who cannot sign in India and has no Indian grant. Our explainer on whether a DIFC will is valid in India goes through the court side in more detail. For the full picture of what an NRI in the UAE should put in place, see the guide for NRIs in Dubai with property in India.
- A flat, house or plot, including a share in a family property or an under-construction booking
- NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts, fixed deposits and any joint account with a relative
- Demat holdings, mutual fund folios, bonds and PMS accounts
- LIC and other insurance policies, and any provident fund or pension balance from earlier Indian jobs
- Gold, locker contents, shares in a family business and money owed to you
How the Two Wills Work Together: The Cancellation Clause Trap
The most common failure we see is not a missing will. It is two wills that cancel each other. Many wills carry a sentence along the lines of "I revoke all earlier wills". Under Section 70 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, a later will can revoke an earlier one, and the law does not ask whether the earlier one covered a different country. If your Indian will says it cancels all earlier wills, it may wipe out your DIFC will. If your DIFC will says the same and is signed later, it may wipe out your Indian will. The family then discovers the problem at the worst possible time.
The fix is geographic wording on both sides:
- The Indian will states that it deals only with assets located in India, and that any will you have made for assets outside India remains in force.
- The UAE or DIFC will states that it deals only with assets in the UAE, or assets outside India, and that any Indian will remains in force.
- Both wills carry the same family details, the same spelling of every name and consistent wishes on guardianship, so that nobody can say the two documents tell different stories.
If your DIFC will was written years ago, ask your UAE lawyer to read its revocation clause and tell you its geographic reach in plain words. Share that answer with us before the Indian will is finalised. We draft the Indian carve-out to fit, and if the UAE side needs a small amendment we tell you exactly what to ask for. This is also why a DIFC lawyer alone, however skilled, is not the right person to draft the Indian will. The two lawyers each look after their own country and agree the overlap.
The table below shows how the two documents usually divide the work.
| Point | UAE or DIFC will | Indian will |
|---|---|---|
| Assets covered | Property, accounts, end of service benefits and investments in the UAE | Flats, land, bank accounts, shares, funds and policies in India |
| Law it follows | The law and court of the UAE or DIFC | Indian law, with Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 as the signing standard |
| Executor | Someone who can act before UAE offices | Someone who lives in India and can sign and visit offices there |
| Registration | Registered with the DIFC registry or a UAE court | Optional with a Sub-Registrar; valid without it |
| Who acts on it | UAE banks, developers and land departments | Indian banks, societies, registrars and mutual fund houses |
The table is a general guide. Your own wills may divide assets differently, and the UAE side should be confirmed with a UAE lawyer.
Signing an NRI Will in Dubai: Two Independent Witnesses and the Day Itself
The signing is the one step that cannot be done by courier or video call. Under Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, the will must be signed by you, and at least two witnesses must each have seen you sign it or have received your personal acknowledgement of your signature. Each witness then signs in your presence. A video link is not a substitute for the witnesses being in the room.
Who can be a witness
Any adult who understands what is happening can witness your will. Nationality does not matter, and the witnesses do not need to be Indian or hold an Indian document. Colleagues, neighbours, a building manager or friends from your community often step in. What matters is that they are independent.
Who should not
Do not use a beneficiary or the spouse of a beneficiary. Section 67 of the Act says a will is not invalid because a beneficiary attested it, but the gift to that witness, and to the witness's spouse, becomes void. Avoid your executor as well, even though the law does not generally forbid it, because it invites questions later. If your spouse is your main beneficiary, your spouse cannot be a witness, and neither can your spouse's parents or siblings who inherit under the will.
- You, both witnesses and a copy of the final draft meet in one room. We join by call to answer questions if you want us to, but we are not a witness.
- You read the will, or have it read to you, and confirm that it says what you want.
- You initial every page and sign at the end. The witnesses watch you do it.
- Each witness signs below your signature, then writes a full name and address. The place, which is Dubai or the relevant emirate, and the date go on the document.
- You photograph or scan every page the same day and send the set to us so that we can check nothing is missing.
No notary needed
An Indian will does not need a UAE notary, a consular officer or a stamp. Some people choose to notarise it anyway, or to have it attested for extra comfort. If you want that, ask us first. The UAE is not a member of the Apostille Convention, so any extra attestation would go through the UAE foreign ministry and the Indian mission, and it adds time without replacing the two witnesses. The Consulate General of India in Dubai and the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi describe their current attestation arrangements on their sites, and these have changed in the past, so confirm with the mission before you rely on any older guidance.
Capacity
If you are elderly or unwell, tell us. A short note from your doctor on the same day, or a witness who knows you well, helps a family if anyone later says the will was made under pressure. Where you live and work in the UAE has no effect on your right to make a will for Indian assets.
Mirror Wills for Couples Living in the UAE
A couple in Dubai with a flat in Kerala or an account in Pune usually wants the same outcome: the survivor keeps everything, and then it goes to the children. The tidy way to do that is two mirror wills, one signed by each spouse, rather than one joint will.
Read more
A joint will, signed by both spouses as one document, can bind the survivor in ways the family did not expect, and it can become hard to change after the first death. Two separate wills avoid that. Each one is a full will in the name of one person, each can be changed by its own maker, and each takes effect on its own maker's death. They mirror each other in structure, not in text.
These are the points we usually settle together:
Who inherits first
Each spouse names the other as first beneficiary of the Indian assets that belong to that spouse.
Who inherits next
The children, or other relatives, are named in the same shares in both wills so the family result is the same whichever of you dies first.
Simultaneous death
A survivorship clause says what happens if you both die in the same accident or in a short interval, which is the case couples in the Gulf are most nervous about.
Joint ownership
A flat held jointly passes to the surviving co-owner in some arrangements and not in others. We read the title documents before we draft so that the will does not promise what the title cannot deliver.
Minor children
The will can record who you wish to care for them. A court can still make the final decision, and the UAE side must be aligned with it, so the wish should be the same in your DIFC wills.
One signing day
Both of you sign on the same day before the same two witnesses, which keeps the paperwork simple.
Mirror wills are also a good place to match the Indian will with each spouse's UAE will. Many couples have a DIFC will for the Dubai home and nothing for India. The Indian pair fills that gap without touching what already exists.
Muslim NRIs and the One-Third Rule
This section is a hedge, not a promise. Muslim succession is governed by personal law, and its detail differs between schools and families, so a Muslim NRI should have the draft read by an advocate who handles Muslim personal law before signing anything.
Read more
Part VI of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, which holds the general rules on wills, says in Section 58 that it does not apply to testamentary succession to the property of a Muslim. Muslim personal law decides what can be left by will. Under the rule most families recognise, a Muslim may leave up to one-third of the estate by will, after funeral expenses and debts, without needing consent from the heirs. A gift above that limit needs the consent of the heirs after the death, and without that consent it generally stands only up to the one-third limit. For Sunni families a gift to a person who is already an heir may need the consent of the other heirs even within the one-third. Shia law handles that point differently, so the school you follow matters.
Under Muslim law a will does not have to be written or witnessed, but Indian banks, societies and courts want a document they can read and verify. So we draft a written will, signed in front of two witnesses, in the same way as any other Indian will. The will then records the heirs by name, shows the one-third limit in the gift, and says what happens to the rest of the estate.
The UAE side is separate. Muslim residents of the UAE are generally dealt with under UAE personal status rules for their UAE estate, and DIFC wills are mainly a route for non-Muslims, so your UAE lawyer should confirm the position for your Emirates assets. We keep the Indian will limited to Indian assets, which is the part we advise on.
Choosing an Executor and a Guardian From Abroad
The executor is the person who carries out the will in India, and the choice matters more for an NRI than for anyone else, because the executor stands in for you in every office.
Live in India
An executor who lives in India can visit the bank, the society and the Sub-Registrar. An executor who lives in the UAE will need a power of attorney for nearly every step.
Younger than you, and healthy
A sibling of the same age may not be around when needed. A grown child, a nephew or a trusted younger relative is often a better choice.
Not in conflict
A beneficiary can be an executor, but if siblings disagree, a neutral person such as a family friend or an advocate may avoid arguments.
Name a substitute
Name a second person in case the first cannot or will not act.
Tell them
The executor should know the will exists, where the original is kept and who to call. Many wills fail in practice because nobody knew where to look.
The executor of your Indian will does not have to be the executor of your DIFC will. In practice we suggest that the two executors have each other's details, because the same family often has to deal with both. For guardianship of minor children, the will records your wish. Indian law and the UAE courts will both apply their own tests, so the wish should be the same in both wills and in any UAE family documents.
Storage, Registration and Changing Your Will Later From Dubai
Do you have to register it?
No. Registration is optional under the Registration Act, 1908, and there is no stamp duty on a will in India. An unregistered will that was signed and witnessed properly is just as valid. What registration adds is evidence: a registered will sits in a government record, which makes it harder to lose, harder to tamper with and easier to prove if a relative challenges it. Registration normally requires the maker to appear before the Sub-Registrar, so most NRIs who want it do it on a visit home.
Deposit as an alternative
The Registration Act also lets a testator deposit a will in a sealed cover with a Registrar, personally or through an authorised agent. If you cannot travel, ask us whether your district's Registrar accepts deposit through an agent in the way the Act describes, because local practice varies.
Where to keep the original
Choose one safe place and tell the executor. Good options are a bank locker in India, a fireproof box with the executor, or deposit with the Registrar. Keep a scanned copy in your own records in the UAE. Do not leave the only original in a UAE bank locker that may be sealed after death, and do not staple or alter the pages.
Changing it later
You can change your Indian will at any time from Dubai. Section 70 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 allows a will to be revoked or changed by a later will or a codicil executed in the same way, with two witnesses, or by destroying the old one with the intention of revoking it. Never write corrections on the signed document. A small change is made by a codicil. A bigger change is made by a new will with proper carve-out wording, which we draft so that the new one does not cancel your UAE will.
When to review it
Review the will when you marry or divorce, when a child is born, when a beneficiary dies, when you buy or sell property in India, and when you renew or change your UAE will. Marriage can affect an existing will under the Act, so a review after marriage is wise.
A will does not replace nominations. A nominee on a bank account, a demat account or a society share is generally treated as a person who holds for the legal heirs, not as the owner. Read nominee vs legal heir before you assume that a nomination makes the will unnecessary.
What Happens When the Will Has to Be Used in India
The point of the will is the day your family needs it. The path is shorter than most people expect, because the will names the people and the assets.
Read more
The executor first collects the death certificate. A death in the UAE is registered with the UAE authorities and also reported to the Indian mission. The usual period for registering the death with India is 21 days, and the mission can confirm the current rule. A UAE death certificate used in India normally needs to go through the UAE foreign ministry and the Indian mission before an Indian office accepts it. Our NRI power of attorney page and the page on power of attorney from the UAE explain how a signed paper travels from the Emirates to an Indian office.
The executor then shows the will to each holder of assets. A bank asks for the will, the death certificate and an indemnity. A society asks for the will or a heirship certificate and the heirs' consent. Probate is no longer compulsory by statute across India, but institutions still commonly ask for it where the property is valuable or where heirs disagree. Our guide to probate of a will for NRIs explains when it is worth filing.
If there is no will, the property passes under succession law, usually through a legal heir certificate or a succession certificate, which means slower paperwork. See legal heir certificate for NRIs and NRI succession certificate for that route. If your family later decides to sell what it inherits, the page on how to sell property in India from Dubai covers the next step.
From First Call in Dubai to a Signed Indian Will: Eight Steps
You do four things yourself: share your details, review the draft, sign in the UAE and tell your executor where the will is. Everything else is done by our team and the advocates.
Call on UAE hours
We speak at a time that works around your shifts. You tell us your family, your UAE will if any, and the Indian assets you can think of. WhatsApp is fine for sharing scans.
Asset and family schedule
We build a list of your Indian assets with their locations, account types and holders, and a list of the people you want to benefit. Gaps are flagged early, such as a joint account or a share in family land.
Read your UAE will
If you have a DIFC or other UAE will, send it. We read its revocation clause and the scope of assets it covers, and we tell you if your UAE lawyer should amend anything.
Draft the Indian will
An advocate drafts the will under Indian law for Indian assets only, with a carve-out that preserves your UAE will, an executor and a substitute, and alternate beneficiaries.
Review from Dubai
You read the draft, ask questions and suggest changes. We repeat until every name, share and property description is right.
Arrange two witnesses
We explain who can and cannot witness. You line up two independent adults, and we give you a signing checklist for the day.
Sign in the UAE
You sign and initial every page in front of both witnesses, who sign and add their names and addresses. You send us scans of every page the same day.
Store, register or deposit, then review
You choose where the original stays. We explain optional registration or deposit in India, record where each copy sits, and set a reminder to review the will when your life changes.
Ready to start? One call confirms your next steps.
Book an assessmentPapers for an Indian Will Made From the UAE
Keep one folder of scans where every name is spelled the same way. A passport that drops a middle name, or an account in a short version of your name, is the usual reason for queries later. Send us the set early so mismatches are fixed before you sign.
From you in the UAE
- Passport, and Emirates ID or residence visa page, as identity and address proof
- Your DIFC or other UAE will, if you have one, and the details of its executor
- Names, relationship and addresses of each person you want to benefit, and an alternate for each
- Name and details of the executor and a substitute you want to appoint in India
- Two independent adults who can be in the room when you sign
- Recent photographs of you, if you plan to register the will in India later
From offices and records in India
- Title deeds, share certificates or allotment letters for each property
- Bank, NRE, NRO and FD details with account numbers and branches
- Demat, mutual fund folio and insurance policy numbers
- Details of any property held jointly, with the names of the co-owners
- PAN and any Aadhaar-linked details that appear on the Indian records
- Family tree or list of legal heirs, which is essential for a Muslim will
Why NRIs in the UAE Hand Their Indian Will to Propresolve
- Built for two wills, not one. Your UAE will and your Indian will are read together, so the cancellation clause is checked before anything is signed.
- Signing explained for Dubai. You get a plain checklist for the witnesses, the pages and the date, so the signing day is short and nothing is missed.
- We work UAE hours. Calls fit around your shifts, and updates go to you on WhatsApp instead of waiting for an email.
- Advocates chosen on track record. The drafting is done by advocates who handle Indian wills, and the page is reviewed by the Propresolve legal team.
Reviewed by the Propresolve legal team. Legal work is carried out by independent advocates enrolled with the Bar Council. Last updated 6 October 2026.
Make Your NRI Will in Dubai and Settle Your Indian Assets
Tell us what you own in India and whether you already hold a DIFC or UAE will. After one call you will know what to sign, who should witness it and how the two wills fit together.
Propresolve is a legal services concierge. Legal work is carried out by independent advocates enrolled with the Bar Council. This page is general information, not legal advice.
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