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Company registration

STEP BY STEP

· Filing an application

Mainland

Firstly, it is very important to decide on the type of activity of the company, since the license under which it will be registered will depend on this.

The license can be:

• Professional

• Commercial

• Industrial

Depending on your selection from the above, each title will have a specific license. Remember that some industries, such as oil and gas, banking or law firms, must obtain special permission from government agencies before a license is issued.

Company registration

Let's proceed to the first step - registering a company in the UAE

📄Mainland

Registration of a company in Mainalnd takes place in the Dubai economic department.

Once the founder file is approved, you receive initial license approval and reserve the trading name.

Some licenses require an office/retail premises, in which case you can either immediately find premises for work, or take a formal office of 10-15 sq. m to save money in the first year of work or to be able to find suitable premises

After selecting the premises, you show the lease agreement (for a year) to the DED to further obtain a license.

❗️DED pays 5% VAT for the cost of annual rental of the premises, this amount is paid at the time of obtaining/renewing the license

The final step is to pay the license and fees. After payment you receive digital documents, which include:

-License

-Memorandum

-Share certificate

📒Important to know:

Registration type Industrial or Professional requires a local agent.

Let's take an example - Fashion Design

1) License type - Professional

3)Activity description shows what services this license allows you to provide

With this type of registration, you must work with a local agent who will not have access to your bank accounts or company operations. However, the agent's name must be on the license with a zero share.

An agent can either be found among local partners or requested from RBN.

If you do not want to have a partner in the license, you can change the registration type to LLC.

Getting additional approval

If you require additional approval, you will receive a license marked .

How to understand if additional approvals are needed:

1) The DED representative will give you this information after receiving the license

2)You can check this information on the website in the descriptions of activities section.

After receiving a license with the mark, you need to contact the government agency, inform that you are interested in obtaining approval for the company's operation, then you will be sent a link to the page for obtaining approval, where you can upload documents (license and passport of the founder) and wait for approval.

Once the required document has been received, you will need to return back to DED to obtain your unmarked license.

The next type of company registration is a free zone, in other words a free trade zone, which allows you to conduct business both in the UAE and around the world.

Ideal for those who would like to:

✅Work remotely

✅Do business with others

countries

✅Get a residence permit by opening a company for yourself and family/friends

✅Launch a startup without purchasing premises for work

There are many free zones in the UAE, so before choosing, you need to understand several important nuances:

➡️Location

-Frizona in the center (Meydan, DWTC, DMCC)

-Free zone in the airport/port area (DAFZA, ADAFZ, SAFZ)

-Free zone of the emirate convenient for you (RAKEZ, SHAMS, JAFZA)

➡️Type of activity

👉🏼General activities (Meydan, IFZA)

(Dubai south ,DMCC)

👉🏼IT technologies (Dubai internet city,shams, dubai south, DMCC

👉🏼Medicine (Dubai healthcare)

👉🏼Cryptocurrency, finance (DMCC, DIFC)

👉🏼Production activities (Dubai south, IFZA, Jabel Ali)

👉🏼Aviation (SAIF)

👉🏼Trading, import/export (DAFZA, IFZA, Meydan)

👉🏼Holding (DWTC freezone)

👉🏼Engineering, electronics, technology (Dubai silicon oasis)

➡️Infrastructure

👉🏼Availability of office space (in almost all free zones)

👉🏼Availability of warehouse facilities (JAFZA, IFZA, DAFZ)

👉🏼Opportunity to work in Mainalnd (DWTC, Meydan, DMCC)

👉🏼Ability to work in a free zone (DMCC, DWTC, Meydan)

In each free zone you are given a personal manager who answers all questions and helps if difficulties arise.

Some free zones may request additional documents, such as a resume of the founders, a business plan of the company, bank statements, information about the residence of the founders.

The license approval period takes from 5 days, in some free zones there are several stages of approval, which takes about three weeks.

The license can be renewed annually by providing an audit report.

Getting additional approval

The procedure for obtaining a license in a free zone takes longer, but does not require your presence. Documents can be submitted online, then record a video confirming your identity (directly on the free zone portal) and wait for the license to be approved.

Some licenses also require additional approval from the municipality or other government agencies. Often you simply upload the necessary documents to the government agency’s website and wait for a response.

After the license is issued, you will find it in your mail.


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