Dubai in 2026: what changed on 28 February, and what the British government actually says now

Between February and April 2026, the number of people searching for how to move to Dubai from Britain fell by roughly four fifths. It has not recovered in the four months since.

That is a fact from our own keyword exports rather than an impression, and it is the reason this page exists. The guides ranking for that question were written before the fall and read as though nothing had happened.

Search demand for moving to Dubai from the UK fell by four fifths in two months

The phrase `moving to dubai from the uk` ran at 5 400 monthly searches in November 2025 and 2 400 in February 2026. In March it was 1 300. In April it was 880, and it has been 880 in each of May, June and July.

This is a step, not a season. The parent phrase `moving to dubai` moved with it — 9 900 a month through February, then 5 400 in March and 4 400 from May onward. `british living in dubai` went from 590 in March to 140 in April.

And it is specific to the Emirates. We checked a control in the same export and the same months: `moving to portugal` shows no step at all, running between 4 400 and 9 900 throughout. Whatever happened, it happened to the Gulf and not to the relocation category.

Strikes on the United Arab Emirates began on 28 February 2026

The timing is not a coincidence. Iranian strikes on the United Arab Emirates began on 28 February 2026, in the course of the wider conflict of that year. A ceasefire was reached on 8 April 2026.

Targets over that period included Dubai International Airport, Jebel Ali Port and a residential tower in Dubai Marina. Thirteen people were killed and 224 of thirty-one nationalities were injured.

Those figures are attributed rather than ours. We take them from the public record of the episode; we did not verify casualty counts at a primary source and we are not going to present them as our own finding. What we did verify at source is the part below, because it is the part that governs a decision.

British travel advice for the UAE carries no advisory against travel

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office publishes travel advice for the United Arab Emirates. Read on 9 September 2026, it says it was "Updated: 24 July 2026", and describes that update as:

> "Updated information about regional tensions, including information about recent strikes and retaliatory attacks by Iran"

On the current situation it states:

> "Since 8 July there have been strikes and retaliatory attacks by Iran in a number of locations across the region against US military and civilian infrastructure."

It tells travellers to prepare for "possible flight cancellations, periodic airspace closures". And it says:

> "Do not approach or touch any drone or missile fragments or unusual objects."

And it carries no advisory against travel. Not "advise against all travel", not "against all but essential travel". We checked for that explicitly, because the absence is half of what the page says.

So the position, stated without characterising it: a British citizen's own government does not advise against going to the United Arab Emirates, and on the same page asks them not to touch missile fragments. Both halves are on gov.uk, and both are quoted above.

Why this page does not tell you whether Dubai is safe

Because we are not in a position to know, and neither is any relocation firm whose business depends on the answer.

What we can do is name the instrument that is in a position: the FCDO page, which is maintained by people with access we do not have, carries a date, and changes. It changed on 24 July. It may have changed again between this sentence being written and your reading it — which is precisely why the useful thing is the link and the date rather than our summary of it.

This page will also not tell you the situation is over. The ceasefire was in April; the travel advice describes strikes since 8 July. Anyone telling you the file is closed is telling you something the British government's own page does not say.

What did not change: the UAE tax rules and the residence routes

Nothing in the tax position moved. The United Arab Emirates levies no personal income tax, the UK–UAE convention signed on 12 April 2016 remains in force, and its residence article still turns on domicile, habitual abode and centre of vital interests rather than on nationality. The two tests that actually decide a British person's tax outcome are set out in moving to Dubai from the UK.

The Emirati residence routes and what each requires are unchanged too, as far as we have read them, and they are in our UAE guide.

One honest gap. We have not checked whether any Emirati visa rule changed after February, and so we say nothing about it in either direction. When we read that, it will appear on our changes page with the date it was read, like everything else.

Questions

Where this sits in the rest of the site

The British tax position, which did not change, is in moving to Dubai from the UK. The Emirati routes and thresholds are in our UAE guide. Every instrument this site has read has its own line, with the date it was read, on our sources page, and every change we have recorded is on the changes page.