The UAE Has Lowered the Age of Adulthood to 18: What It Means in Practice

For most of the world, eighteen is the age at which a person becomes a legal adult. In the UAE, that threshold has until recently sat at twenty-one — measured not in Gregorian years but in Hijri lunar years, which added a further layer of complexity. That has now changed. Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025 was issued and published in the Official Gazette in October 2025, with one of its key provisions being the reduction of the age of majority from 21 to 18, granting full legal capacity once an individual reaches 18. The law is expected to enter into force on June 1, 2026.

It is a significant reform — and one that affects expat families, young residents, business owners, and estate planners in ways that are worth understanding clearly.

What Changed, and Why It Matters

The new Civil Transactions Law sees the age of majority lowered from 21 lunar Hijri years to 18 Gregorian years, aligning civil capacity with international norms. Both parts of that sentence matter. The shift from 21 to 18 is the headline, but the move from the Hijri to the Gregorian calendar is equally meaningful in practice. Previously, following the Hijri standard — which adheres to a lunar calendar — often created confusion and ambiguity, since the Gregorian year is 364 or 365 days while the Hijri calendar is about 354 days. For anyone dealing with legal deadlines or age thresholds in a country where most international business runs on the Gregorian calendar, that difference accumulated into real uncertainty. The new law removes it.

The reform aligns with prevailing comparative legal systems, unifies the legal age for full capacity, ensures consistency with other national legislation such as juvenile and labour laws, and harmonises civil and criminal responsibility standards. In other words, this is not an isolated change — it is the final piece of a larger puzzle that the UAE has been assembling for several years. The UAE’s Traffic Law had already reduced the minimum driving age to 17, while the Commercial Transaction Law lowered the age threshold for engaging in trade from 21 to 18, and recent banking practices already permitted individuals aged 18 to open bank accounts independently. The new Civil Transactions Law brings the broader legal framework into line with all of that.

What an 18-Year-Old Can Now Do

The practical change is straightforward: individuals aged 18 are now presumed to have full legal capacity unless a court rules otherwise. What does that mean on the ground? Full civil capacity covers everyday legal acts like signing personal contracts, taking cases to court, and managing property without a guardian.

An 18-year-old in the UAE can now set up companies — forming a mainland or free zone entity as 100% owner without a legal guardian — and open business bank accounts to handle corporate finances and credit facilities independently. They can sign a tenancy agreement in their own name, enter into an employment contract, commit to a phone plan, and be held personally liable for all of it. Banks and fintech apps can now offer products like credit cards or high-value subscriptions to 18-year-olds without needing parental permission.

There is also a notable development at the younger end of the age spectrum. The law lowers the age at which a minor may seek judicial authorisation to manage their assets from 18 Hijri years to 15 Gregorian years, in support of entrepreneurship and youth participation in economic activity within a clear and stable legal framework. This means a fifteen-year-old with inherited assets or a nascent business idea can apply to a court for permission to manage those affairs — a significant step in a country that has been vocal about developing its next generation of entrepreneurs.

What It Means for Expat Families

For expat parents with teenage children in the UAE, the implications are direct and worth sitting with carefully. Expat parents are no longer legally responsible for their child once they turn 18. That shift in liability has practical consequences that can catch families off guard if they have not thought it through.

At 18, a young person can enter binding contracts on their own — including tenancy agreements, employment contracts, phone plans, online subscriptions, and business arrangements — and contracts do not need to be formal to be enforceable: emails, online forms, and app-based agreements can all create legal obligations. A gap year student living in the UAE who signs up for a service, takes on a loan, or agrees to a payment plan is now personally on the hook for it, without a parent’s signature or backstop.

The advice from legal experts to expat families is consistent: have the conversation before the birthday, not after. Make sure an eighteen-year-old understands what legal adulthood actually means in practice — not just the freedoms it brings, but the liabilities it creates.

Inheritance, Wills, and Expat Assets

The new law also touches on one of the more complex areas of UAE legal life for foreign nationals: what happens to assets when an expat dies. A notable development for expatriates concerns the treatment of financial assets located in the UAE that belong to a foreign national who dies without a will and without legal heirs. Under the amended framework, such assets will be treated as a charitable endowment and placed under the supervision of the relevant authority, providing greater clarity compared to the existing framework where outcomes have been less clearly defined.

On inheritance more broadly, the change in the age of majority directly affects estate planning timelines. Beneficiaries who previously could not access an inheritance without a trustee or guardian until the age of 21 can now do so at 18. For families with children approaching adulthood and assets registered in the UAE, reviewing existing will arrangements in light of this change is a sensible precaution.

A Broader Signal

Taken together, the reform is part of a consistent pattern in UAE lawmaking over the past several years: extending legal capacity earlier, aligning domestic legislation with international norms, and reducing bureaucratic friction for young residents and entrepreneurs. The law is designed to strengthen individuals’ rights to manage their own legal and financial affairs, while ensuring safeguards remain in place to prevent exploitation or harm.

For a country that has staked part of its identity on attracting and retaining global talent, making the legal framework legible and consistent for an international audience is not incidental — it is deliberate policy. The reduction of the age of majority to 18, measured in the calendar the rest of the world uses, is a small but clear expression of that direction.