SIRA requirements for security staffing in Dubai

A security guard working the front desk of a five-star hotel in Dubai is there because three separate approvals lined up first: the company that employs him holds a licence from the Security Industry Regulatory Agency (SIRA) to provide security services, he personally holds a Security Cadre Card in the category of Security Guard, and the hotel's camera system passed a technical audit before anyone switched it on. Miss any one of the three and the arrangement breaks Law No. (12) of 2016 Regulating the Security Industry in the Emirate of Dubai, whatever the guard's own competence.

SIRA was established by decree of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in 2016, given legal personality as a Government of Dubai entity, and set up to replace the older Law No. (24) of 2008 on the same subject. It absorbed the former Department of Protective Systems and now licenses four separate things: who may guard, who may train a guard, what camera or alarm equipment may be fitted, and what a bank, hotel or tower block must run whether the owner likes the cost or not.

The company needs its own licence, not just a trade licence

Article 17 of the 2016 law is direct about who may work in the sector. A Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism trade licence carrying a security activity code is a separate document, and it does not by itself satisfy the article. The two are not the same. SIRA's own trading-activities register lists thirteen licensed security activities, among them General Security Guard Services (code 8010013), Event Security and Bodyguard Services (8010001), Money and Valuables Transport Services (8010002), Security Systems Audit (7120006) and Security Consultancies (7490017). A company adds the relevant code to its trade licence, then applies to SIRA for the licence Article 17 requires.

Fitting the guard's card to a category

Once a company holds the right activity, it can put people on staff, but each one needs a Security Cadre Card in a specific category before starting work. SIRA publishes thirteen categories, from Security Guard up to Security Consultant, each with its own age band, its own course and its own fee. A card is valid for two years.

Every category below Security Expert and Security Consultant can be reached without a degree; the ladder runs on courses and years worked. A Security Expert needs a bachelor's degree and ten years in the field, or fifteen years without the degree, plus a knowledge test passed at 70% or above. A Security Consultant needs the same educational floor plus two tests, knowledge and system design, each cleared at 70% or above, sat at an approved centre.

The paperwork behind the card

Every cadre category needs an Emirates ID, a valid residency visa and a certificate of good conduct issued by Dubai Police and addressed specifically to SIRA. A Security Guard or Money Transport Guard needs more: a physical fitness certificate valid for three months, a fire safety certificate, a life support certificate and a certificate in dealing with people of determination, all from an approved training centre.

Two conditions catch people out in practice. A guard's residency has to sit with the company that employs him. A person cannot be licensed as security staff while their visa is sponsored by someone else, even where they happen to own that other company. And a card only ever belongs to one employer. If the contract ends for any reason, it is the company's security manager who is obliged to withdraw the card and file its cancellation through the e-services portal. Not the guard.

Training runs through a certified centre, not the company

SIRA does not accept in-house training for any cadre category. Every named course, from the guard course to the systems engineer, technician and consultant courses, has to be completed at one of the Security Training Centers the agency has certified. A company that wants to train its own new hires still sends them to one of these centres. It cannot substitute its own induction for the qualification.

Getting a camera or alarm system past SIRA

A camera or alarm system clears two separate approvals before it may run, and both are SIRA's, not the installer's own sign-off. The first is a Security Plan Certificate, applied for with a trade licence, a planning map and a project plan, and it has to carry the stamp of both a security consultancy company and a security systems installation company. As published on SIRA's e-services portal in September 2026, this step costs AED 120 in total (AED 100 service fee, plus AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation fees) and takes three business days.

Installation is not the finish line. Only after the system is physically installed does the second approval apply: a security audit, which has to pass before the system, or the activity it protects, is allowed to operate. SIRA's own service page warns plainly that carrying on regardless invites a violation and a fine. Passing the audit clears the way for a Security System Certificate, a further AED 120, two-business-day step.

Only equipment on SIRA's own approved lists

An installer is not free to fit whichever camera or lock a client prefers. SIRA maintains its own certified-devices catalogue, covering cameras, recorders and video management systems, alarm panels, door contacts, motion sensors, IP modules, padlocks and vehicle security bollards, last refreshed on the agency's information centre pages on 15 April 2026. A device that is not on the relevant list cannot be the one written into an approved Security Plan Certificate, whatever its specification sheet claims.

What a Vital Sector or Major Compound is obliged to run

The law names two categories of premises carrying heavier obligations than an ordinary shop or office. Vital Sectors, under Article 2, are banks, money exchange houses, gold and jewellery shops, hotels, shopping malls and hospitals. Major Compounds are residential or office compounds, including buildings, towers and villa compounds. Article 20 leaves the technical specification for each to the Implementing Bylaw, and SIRA separately publishes a detailed requirements document for each of fifty-nine listed activity types.

Hotels are the one published in English, in a version dated 27 February 2023, and the detail is specific rather than aspirational. Five, four and three-star hotels, together with luxury and tourist hotel apartments, must run an IP-based camera system rather than an analogue one, recorded at no less than 1080p and ten frames per second per camera, kept on file for at least thirty-one days. Automatic number-plate recognition cameras, of a model SIRA has approved, are required at every vehicle entrance and exit.

Five and four-star properties carry a staffing obligation on top of the cameras: a security manager, a security operations manager or supervisor, and a security guard or building watchman, each on a 24-hour basis, plus a dedicated operations room wired to communicate with guards, hotel management and the emergency services. Female guards are required where the hotel's own risk assessment calls for them.

The running obligation sits with whoever owns the building, not only the fitting of the system. Recorded footage cannot be switched off because it is inconvenient. SIRA's Facility Services process requires a formal request backed by the trade licence, and for a partial shutdown, a store layout showing exactly which camera or alarm zone is affected. A permanent disconnection needs a no-objection certificate tied to cancelling the licence or removing the activity, not an email to the installer.

The fine sits between two numbers

Article 21 of the 2016 law originally set a fine of no less than AED 10,000 and no more than AED 500,000 for any breach of the law, its bylaw or a SIRA resolution. Law No. (3) of 2018 rewrote the article and dropped the floor, leaving only a ceiling: no more than AED 500,000, doubled on repeat within a year, capped at AED 1,000,000. The exact figure for a given breach is set by a resolution of the Chairman of Dubai's Executive Council, not by the law's own text.

One exception is built into the guard side of the system for the gap between hiring and passing a course. If a new recruit has not yet cleared the required training, you can apply for a Trainee Permit instead of the full card. It runs for ninety days, cannot be renewed, can only be issued once per person, and costs AED 120.