Desk research against primary sources. Figures are traced to the issuing UAE authority and linked on the page.
Whether you sit a driving test at all is decided entirely by the approved exchange list, not by how long you have held your licence or how you drive — someone from one of the 40+ listed countries walks through an eye test and paperwork, while someone from a country not on it faces the same full course as a first-time learner regardless of years of experience elsewhere. Check the current list before planning around either route.
The two paths differ by an order of magnitude in both time and cost, which is why confirming your status matters before you commit to either budget. Exchanging directly runs to roughly AED 900–1,200 in fees; taking the full RTA course instead means 20–40 lessons and AED 4,000–8,000, a genuinely different undertaking rather than a slower version of the same process — so guessing your eligibility rather than checking it can leave you budgeted for the wrong route entirely.