Business Setup in Dubai

It covers everything needed to get a UAE company legally trading — activity selection, jurisdiction choice, trade name reservation, initial approvals, the Memorandum of Association, trade licence issuance, Establishment Card, corporate bank account and staff residence visas. Mainland allows unrestricted UAE trading and government contracts, free zones offer full foreign ownership and typically faster setup, and offshore suits holding structures and international business without a physical UAE presence — the wrong choice for your specific plan is genuinely expensive to unwind once a licence is issued.

We start with a jurisdiction consultation matching your activity, ownership structure and visa needs to the right authority, because this decision shapes everything that follows and is the hardest part to reverse later. We reserve the trade name, obtain initial approvals, draft the Memorandum of Association, submit for the trade licence, and coordinate visa quota, medical, Emirates ID and bank account opening — with attestation and PRO tasks handled in-house rather than outsourced to a third party partway through.

First-time entrepreneurs — solo founders and small teams launching their first UAE business — benefit most from having jurisdiction and licence handled together, since this is where inexperience with UAE structures causes the most costly mistakes. Free zone company formation covers IFZA, Meydan, DMCC, JAFZA, RAKEZ and others, offering full foreign ownership and defined visa quotas.

Mainland LLC formation gives a DED trade licence with unrestricted local trading rights, which free zone entities don't have. Branch of a foreign company registration requires attested corporate documents from the home country before a UAE branch can be established, which is where this service connects directly to our commercial document attestation work.

Send us your activity and ownership plan first, and we return the exact checklist for your chosen jurisdiction — this genuinely differs between mainland, free zone and offshore, so a generic checklist isn't useful here. Common requirements are shareholder passport copies, a short business plan or activity description, attested corporate documents for a branch setup, and a tenancy contract (Ejari) where the jurisdiction requires a physical office or flexi-desk lease.

Some activities need additional external approvals — KHDA, DHA, RTA, Ministry of Economy — before licence issuance, and missing this step is a common cause of delay for regulated activities. Foreign incorporation documents for a UAE branch must go through the home-country MOFA and UAE Embassy attestation chain before submission, which takes weeks if not planned for from the start. Certain nationalities and prior UAE labour bans can block shareholder appointment — this is best caught before licence fees are paid, not after. And free zone licences cannot trade directly with the UAE mainland, so choosing the wrong jurisdiction for a business that needs local B2C or B2B trade blocks that trade entirely, regardless of how quickly the licence was issued.

• Free zone company formation (2 visas): government fee Free zone tariff, service fee On quote, turnaround 5–15 working days.
• Mainland LLC formation: government fee DED tariff, service fee On quote, turnaround 10–20 working days.
• Offshore company (RAK ICC / JAFZA): government fee Authority tariff, service fee On quote, turnaround 3–7 working days.
• Corporate bank account opening: government fee —, service fee On quote, turnaround 2–6 weeks.

The jurisdiction consultation is the step most agencies rush through, and it's also the decision that's hardest to reverse once a licence is issued and a bank account is open. We take real time on that call specifically because it saves months of restructuring later — and because branch-document attestation sits in-house with us rather than being handed to a separate provider partway through your setup.