The route the United Arab Emirates does not accept
An apostille is one certificate that a country attaches to a public paper so a second country will trust the signature on it. It only works between countries that share the Hague Apostille Convention. The United Arab Emirates has not joined that treaty, so papers headed there require embassy legalisation instead. That answer is settled before you fill in a single form, and no office in Britain can change it for you.
Where the mistake surfaces
Here is the trap that catches people. The Legalisation Office (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) will add an apostille to a British public paper whatever destination you write on the form, because that is its job and it does not police your travel plans. So the error is never caught at home. It surfaces at the far end, weeks later, in front of someone you cannot argue with and cannot come back to tomorrow.
What starts the file in Newcastle upon Tyne
Most of these files begin with a civil record — a birth, a marriage, a death. Newcastle Register Office holds those entries for the city and can issue a fresh certified copy of any of them. Order the copy and work with it. Readers looking up what you need for an apostille for United Arab Emirates arrive at this same first step, because the paper has to be a proper public record before any desk anywhere will look at it.
What the money and the calendar buy
An apostille from United Kingdom to United Arab Emirates would cost £45 for each paper by post, or £40 for each paper on the next-day route open to registered businesses. Both prices are real. Neither one buys acceptance at the other end, because the certificate they pay for is not the one this destination reads. Spend the money on the route that ends somewhere, and treat the price list as a description of a different journey.
Planning a route you cannot shortcut
Treat document legalisation for United Arab Emirates as a series of separate desks, not a single purchase. Each desk keeps its own pace and its own queue, and you join every queue from the back. An apostille issued in Newcastle upon Tyne for use in United Arab Emirates skips exactly the desks that decide the outcome, which is why it fails so quietly. Build slack into your dates and keep the paper moving one way only.