To check a creator's UAE Advertiser Permit, search their account name or permit number on Verify Advertiser Permit, a public page on the services portal of the National Media Authority (NMA), formerly the UAE Media Council. Its interface reports whether a permit is verified and the date it is valid until. Run the search before a contract is signed and compare that date with the last posting date in your plan. The permit number then goes into the agreement. A creator in the UAE on a visit visa holds a different permit, applied for only through a licensed UAE agency, and your contract is with that agency.
Why the check sits with the business
The NMA's Guide for the Permit to Regulate Advertising Content on Social Media lists what a business must do when it contracts a person to advertise. The first duty reads: "Contract only with a permit holder listed in the Council's public database." The next is to "Ensure the permit holder complies with all conditions." The guide still calls the regulator the Council.
The first duty is worded around the contract, so the search comes before signature and before a brief is shared. If the search comes after signing and finds no permit, the business already holds a contract the guide told it not to make.
The Media Law adds a wider principle. Article 12(6) of Federal Decree-Law No. 55 of 2023 says: "The party responsible for electronic and digital media activity shall bear responsibility for what is published through this activity, whether the activity is permitted or not permitted." Who that party is in a given campaign is a question for counsel. The guide's duties are plainer, and they are why we check every creator's permit before a brief goes out in our creator and trade partnerships. Who needs the permit, and how a creator applies for one, is set out in our guide to the UAE Advertiser Permit.
Running the search
The page is at services.nma.gov.ae/verifyAdvertiserPermit, and its interface describes the tool as a way to "Check the validity of an advertiser license or permit." It searches by account name or by permit number, and it asks for the platform. The platform list reads Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, LinkedIn, TikTok and Other.
Ask the creator for the permit number in writing, then search the number and the account name. Repeat the searches for each platform in the brief, since the search takes a platform. A creator who will post the campaign on Instagram and TikTok gets 2 sets of searches.
In the interface text, a positive result reads "Permit Verified", shown with "Valid until" and a date. The interface also carries 2 negative results, "Permit Not Verified" and "Account Not Verified". Neither is a basis for a brief. Ask the creator to resolve the result, and brief only once a new search shows a verified permit. Save each result with the date you ran it.
Matching the result to your dates and paperwork
The date matters as much as the status. Compare "Valid until" with the last posting date in the brief. If the permit ends before the campaign does, the posts that fall after that date wait for a new search that shows a later date.
Then put the check on paper. The guide tells a business to "Sign a written agreement with the advertiser and provide a copy to the Council upon request." An agreement that records the permit number, the account names, the platforms searched and the date of the search shows what was checked, if the NMA ever asks for that copy.
Agencies carry a longer record. Advertising and talent management agencies must keep organised records for 3 years, starting with the names of the permit holders they contract and copies of the advertising content those holders publish. The records also hold detailed information about each client entity, such as its commercial licence and legal documents. A business that hires creators through an agency should expect to be asked for those documents, because the agency has to keep them on file.
When the creator is a visitor
A creator in the UAE on a visit visa needs the Visitor Advertiser Permit. The NMA grants it to individuals "entering the UAE on a visit visa who wish to offer advertising content through social media platforms, whether for monetary or non-monetary purposes." The creator cannot apply alone, because "Applications for the Visitor Advertiser Permit must be submitted exclusively through licensed advertising or talent management agencies in the UAE." The guide also tells a business to avoid unauthorised visiting advertisers.
So the first check is on the agency. The NMA publishes its list of accredited advertising and talent management agencies on the Visitor Advertiser Permit page. On 18 October 2026 the list named 4 agencies. It can change, so read it on the day you sign.
The order of work changes too. The NMA's page says the contract must be "between the advertiser's client and the UAE-based agency acting as a representative of the visitor". The agency files the application with the relevant contract attached, and that contract names the client as well as the visitor and the agency. The application cannot go in until you have signed. The guide adds that the contract between the visitor and the agency "must assign legal responsibility to the agency." The NMA's service page lists a fee of AED 500 and a decision in 3 working days.
Then plan the dates. The permit is valid for 3 months, and the NMA's page allows extensions provided the total does not exceed 6 months, subject to the renewal fee. The guide describes a single extension of 3 months. A posting plan longer than 6 months cannot sit on 1 visitor permit, and any post after the first 3 months depends on an extension granted in time. Get the permit's dates and any extension from the agency in writing, and hold the posts until you have them.
What a verified permit leaves open
A clean search tells you the permit is verified and in date. It does not label the post. Article 20(2) of the Media Law says: "All advertisers must include in all advertising materials something that explicitly and clearly indicates that it is advertising material." That applies whatever the search returned, and our page on the rules every UAE ad must follow covers it with the other content conditions.
Nor does a search stand in for a sector approval. Article 33(10) of the Executive Regulation, Cabinet Resolution No. 68 of 2024, requires the concerned authority's approval for ads in real estate, health, finance, education and food, among others. A clinic campaign with a verified creator still waits for its healthcare advertising approval.
The guide also asks a business to "Preserve national identity and cultural heritage by using Emirati talent or individuals fluent in the Emirati dialect." That is a casting decision, made before the shortlist, and no search answers it.
The NMA's pages leave 1 more point open, whether a company's own brand account needs a permit. If creator content will also run from your brand account, put that question to counsel before it does.
Sources
- National Media Authority, Guide for the Permit to Regulate Advertising Content on Social Media, 2026
- National Media Authority services portal, Verify Advertiser Permit, accessed October 2026
- National Media Authority, Visitor Advertiser Permit, updated 21 July 2026
- National Media Authority, permit for visiting individuals (service page), updated 15 July 2026
- National Media Authority, Media legislation, including Federal Decree-Law No. 55 of 2023 on Media Regulation
- UAE Cabinet, Resolution No. 68 of 2024, Executive Regulation of the Media Law (Arabic text hosted by the NMA)
- National Media Authority (WAM), decree-law establishing the Authority, 18 December 2025
Last reviewed 23 October 2026.
