Dubai
Business setup in Dubai
Setting up in Dubai means choosing between a mainland licence issued by Dubai Economy and Tourism and a licence from one of the emirate’s free zone authorities. The choice determines who you can sell to, what office you must hold, and how many residency visas you can sponsor. This page explains how the decision works and what follows it.
Mainland or free zone in Dubai
A Dubai mainland licence lets you contract directly with customers anywhere in the UAE and bid for government work, and it requires premises with a registered Ejari tenancy contract. A Dubai free zone licence is faster to obtain and usually cheaper to hold, permits a flexi-desk instead of an office, and is designed for business conducted inside the zone and internationally — selling directly to mainland customers generally needs a distributor or a separate arrangement. Neither is better in the abstract; the right one falls out of who your customers are.
Choosing the business activity
The activity you license is the single most consequential entry on the application. It determines which authorities must approve you, which licence category applies, whether additional regulatory clearance is needed, and in some cases whether the jurisdiction can license you at all. Activities are drawn from published lists, and a business that does two distinct things may need two activities or a broader category. We settle this before anything is filed, because changing it afterwards means an amendment.
Licensing and approvals
A mainland application runs through trade name reservation, initial approval, the tenancy contract, and then licence issuance, with additional approvals from the relevant authority where the activity requires them — food trading, healthcare, education and financial services each have their own regulator. Free zone applications run through the zone authority and are generally more contained. In both cases the documentation is the bottleneck far more often than the decision is.
Visas and the establishment card
Once the licence is issued, the company obtains an establishment card and can begin sponsoring residency visas within the quota attached to its licence and premises. Each visa runs through entry permit, status change, medical, Emirates ID and stamping. Quota is tied to the facility, so if you plan to hire, the office decision and the visa plan are the same decision.
Corporate banking
A UAE corporate account is opened at the bank’s discretion after its own KYC and risk assessment. What we do is prepare the file — company profile, shareholder documentation, expected transaction pattern, source of funds — and support the application through to the bank’s decision. We do not guarantee an outcome, and neither can anyone else.
What comes after the licence
Corporate tax registration, VAT registration if you cross the threshold, bookkeeping that will support a return, and the annual renewal of the licence, the establishment card, the tenancy and every visa. These are the obligations that turn into penalties when they are treated as afterthoughts, which is why we quote them as part of the setup rather than as a surprise in month eleven.
Requirements, fees and government procedures can change. Eligibility and requirements depend on the relevant authority, business activity and individual circumstances. Contact Al Aegis Group for current guidance.
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