How to Register a Company in Dubai: The UAE Company Setup Process, Step by Step

• On a straightforward case, opening the company and the bank account can take as little as three to four weeks. That is the fastest case, not the typical one. In our experience, the fastest case needs the licence within about a week, residency completed in roughly two weeks in-country, and the bank account open within three to four working days of submission.
• We time it so you make one trip, not two. More complex setups take longer, mostly at the bank stage.
• As an example only, our price for a one-person IFZA free zone company is around AED 45,295 in Year 1 — AED is the UAE dirham — (trade licence, establishment card, one residence visa, corporate address, bank-account setup and corporate-tax registration), then about AED 24,645 in year two, or AED 32,645 in a year the visa is renewed. The figure moves with the activity, the free zone and the number of visas — we set the exact cost in the first conversation.

To keep it concrete, we follow one example all the way through: a one-person IFZA free zone company. IFZA is one of several free zones we work with. Mainland, DIFC, ADGM and the other free zones go in the same order. We choose the route to fit the business and the bank, not the other way round.

This is the order we actually follow when we set up a UAE company. We've built it around one kind of owner, because how long it takes, and where it gets stuck, depends more on the owner and the business than on the calendar.

What the business is actually doing in the UAE decides the structure, so that is where we start. Then we decide which type of company to register (see the types of company in the UAE). For a small consultancy that works mostly from home or remotely, a free zone company is normally all it needs; you'd only need a mainland LLC for more specific reasons, which that page explains. If your route turns out to be mainland, the steps are different, and our mainland company setup page walks through them.

A free zone company works like an LLC in the way that matters most: your personal liability is limited. But it isn't the same thing. It's set up under the free zone's own company rules, not the federal Commercial Companies Law that mainland LLCs sit under. The worked example below is a free zone company.

The owner this page is built around: a UK owner with a straightforward software consultancy, who owns it directly with no other companies in between, needs a UAE residence visa, and needs an ordinary UAE business bank account.

Many of our setups look like this. Some don't.

Some setups are harder: the company is owned through other companies, the activity needs a regulator's approval, it isn't clear yet where the money came from, you're opening the bank account while still moving, or you haven't yet settled whether you're still UK tax-resident (the UK Statutory Residence Test decides that). The steps are the same, in the same order. They just take longer, sometimes a lot longer.

Our corporate-banking page goes into how the simple and harder cases differ. Here we walk through the simple case, then say where the harder ones change.

The first conversation — before anything is signed

The most important conversation happens before we agree to take a client on. Before we ask you for any money, we work out what the business actually does, where your clients are, who you'll be invoicing, which countries are involved, what the licence needs to cover, and whether the bank will be happy to open an account for the company that comes out of it.

Some businesses we know from experience go through the bank's checks easily: a straightforward software consultancy, say, or professional services sold to clients abroad on normal terms. Where it's less clear, we talk to the bank about the company before we agree to go ahead, so it can tell us early what it thinks.

Most of the time, this is where a setup either goes smoothly or gets stuck. It's also the step most other firms skip. They sell the licence, take the payment and only talk to the bank later. By then the licence is paid for, and if the bank doesn't like what it sees, you either rebuild the company or settle for a worse bank.

Once we agree to go ahead

Once you've signed and made the first payment, we start the free zone application. We stay in touch the whole way through, and we ask for documents a few at a time, not all at once. Most owners find that easy to keep up with, because we ask for things in the order the free zone and the bank need them.

What you need to have ready

For the free zone application the list is short. IFZA's own list for a company owned by individuals is a passport copy, a digital passport photo, its application form showing who ultimately owns the company, and your Emirates ID and visa copy if you already live in the UAE. Some activities also need a third-party approval. IFZA asks for a passport with at least six months' validity left. That is from IFZA's page Documents Required for Remote Company Setup in Dubai, checked 29 September 2026.

If another company is a shareholder, IFZA also asks for that company's board resolution, its Memorandum and Articles of Association, its trade licence and its certificate of incorporation.

The bank asks for more, because it has to build a picture of you and the business from nothing. In our experience that means personal bank statements showing where the money for the company comes from, a basic CV, a short business plan, sample invoices, and a list of your main clients and suppliers. We help you put these together. Having them ready early is what keeps the bank stage short.

Company name approval (no fixed clock)

The UAE's rules on company names are different from the UK's, and they catch some owners out. Names get turned down if they use a place name without permission, mention religion, use a public figure's name, or sound too like a UAE company that already exists. It's normal to have to change a name. You can't put a date on this one. It's done when the free zone passes the name.

The free zone licence — IFZA, our worked example (2 to 15 days in our records)

We're using IFZA as the example here. Other free zones issue in much the same order. Once the name is approved, we submit the application to IFZA. IFZA then sends you documents to sign online, including employment contracts and other setup papers. You sign them and send them back.

When they're back, IFZA issues your trade licence and the company's Memorandum and Articles of Association.

In our records, across five recent setups (four IFZA, one RAKEZ), the licence was issued between 2 and 15 days after we had the client's documents. That is what we have seen, not a guarantee. If IFZA comes back with questions about the activity or who owns the company, it takes longer.

Establishment card (usually the next day, in our records)

Once the licence is issued, we apply for the establishment card. In our records it usually comes through the day after the licence: that was the case in three of the four recent setups that logged this step, and the slowest took five days.

You need the establishment card as well as the licence, both to trade and to apply for your entry permit and residence visa.

Entry permit (valid for 60 days from issue)

Once the establishment card is through, we apply for the entry permit.

The entry permit is valid for 60 days from issue, and you have to arrive in the UAE within those 60 days to start the visa steps. That is from ICP (the federal immigration authority), on its visa issuance service page, checked 29 September 2026. If the trip has to move, the same page says the permit’s 60-day validity may be extended for a similar period under its rules. If you let it run out, you have to apply for a new one, which means more fees and more waiting.

Your visa steps in the UAE (about two weeks in country)

Once you land in the UAE, the visa steps start. On a straightforward setup like this one, what we commonly see is:

• Medical fitness test. In Dubai the medical is quick — a blood test and, for most applicants, a chest X-ray. Dubai's clinics apply the current tests for your visa category, and we confirm the exact requirements before your appointment. In our experience the visit takes about an hour to an hour and a half, and the results go straight to our team.
• Biometrics appointment. Once the medical results are in, we book the biometrics appointment. In our experience it is the next day or the day after.
• Your residence visa. Usually the same day as the biometrics, or the day after.
• Emirates ID card. This comes after the visa. We plan the bank meeting around the day the card arrives.

These are the timings we see on setups like this one. They're not a promise, and not every owner gets them. It takes longer if you already hold a UAE visa, if family visas need doing in the right order, or if the medical needs a follow-up.

Why you need the Emirates ID card in your hand

For banking, you need the physical Emirates ID card. UAE banks want to see the card itself at the signing meeting, not the digital version on UAE Pass and not the receipt. If you cut the trip short before the card arrives, you usually have to fly back later. That's the most common cost in a UAE setup that didn't need to happen.

Get a UAE mobile contract — small, but it matters

Get a UAE mobile contract with a physical SIM, ideally in a separate phone from your home number. UAE banking and government services tend to work better that way. Banks and government apps expect a UAE number for logging in, security codes and account alerts. Owners who run everything off one dual-SIM phone on roaming have more problems.

This is small. It is not in the brochure. It is the kind of thing we tell owners before they fly out.

Corporate tax registration (due within three months of set-up)

Once you have your Emirates ID, our accountants register the company for corporate tax with the UAE Federal Tax Authority (FTA).

The company has to register within three months of being set up. That applies to any company set up on or after 1 March 2024, free zone companies included, under FTA Decision No. 3 of 2024 (checked 29 September 2026). The tax return is separate. It's due within nine months of the end of the company's first financial period (Article 53 of Federal Decree-Law 47 of 2022, the UAE Corporate Tax Law, checked 29 September 2026). We need your Emirates ID for it, and we do it on the FTA's EmaraTax portal.

There are two routes on the rate, and you pick one.

One is the free zone route: a free zone company that meets the conditions pays 0% corporate tax on income that qualifies. To meet them, the company has to really operate in the UAE, earn the right kind of income, charge connected companies the same as it would charge anyone else, and have its accounts audited.

The law calls a company that meets them a Qualifying Free Zone Person, under Articles 3 and 18 of Federal Decree-Law 47 of 2022 and Cabinet Decision 100 of 2023, with the qualifying and excluded activities set by Ministerial Decision 229 of 2025 (all checked 29 September 2026).

The other route is Small Business Relief. A company can choose it if its revenue is AED 3,000,000 or less in this tax period and every one before, under Ministerial Decision 73 of 2023 as amended by Ministerial Decision 131 of 2026. It's available for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029 (both checked 29 September 2026). If you use it, the company is treated as having no taxable income for that period (Article 21 of the same Decree-Law).

A company on the 0% free zone route can't also claim Small Business Relief. In the first conversation we work out which one fits your business.

What that means for your money: on income that qualifies, no corporate tax is due, so that profit stays in the business to reinvest, as long as it is all done properly.

For the deeper detail, see UAE Corporate Tax for Foreign-Owned Entities and Qualifying Free Zone Income Explained.

The bank account — commonly open in 3 to 4 working days, and why

On a straightforward setup like this one, we commonly see the company's bank account open within around 3 to 4 working days of submission.

That timing is not luck, and it is not normal across the market. At Start Business Services we speak to the bank directly about the company before it is set up, so nothing in its profile is a surprise by the time the application goes in. Here is what that means in practice.

• When we speak to the bank, we tell it what the company will do and who owns it.
• We tell it where the person who can operate the account lives, and how much of the business really happens in the UAE.
• That way the bank can tell us early if it sees a problem, and what it needs to open the account.
• We gather the paperwork on where the money came from early, in the form the bank asks for.
• And it helps that the business itself is straightforward.

This is not a claim that all UAE bank accounts open in 3 to 4 working days. They don't.

If the setup is more complicated, the same bank will take longer. That might be a company owned through other companies, an unusual activity, or an owner who is still partway through moving. The harder cases can take much longer, or be declined outright. These are the ones where the business isn't really run from the UAE yet, where it isn't clear where the money came from, or where the activity on the licence doesn't match what the business does. Our corporate-banking page goes through the three levels, from simple to hard.

Most of that is decided before the application even goes in.

Once the account is open

When the bank approves the account, it sends you a password and account ID by email and text. Log in soon after they arrive. If you leave it, the bank may have to reset the password, and that's a delay you didn't need.

Your debit card comes once the account is switched on.

These small things catch some owners out. The day the account is approved isn't always the day you can use it. And missing that first login is the most common hold-up we see at the end of a setup that has otherwise gone smoothly.

When your setup is different

Everything above is for the simple case: a UK owner with a software consultancy they own directly, a UAE residence visa and an ordinary business bank account. On harder setups the steps are the same, but they take longer.

The middle cases commonly take several weeks at the bank, not several days. That's when a UK Ltd holds the shares, the activity is unusual and needs describing carefully, you're still partway through moving, or the business needs explaining clearly to the bank. The licence and visa steps take about the same time. It's the bank's checks that take longer.

The harder cases take longer again, because each one gives the bank more to check. If your company is owned through several layers of other companies, the bank has to see who owns each layer. When you can't yet show where all the money came from, it will ask for the missing paperwork before it goes any further. If the business isn't really run from the UAE yet, the bank has to be satisfied it is a real, working company.

It's the same if the activity on your licence doesn't match what you actually do, because the bank can't make the two line up. Money coming from a country the bank looks at more closely brings more questions. And if you and your adviser at home haven't yet settled whether you have properly left the UK for tax, that holds things up too.

Banking can take eight to fourteen weeks or longer once the application is in the bank's system, and some setups need structural changes before they can proceed. That range is from our own experience, and it is the slow end, not the usual one. Our corporate-banking page covers the hardest cases in more detail.

Why the steps come in this order

The steps have to happen in this order. It isn't about the calendar: each step needs something the step before it had to get right.

• The bank's view decides which activities will work. We work that out in the first conversation, before you sign, not after the licence is issued.
• How the activity is described shapes which free zone you pick and what goes on the licence. The same activity can go down well with one bank and less well with another, and which bank you end up with depends partly on the free zone. So we look at the activity and who owns the company first, then talk to the bank about your company before the application goes in.
• Nothing on the visa side starts until the licence is issued. No licence, no entry permit.
• Two later steps wait for the Emirates ID. The bank's signing meeting needs the physical card, and the corporate-tax registration needs your Emirates ID.
• The last steps wait for the account to be switched on. Your login details, first login and debit card all come after that, not on the day it's approved.

How we work with you

We work in four stages, and the first conversation matters most.

The first conversation. Before you sign anything, we talk through what the business does, where your clients are, where the money came from, what the licence needs to cover, and whether the bank will be happy to open an account for the company.

Designing the company. We decide the licence, the free zone, who holds the shares, how the activity is described, who signs on the account, and how the business will really run from the UAE. We build it around what the business actually does and who owns it, and we talk it through with the bank before we go ahead, not around what the free zone will issue or the cheapest visa package.

Doing the setup. We handle the free zone application, the name, the documents you sign, the licence, the establishment card, the entry permit, your visa steps in the UAE, the Emirates ID and the corporate-tax registration. We plan the trip so you make one visit. Where we can, we book the bank signing meeting for just after your Emirates ID comes, while you're still here.

After the setup. We handle the bank application, answer the bank's questions while it checks the company, get the account switched on, and help with the first login, the debit card and the practical questions that come up in year one. Most setups need the most help in that first year.

“They were always responsive, efficient, and quick to handle every step of the process. Their communication was clear, they adapted quickly to changing situations, and they made the whole company setup process much easier than expected.”

— Clement Espinasse · Google review

The whole clock, in one place

That is the fastest straightforward case, not the typical one. If the setup is more complicated, the bank stage commonly takes several weeks rather than several days, and the hardest cases can take much longer or be turned down altogether.