What DOH Announced
The Department of Health Abu Dhabi (DOH) has asked every healthcare professional with a pending HPREG application to complete any outstanding actions by 13 November 2026, ahead of a new registration journey on TAMM, Abu Dhabi's government services platform. HPREG is DOH's Healthcare Professional Registration, the application you file to be licensed in Abu Dhabi.
DOH says the enhanced journey is designed to make licensing clearer from start to finish. Under it, four things change:
- You submit your qualifications, experience, licences and supporting documents through TAMM
- Primary Source Verification (PSV) becomes part of the application itself
- Where applicable, verification and exam requirements can progress within the same journey
- Once you complete the credentialing review, verification and any required exam, you receive a DOH Credentialing/Eligibility Letter and move to the facility hiring stage
The DOH Eligibility Letter Is New
For the first time, DOH will issue a Credentialing/Eligibility Letter, after you complete the credentialing review, verification and any required exam under the new journey. Until now, DOH has not issued an eligibility letter. DHA in Dubai and MOHAP in the Northern Emirates do, but in Abu Dhabi your status was updated on your DOH profile and the licence was completed once a facility hired you.
The new letter changes the order of things. You hold a document from DOH that confirms your credentialing is complete, and only then move to the hiring stage with an Abu Dhabi facility. That brings DOH in line with how DHA and MOHAP already work (see how the three UAE authorities compare).
Current Process vs the New TAMM Journey
The biggest change is that verification, credentialing and the exam move into one application, and the journey ends with a letter you hold before you have a job offer.
| Step | Current process | New TAMM journey |
|---|---|---|
| Documents | Submitted on your HPREG application | Qualifications, experience, licences and supporting documents submitted through TAMM |
| Primary Source Verification | Opened as its own step alongside the application | Part of the application process |
| Exam | A separate step you book and sit | Can progress within the same journey, where applicable |
| What you receive | No letter; your status is updated on your DOH profile | A DOH Credentialing/Eligibility Letter |
| Next step | Licence completed once an Abu Dhabi facility hires you | Facility hiring stage, through the new process |
The full current process, step by step, is in our DOH licence guide.
The 13 November 2026 Deadline
If you have a pending HPREG application, DOH asks you to complete every outstanding action available to you by 13 November 2026. That covers three kinds of action:
- Documents or information DOH has requested through your application
- Pending payments, where they apply
- Any other action currently requested from you in the application journey
If your application is already progressing with DOH or a third party, for example at the verification or exam stage, and nothing is requested from you, you do not need to do anything now. DOH says it will notify you if further action becomes necessary, and that it will share more on how pending applications are handled during the transition.
Not sure whether your application has an open action? Message our licensing team and we will go through it with you.
What DOH Has Not Announced Yet
The notice leaves five practical questions open, and we would rather tell you that than guess:
- The launch date of the new journey on TAMM
- How pending applications will be handled during the transition
- Fees under the new journey; today's fees are in our UAE licensing cost guide
- How long the new letter stays valid once it is issued
- Whether verification you already completed carries into the new journey
We will add each answer here as DOH confirms it.
Why Some Guides Say DOH Already Issues One
Several licensing guides online describe a "DOH eligibility letter" after the exam, but DOH has not issued one until now. The confusion has two likely sources. The eligibility letter is a long-standing part of DHA licensing, and guides that cover several authorities often carry the DHA steps over to Abu Dhabi. The word "eligibility" is also used loosely for earlier steps, such as checking whether you qualify or being cleared to sit the exam.
If you passed your DOH exam and waited for a letter that never came, nothing was missing from your file. The letter DOH is introducing now is new.
What This Means If You Want to Work in Abu Dhabi
The main gain is one document from DOH you can show employers before you have a job offer, the way DHA and MOHAP candidates already can.
- One journey: documents, verification, credentialing and the exam sit in a single application on TAMM, rather than separate steps
- Proof before hiring: the letter comes first, then the facility hiring stage
- Same rules: the notice is about the process, not the requirements, so the qualification and experience rules in our licensing guides by profession still apply
Many professionals license in Dubai first and add Abu Dhabi later. A DOH letter that works the way DHA's does should make that second step easier to plan.
How Our Licensing Team Can Help
We are based in Abu Dhabi and DOH licensing is at the core of our work, so we are following this change closely. If you have a pending HPREG application, we can go through it with you before the 13 November 2026 deadline. If you are planning to apply, start with a free eligibility assessment and we will tell you where you stand and how the new journey affects your timing.
Ready to talk it through? Reach out to our licensing team.
We manage UAE medical licensing end to end: DHA, DOH, MOHAP and SHA. Eligibility, DataFlow, Prometric and submission, with placement to follow.
Explore licensing assistance →New to DOH licensing? Start with our DOH licence guide, compare DHA, DOH and MOHAP, or see how we support healthcare recruitment and DOH licensing in Abu Dhabi.