Set up a company in Dubai: steps, timelines and licence

Setting up a company in Dubai is simpler than its reputation suggests — and more nuanced than the marketing promises. The easy part is real: incorporation is a 100% remote process, the licence is issued in a matter of days and foreign ownership is 100%, with no local partner. The nuances are real too: there is a moment when travelling does make sense, the bank account is guaranteed to no one and choosing the wrong company type is paid for later.

This guide walks through the whole process with the activity and the licence as its guiding thread: which company types exist, the steps one by one, what can be done from outside the country and when to enter, the real timelines, the costs with official 2026 rates and the taxation. To hire the process with full support, the service page is open a company in Dubai; this is the informational version.

The types: free zone, mainland or offshore

The first decision is not the company’s name — it is its structure, because it determines who you can sell to, what it costs and what it requires:

• Free zone: the usual option for consultants, digital services and international trade. 100% ownership, faster and cheaper incorporation, and a flexi desk is enough to cover the registered-address requirement. Each zone has its own activity list and rates — the free zone guide compares the main ones.
• Mainland: necessary when you sell to the UAE local market, need physical premises or bid for public contracts. The usual corporate form is the LLC.
• Offshore: vehicles with no local operations, for holding assets and international structures.

On that base you choose the official activity from the jurisdiction’s list — which defines what the company can do — and the type of licence (services, commercial, industrial). The structure + activity combination is 80% of the design; the rest of the process is execution. To compare emirates and jurisdictions, the general guide to where to incorporate in the Emirates gives the full map.

The steps, one by one

1. Structure and activity: choose the zone (or mainland), the official activity from the list and the licence type, with the real business model on the table.
2. Application and KYC: shareholders’ passports, the zone’s form and a description of the business. No presence required.
3. Licence issuance: in free zones like IFZA, in 3 to 5 working days. The company now exists.
4. Establishment card: the document that allows the company to sponsor residence visas.
5. Residence visas for the founder and employees: entry permit, status change if you are already in the UAE, medical exam, Emirates ID biometrics and visa stamping — this is where the process touches Emirati soil.
6. Bank account, processed in parallel: compliance file, submission to banks that fit the profile and, if traditional banking takes long, fintech alternatives.

From day one it pays to have the accounting set up and, once turnover calls for it, the VAT registration — the tax year-end is decided at the first invoice, not the last.

From outside the country: what is remote and when to enter

The most repeated question has a clean answer: the company is incorporated without setting foot in the UAE. Choosing the structure, the application, the licence and the establishment card are remote procedures. What is not remote is residency: the medical exam and the Emirates ID biometrics are done physically in the country, and that is the entry to plan for.

The optimal moment to travel is when the entry permit has already been issued: you enter with it, do the medical check and the biometrics, and the visa is stamped — 1 to 3 weeks of process in total. If you are already inside the UAE under another status (as a tourist, for example), the status change lets you complete the residency without leaving the country. And if the company needs no visas — a vehicle that invoices services without the founder’s residency —, the entire process can be closed remotely, with one nuance: banking values residency, and a fully remote structure may need more time or fintech alternatives for the account.

From abroad, the process fits particularly well. The full incorporation is handled remotely and almost in your time zone — Dubai runs only a few hours ahead of Europe —, with direct flights from most major hubs for the residency trip, which can be resolved in a single well-planned visit. The starting documentation is minimal — the shareholders’ valid passports — and the whole process can be run in English. The point that does demand design is the tax one: as long as you remain tax-resident in your home country you are taxed there on your worldwide income, so the Emirati scheme deploys its full effect when the relocation is real and demonstrable — not when only the company is.

Real timelines

• Licence: 3–5 working days in agile free zones.
• Residence visa: 1–3 additional weeks (entry permit → medical and biometrics → stamping).
• Bank account: from a few days to several weeks, depending on activity, flows and profile — in parallel with the rest.
• Typical total with company, visa and banking up and running: around three weeks end to end.

Costs with official 2026 rates

In first-year government fees, within Dubai:

Outside the emirate, RAKEZ (Ras Al Khaimah) starts at AED 6,000 all included — the cheapest entry route when the company does not need to be in Dubai itself. Line items worth knowing: the medical exam + Emirates ID (~AED 900 per visa), the establishment card (AED 2,200 in IFZA) and the annual renewals from the second year (IFZA from AED 12,900; DMCC, a flat fee of AED 38,910). Any serious provider’s professional fees are always quoted separately from the government fees — it is the sector’s litmus test.

Taxation: what is actually paid

The tax package is the silent argument behind everything above. On profits, Corporate Tax at 9% only above AED 375,000 — below that, 0% — and no personal income tax on salaries or dividends. On VAT, a general rate of 5% with mandatory registration once you exceed AED 375,000 of annual taxable turnover, and a possible 0% rate on the export of services under the conditions of the regulations. And one nuance that matters to anyone operating from abroad: for this scheme to work for you against your home country, you need real tax residency in the UAE, with demonstrable presence — the company is opened remotely; tax residency is not.

Conclusion

Setting up a company in Dubai is a three-week process with two decisions worth more than all the paperwork combined: the right structure — free zone, mainland or offshore — and the official activity that describes what you actually do, because the licence, the costs and who you can invoice all hang from them. The rest follows a known script: a licence in days and done remotely, one trip well placed in the calendar for the residency, banking with a serious file and accounting from the first invoice. Whoever respects that order opens the company once; whoever improvises it opens it twice.