How to Get a TECOM NOC in Dubai: Step-by-Step 2026

Three checks belong before any drawing work is commissioned. Skipping them is what turns a two-week approval into a two-month one.

1. Confirm the community and the governing rules. Identify which TECOM community the unit sits in — Internet City, Media City, Knowledge Park, d3, Studio City or DIAC — and obtain that community's specific design guidelines. The base DDA building control rules are common across all of them, but the community overlay is not, and d3 in particular applies significantly stricter shopfront and signage criteria.

2. Verify the trade licence activity against your intended use. A fit-out designed for an activity not listed on the licence is rejected regardless of technical quality. This catches tenants who have changed business model mid-lease — an office being fitted with a commercial kitchen, or a retail unit being converted to F&B. If there is a mismatch, the licence amendment or Change of Use has to happen first.

3. Verify contractor TECOM registration — before appointing. The contractor must hold current registration before the NOC can be released. Checking this at kick-off costs nothing. Discovering it after drawings are approved forces either a wait or a contractor change with commercial terms already agreed.

Start the landlord NOC now, not later. In multi-tenant towers the building management NOC runs in parallel with drawing preparation. It is frequently the slowest item, and it is the one most often left until submission time. The wording must describe your actual scope — a generic "fit-out permitted" letter is routinely rejected.

Drawings must be prepared to DDA Circular 400 and stamped by a DDA-registered consultant. Dubai Municipality registration does not substitute and is checked before technical review begins.

The package typically contains:

• Architectural layouts — existing condition and proposed
• Reflected ceiling plan showing lighting, diffusers, sprinkler heads and detectors
• MEP drawings — electrical single line and load calculation, HVAC, plumbing and drainage
• Fire strategy — sprinkler layout, detection layout, escape route plan
• Occupancy load and means-of-escape calculations shown on the drawings
• Consultant stamp and undertaking

The Circular 400 conventions that trip up new consultants:

• Monochrome DWF output format
• Yellow clouding for previously approved areas not being modified
• Red clouding for new proposed works
• Discipline-Level-Serial naming — for example A-G-001 for Ground Floor Architecture

The clouding exists so the reviewer can see instantly what changed against the approved baseline. Submitting without it forces a manual comparison and gets the set returned administratively — before anyone looks at your design.

Open the Civil Defence package now if fire systems are affected. This is the single largest programme decision in the whole process. The DCD application does not depend on the TECOM NOC being issued first. Running them in parallel keeps the total at 14–21 working days; running them in sequence pushes it toward six weeks.

Submissions go through the TECOM/AXS portal, not Dubai Municipality's BPS system. This is a different portal with a different account structure, and access is tied to the tenant entity.

What the portal expects at submission:

• The complete drawing set in the specified format and naming convention
• Trade licence and lease agreement
• Passport and Emirates ID of the authorised signatory
• Building management NOC where the tower requires one
• Contractor trade licence and TECOM registration evidence
• Consultant stamp and undertaking

Practical portal points:

Account access. The application is filed under the tenant entity. If your consultant submits on your behalf, the authorisation needs to be in place before submission — not resolved mid-application.

File naming is enforced. Incorrectly named files are rejected administratively. This sounds trivial and is a genuinely common cause of a wasted day.

Completeness beats speed. A partial submission intended to "get in the queue" does not hold a queue position in any useful way. Admin rejection resets you, and you resubmit as a new application. It is always faster to submit complete.

Reference number. Record the application reference at submission — you need it for tracking, for comment responses, and for every subsequent conversation with the authority.

After admin acceptance the submission goes to technical review. Two outcomes: approved, or returned with comments.

Comments are normal and are not a rejection. A first-round comment set on a complex retail or F&B fit-out is routine. What matters is how you respond.

Responding correctly:

• Address every comment explicitly, including ones you disagree with — an unanswered comment stalls the whole resubmission
• Revise the drawings and update the clouding to reflect what changed
• Provide a written response schedule mapping each comment to the drawing revision that resolves it
• Resubmit under the same application reference

Why the response schedule matters. Reviewers work through a queue. A resubmission with a clear comment-by-comment response is verified quickly. A resubmission that just attaches revised drawings forces the reviewer to re-derive what you changed, which takes longer and invites further comments.

Protecting your queue position. Responding under the same reference keeps your place. Starting a fresh application because the first one "went quiet" puts you at the back — this is a genuinely costly mistake and a surprisingly common one.

Typical review durations: standard office fit-out 7–14 working days; full permit with MEP and fire systems 14–21 working days. Each comment round adds roughly 3–7 working days depending on how substantial the revision is.

If your submission has come back with comments you are not sure how to resolve, our TECOM rejection guide covers the common causes and their fixes.

NOC issue. Once technical review clears and contractor registration is verified, the NOC is released. This is the document your contractor needs to move.

Gate passes and site access. With the NOC in hand, contractor gate passes and site access are arranged through building management. Expect conditions attached:

• Permitted working hours, which tighten during Ramadan and the summer midday ban period
• Service lift booking slots — often the practical bottleneck in a busy tower
• Debris removal routes and timing
• Contractor insurance evidence meeting the community's requirement
• Protection of common areas — lift lobbies, corridors, flooring

During works. Keep the approved drawings on site. Deviating from them without an approved variation is what turns a clean completion inspection into a reinstatement conversation.

Completion inspection and permit closure. This is the stage tenants skip once the space is usable, and it causes problems later:

• An open permit surfaces at licence renewal
• It blocks any future permit application on the same unit
• Building management will not release the security deposit without a final inspection

Book the completion inspection as part of the construction programme, not as an afterthought. The permit is formally closed by the inspection and completion certificate.

Renewal and variations. If works extend beyond the permit validity, apply for an extension before it lapses — a lapsed permit is materially harder to deal with than an extended one. If scope changes during construction, a variation submission is required; carrying on and regularising afterwards costs more.

Our TECOM approval service runs all five stages, including the completion certificate most tenants forget.