Getting Your DHA License from Pakistan: A Guide for Pakistani Nurses

Pakistan is one of the largest source countries for nurses heading to the Gulf, and the good news is that you can complete most of the DHA licensing journey from Pakistan, without travelling to Dubai first. This guide walks through how it works for a Pakistan-based registered nurse.

The key reassurance: you can do this from home

Two facts make the process manageable from Pakistan:

• The DHA application is online.You create your profile, upload documents and track progress through the DHA's Sheryan portal from anywhere in Pakistan.
• The exam is available locally. The DHA exam is delivered by Prometric, which operates test centres in Pakistan — so you can sit the exam here rather than in Dubai.

You typically only need to be in Dubai later, once you have an employer and are moving for the job itself. The licensing steps are done remotely.

Before anything else: what your award makes you

This is the step to settle first, because it is free to check now and expensive to discover late. The UAE does not read your job title or your home register — it assigns a professional title from the qualification you hold, using the Unified Professional Qualification Requirements the DHA shares with Abu Dhabi's DOH and MOHAP. Two rows on that table decide most Pakistani applications: Registered Nurseexpects a bachelor's degree in nursing with a minimum duration of three years, and a nursing diploma of not less than 18 months maps to Assistant Nurse.

The trap is a vocabulary collision. The PNMC registers Registered Nurses, and a Pakistani diploma holder is one — correctly, at home. That is a different sentence from the UAE's Registered Nurse, and the two systems use the same words for different things.

Which row you land on largely tracks when you trained. Pakistan has been moving its entry route to the four-year BSN and closing the school-leaver diploma behind it, so nurses who qualified before that shift are the ones most exposed to this — and they are also the group most likely to have been told, by an agent or a colleague, that a Post-RN BSN settles it. It may. The point is that nobody outside the DHA can tell you it does.

We do not promise an outcome here, because that call belongs to the DHA and not to a website. What we can tell you is that this site's analysis of the same problem in the Indian market — where the Post Basic B.Sc is also a two-year degree taken on top of a diploma — sits in the diploma and post-basic degree guide, including the full-time and distance-learning traps that catch this route specifically. The wider picture, including experience and gap-of-practice rules, is in the eligibility guide.

Local Prometric test centres

Prometric has authorised test centres in Pakistan's major cities. Commonly cited locations include:

• Karachi
• Lahore
• Islamabad

You book your seat at whichever centre is most convenient after you receive your DHA eligibility confirmation. Always check the current list of active centres and available seats on prometric.com when you book, as locations and availability can change.

The sequence, step by step

The process for a Pakistani nurse follows the same overall DHA journey, adapted to local documents:

1. Confirm eligibility and gather documents

Settle the title question above first — it decides which category you are applying in. Then prepare your core documents, which typically include:

• Pakistan Nursing & Midwifery Council (PNMC) registration — your nursing (and, where relevant, midwifery) registration
• Nursing qualification and transcripts — your BScN degree or nursing diploma and mark sheets from your institution
• Certificate of Good Standing issued by the PNMC (see our Good Standing guide)
• Employment / experience certificates from your hospitals or employers
• Passport and passport photo
• English proficiency results if required for your case

Pakistani nursing programmes are largely English-medium, which often helps, but confirm the current English requirement for your situation on Sheryan.

2. Create your Sheryan account and submit

Register on Sheryan, complete the self-assessment/eligibility step, and upload your documents. Make sure your name is spelled identicallyacross your PNMC registration, degree, mark sheets and passport — mismatches are the most common cause of delays. Pakistani documents sometimes vary in how the father's name or middle names are recorded, so reconcile these before you submit.

3. DataFlow Primary Source Verification (PSV)

Your documents go to the DataFlow Group, which contacts your college/university, the PNMC and your past employers directlyto confirm authenticity. This is usually the longest stage, and responses from Pakistani institutions can take several weeks. Make sure your institution's records office and the PNMC hold current contact details, and that former employers know a verification request is coming. See our DataFlow guide for how to avoid rejections.

4. Receive your DHA eligibility ID / Authorization to Test (ATT)

Once your eligibility is confirmed and verification is progressing, you receive your DHA eligibility number / ATT. This is what unlocks exam booking.

5. Book and sit the Prometric exam in Pakistan

Log in to prometric.com, choose your city, and pick your date. Bring a valid original passport whose name matches your booking exactly, arrive early, and expect biometric/ID checks at the centre. See our exam-format guide for the full test-day logistics. Exact question count, duration and pass mark should be confirmed against the current official DHA blueprint.

6. Pass, register, and activate with an employer

After you pass, your result feeds into your DHA record, allowing DHA registration. The final licence activation step is normally completed by your Dubai employer in Sheryan once you have a job offer — this is typically the point at which your move to Dubai becomes concrete.

A realistic timeline

Timelines vary case by case, but a rough planning picture for a Pakistan-based applicant looks like:

• Eligibility evaluation: often a few weeks after submitting a complete profile.
• DataFlow PSV: commonly several weeks, sometimes longer, depending on how fast your institution, the PNMC and employers respond.
• Exam booking and sitting: once you have your eligibility ID, scheduling depends on available seats in your chosen city.
• Overall: many applicants describe the licensing portion taking roughly 6–10+ weeks end to end, driven mostly by verification speed.

Treat these as indicative — a slow-responding institution can extend things, so start early and build in buffer.

Practical tips for Pakistani applicants

• Start your PNMC Good Standing and DataFlow early, since verification is the main bottleneck.
• Match your name everywhere (PNMC registration, degree, transcripts, passport). If you have a maiden-name/married-name difference or inconsistent middle names, prepare supporting documents such as an affidavit.
• Keep certified copies of your registration, degree, transcripts and Good Standing ready in good-quality scans.
• Confirm fees and requirements on the official DHA Sheryan portal and prometric.com before paying — amounts and rules change over time.
• Line up an employer for the final activation step; the licence is fully active once a Dubai facility activates it.

The bottom line

A Pakistani nurse can complete the DHA licensing journey — application, verification and exam — from Pakistan, sitting the Prometric exam in a city like Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad, and only heading to Dubai once employment and licence activation come together. Do it in order, start your PNMC verification early, keep your documents consistent, and confirm the live details on the official portals. For the general walkthrough, see the step-by-step DHA nurse license process.

The one thing worth doing out of order is the title check. Everything else on this page costs money in a sequence; the Self Assessment costs nothing and tells you which sequence you are in. Attestation and the PNMC verification chain — HEC or IBCC first, then MOFA, then the UAE mission — work identically for Dubai and are set out in detail in the Abu Dhabi guide for Pakistani nurses.

Official sources

• Dubai Health Authority — the Sheryan licensing portal and its free Self Assessment Tool: services.dha.gov.ae/sheryan
• Professional Qualification Requirements — the unified document the DHA shares with the DOH and MOHAP, carrying the nurse title rows: doh.gov.ae/en/pqr
• Pakistan Nursing and Midwifery Council — registration, verification and good standing: pnmc.gov.pk, with programme durations and entry routes at the admission criteria page
• DataFlow Group — Primary Source Verification: dataflowgroup.com
• Prometric — current test centres, seat availability and booking: prometric.com