How to request a car colour change in Dubai from my experience.

[Benjamin]

Good evening, all. 

Many who have driven with me knows that my car carries 3 different colours (primary silver, secondary red, and thirdly yellow).

In relation to this I have been meaning to write a post to help anyone looking to add a new colour or colour's to their car.

To begin with I originally thought I could just slap any colour I wanted onto the car (even if it was only tiny little stripes; this is not the case). Recently I had to get a new Mulkia for my car this meant I had to visit a Tajeel center which failed due to incorrect colour information. So how would someone avoid the process of taking off stickers or potentially gain a large fine for driving a car that is seen as a UFO in the eyes of RTA. This is a long process which should not be overlooked ensure you do everything legally before changing the colour of your car.

1. To begin with the first thing your going to want to do is visit the Dubai Police Vehicle impound Yard in Warsan 2 located here https://goo.gl/maps/ZK1mWcJt7Kotb6k27, 
2. Then you will want to meet the receptionist there and say your visiting to get a colour change request who will likely point you to a CID officer ensure they know its for non-commercial purposes. Now in my case after speaking to the CID officer and expressing concerns over having two new colours added onto the car he pointed me towards using the Dubai police app, he also told me to get the stickers put on before requesting onto the app which seemed to be taking a expensive risk. 
3. Get the stickers or paint job done to your car. 
4. Once your happy with your new colours and preferably your car is still under studio lighting within a workshop I recommend heading to the Dubai police app which is available on IOS and android devices 

• Once within the app navigate to 'services' and scroll all the way down until you reach 'traffic services' from here click into 'vehicle change colour request' 

• You will then be greeted with this request page, fill out all the credentials, photos and videos, then submit it to Dubai police this will in turn cost a fee which I think it was 140 dhs. 
• NOTE: Be very careful submitting this form, ensure the current colour matches the Mulkia, if you're adding onto your primary colour make sure 'colour 1' is the same as what you have put in current colour. 
• Also if you're going to add two new colours like myself ensure you put the largest amount of 'new colour' first before worrying about the second, in my request it was Silver and Red leaving out yellow.

Shortly after you will receive a letter much like this one stating your car meets their requirements and the colour change is all done.

You may think your finished however the fun is only beginning!

      5.  This step is optional, but I recommend anyway: Now if you have a third colour the app wouldn't let you submit head back to Dubai Impound in Warsan make sure you bring a printed copy or get desk 1 print you out your approval letter go back to the building with the CID officers and ask them to correct your form and explain you have another colour; in this case mine was yellow, be prepared to let them inspect your vehicle or show a photo just to illustrate what colour you mean; in my case the Officer wrote the word 'yellow' in Arabic followed by a signature and a Dubai Police Stamp (signature and stamp will show RTA guys that the form is legit) now that you're half way through the process remember you only have 30 days to sort out the rest of the legal paperwork on the new colours 

      6. Make sure you're up bright and early to tackle the task of heading to an RTA customer happiness center, I'm sure any RTA center is perfectly fine to go to however I recommend heading to this one in Al Barsha https://goo.gl/maps/CSWjyTbhGfxPrwYS6

      7. You could attempt to head into the main office to ask for a colour inspection much like myself however they will point you towards a Tajeel testing center which is located right behind the buidling. 

      8. Upon reaching the tajeel booth ask the person at the gate your there for a colour inspection, they will most likely shuffle you into the 'special services' testing bay, after waiting for your turn tell them your only there for a colour inspection and give them your printed approval from Dubai police (even if you tell them this they will still do a full inspection of the car charging you 170 dhs which is frustrating so best go when your Mulkia is about to expire.

      9. Talk to the receptionist within the Tajeel side of the RTA center and explain your there for a colour inspection, she will give you a ticket and now you wait! everything should be smooth if you only added one colour and you should receive your passed note from RTA which will allow you to talk to the receptionist to get your new Mulkia printed. Congrats! 

BUT if you also added more than one colour your day is going to get a lot longer within RTA, much like myself you will probably be located by the RTA guys and they will tell you the colour doesn't match what you have on the Dubai police report (potentially this was my experience) point out the stamp and the colour that has been approved by the Dubai police impound. 

This next experience can also vary so be prepared for the unknown, when you finally pass inspection and your directed to a new line for your new Mulkia you may be told a new card cannot be submitted to you because the colours don't match from the report and your car, explain the confusion or speak to the manager showing them your RTA printed document with the print and signature Ensure you scan this police document onto your phone in case it is lost within all the RTA confusion

      10. Everything should be cleared up and you should have a new Mulkia and should have all remained colours onto your car! Congrats!

      11. Enjoy your stripes or new paintjob until you realize that stickers may need to be fixed every 2 years due to the hotter climate of Dubai  

 

Thanks for reading and I hope this helped someone in the long run. 

[Mark B]

Great info mate, appreciate you posting that, I have thought about wraps and did wonder what the headache would be 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[Looper]

Excellent and informative write-up - it could not be any more detailed IMO.  

[Benjamin]

Thanks @Looper and @Mark B means a lot 

[Gaurav]

I have written a similar one for finding the CID office (somewhere in ghusais) for getting permission for full color repaint back in 2017.

But yours is a fantastic write-up with much more and newer details with updated contact, well done.

[Benjamin]

Thank you @Gaurav! means a lot, just hoping these more updated details will help someone to get through this process or help them decide if the process is worth the struggle to go through in the first place  

[Islam Soliman]

Very well written @Benjamin.. one word of advise is to secure CID approval prior to starting any color change as in many cases they will request the car to be brought for inspection and if the color is changed already from what is recorded in Mulkia it can complicate things.. bare in mind that the main purpose of the CID preapproval is to ensure the owner is not changing the color to hide something (hit and run or other major offense) so if they are suspicious for any reason and color is already changes it can be a big problem 

[M.Seidam]

Thank you @Benjamin for the clear and fantastic info.

once the RTA tasjeel personel asked about the black star ( sticker ) on both sides of my Xterra and i told him that its mentioned in the Mulkia color black and white and there is no spesification for stickers as when i bought the car it was registered as such and Transfer registration was done as such from the first place and he accepted. and yes if the stripes fade away or in my case i had to re place it due to a car body work last year.

[Benjamin]

56 minutes ago, Islam Soliman said:

Very well written @Benjamin.. one word of advise is to secure CID approval prior to starting any color change as in many cases they will request the car to be brought for inspection and if the color is changed already from what is recorded in Mulkia it can complicate things.. bare in mind that the main purpose of the CID preapproval is to ensure the owner is not changing the color to hide something (hit and run or other major offense) so if they are suspicious for any reason and color is already changes it can be a big problem 

Totally agree @Islam Soliman I tried securing CID approval before putting stickers first visited an RTA HQ located beside the airport, who then pointed me to a nearby police station HQ for CID approval, they ended up being closed, this leading to the police station in Warsan 2 though it might be a good idea to get a signature from the officer there but they told me the approval will come through with the Dubai police app, even when I voiced the concerns of causing any confusion with my current condition and colour status of my car at the time. Been chasing it up for around a month. Talk about time consuming 😂

[Benjamin]

32 minutes ago, M.Seidam said:

Thank you @Benjamin for the clear and fantastic info.

once the RTA tasjeel personel asked about the black star ( sticker ) on both sides of my Xterra and i told him that its mentioned in the Mulkia color black and white and there is no spesification for stickers as when i bought the car it was registered as such and Transfer registration was done as such from the first place and he accepted. and yes if the stripes fade away or in my case i had to re place it due to a car body work last year.

@M.Seidam thanks! Yeah I had some worries too with the black on my car, I heard nightmare stories of jeeps failing without stickers because of the black rooftops that come OEM from the factory as the black isn’t stated on the Mulkia. Hopefully stickers will stay in good condition for a good amount of time