UAE 2025 Foster Law opens fostering to expatriate families

Key facts

• Federal Decree-Law No. 12 of 2025 fundamentally reshaping who can foster and how fostering works across the country.
• Fostering in the UAE is open not only to Muslim nationals but also to expatriate families of any nationality and religion, provided they meet the eligibility criteria.
• Any married couple, Muslim or non-Muslim, Emirati or expatriate, aged 25 years or older, may apply.
• Single women aged 30+ from any nationality or religion may also foster.
• The law applies specifically to children of unknown parentage.
• Foster parents are strictly prohibited from imposing their cultural or religious beliefs on foster children.
• Fostered children retain their legal identity and personal status as registered under the UAE state.
• Foster families do not gain inheritance rights, as fostering remains a custodial, not adoptive, arrangement.