Non-Muslim expatriate residents can file for divorce in their home country (domicile) or apply for divorce in the UAE.

If the parties wish to have the law of their home country applied, they may petition for this before the court. Article 1 of the Federal Law No 28 of 2005 for Personal Affairs, as amended states: The provisions of this Law shall apply on citizens of the United Arab Emirates State unless non-Muslims among them have special provisions applicable to their community or confession. They shall equally apply to non-citizens unless one of them asks for the application of his law. This means that relevant parties may ask to apply their own laws to personal status matters.

It also provides: The law of the state of which the husband is a national at the time the marriage is contracted shall apply to the effects on personal status and the effects with regards to property resulting from contracting of the marriage.

Whenever the law of the parties' home country fails to cover an aspect of the divorce procedure, the courts hold discretion to apply the UAE law.