Company registration in the UAE
We will register your company in the emirate or the free zone that fits what you sell, obtain the licence and the establishment card, and hand you the dates that keep both alive.
Capital of an LLC
Капитал ООО
no figure in the law
в законе не задан
Capital of a PJSC
Капитал публичной АО
AED 30,000,000
30 000 000 дирхамов
Free zone licence
Лицензия во фризоне
up to 14 working days
до 14 рабочих дней
DMCC registration
Регистрация в DMCC
AED 9,020
9 020 дирхамов
When you need company registration in the UAE
Your customers are inside the country
Where you sell decides the licence before anything else does. A company inside a zone is treated as sitting outside the domestic market, and that is a rule of its own.
The zone quoted one package price
One number can cover the licence, a desk and sometimes a visa allowance. What sits inside it decides what you pay again next year.
A licence category was chosen for you
There is no one national list: the federal ministry names six kinds, Abu Dhabi seven, Dubai eight. The category decides what you may invoice for.
The bank is waiting on the licence
Cash contributions go into a bank in the country, and the bank releases them to the managers only against proof that the company is on the register.
You are moving a business that exists
A company already trading elsewhere either registers here as new or continues as the same entity. Two procedures, two document packs.
What you get
- The trade licence in your name
- An establishment card issued
- Constitutional documents in the required form
- The registered address in place
- A calendar of annual renewals
What is required to register a company in the UAE
Registration in the Emirates starts with one decision: a free zone or the mainland. It decides which authority registers you, which licence you hold and whether you may sell inside the country at all.
Who may own the company is a separate question — foreign ownership compliance. How it is taxed once it exists is another, and that belongs with corporate tax support.
The form and the capital
Federal law allows five forms of commercial company, and a company in any other form is void. It asks for capital sufficient for the purpose of the company, names no figure for a limited liability company, and leaves that to the Cabinet. Contributions are paid in full at incorporation.
| Form | Minimum issued capital |
|---|---|
| Limited liability company | No figure in the law |
| Private joint stock company | AED 5,000,000, paid in full |
| Public joint stock company | AED 30,000,000 |
What a zone does not give
- The domestic market. A zone company is considered to sit outside mainland jurisdiction: to sell locally it works through a licensed mainland distributor or opens a mainland branch or company.
- Freedom from the companies law. That law steps aside only where the zone has its own rule on the point, and it applies again as soon as the zone lets the company operate outside the zone.
- A customs answer for everything. Goods stored in a zone for re-export carry no duty; duty arrives when they move into the mainland market.
The published timings
Two figures are published and one is not. The federal Basher platform states fifteen minutes for setting a business up online; the ordinary nine-step procedure sits beside it. A free zone licence arrives within fourteen working days after review and approval. For an ordinary mainland filing no authority publishes a processing time at all.
Five zones and their tariffs
DMCC
Publishes a line-by-line schedule: registration AED 9,020, articles AED 2,020, licence AED 20,285 a year and an establishment card AED 1,825 a year. The licence varies if more activities are added.
DIFC
A financial free zone with its own law and regulator: registering a private or public company costs $8,000 and the commercial licence $12,000 a year, with retail rates set separately.
Abu Dhabi Global Market
The other financial free zone, in Abu Dhabi: initial registration for a non-financial category C entity totals $2,800, made up of name, incorporation, licence, activity and data protection fees.
Meydan
Publishes a package instead of a schedule: from AED 12,500 a year for the licence, registration and a flexi desk, with an instant route at AED 15,000 and no paid-up capital required.
IFZA
Publishes no tariff at all: the offer is assembled by a partner of the zone. The one thing the zone states itself is that it requires no paid-up capital.
Sources: licence timings and the mainland rules — the UAE Government portal on free zones, trading from one and the mainland; forms and capital — Federal Decree-Law 32 of 2021; tariffs — DMCC, DIFC, ADGM, Meydan and IFZA.
Stages of work
The zone or the mainland, first.
We will start from who your buyers are and where they pay you, because that answer decides the registering authority and what follows from it.
The activity and the licence category.
We will match what you actually do to a category your authority issues, and say where a sector regulator's approval has to arrive before the licence does.
The name, the form and the constitution.
We will get the name approved by the authority and draft the memorandum and the founding resolutions in the form it accepts, in the legal form you chose.
The address and the space.
A lease or a desk agreement is part of the file. We will arrange it where you chose and make sure the paper matches the licence you are asking for.
Filing and the government charges.
We will submit the file to your authority and settle its charges for you, then hand over the licence and the establishment card as they issue.
After the licence.
Tax registration, the beneficial owner record, staff permits and the bank account follow, and the account cannot start until the licence exists.
The renewal year.
The licence, the card and the lease renew annually on the authority's own dates. We will hand you those dates and mark the ones that stop the company if they slip.
Our case studies
FAQ
Discuss
the Task
Speak to our team
Speak to our team. Tell us about your task –
we’ll help you with it in any jurisdiction.