Almost actual, yet approximate cost and Procedures to establish a new business in Dubai

When I speak about cost, I actually mean different elements of it

1. Licensing /operational permit cost of a business
2. Cost of making physical office (rent, fit out, decoration)
3. Cost of manpower (how many employees to be hired)
4. Marketing cost to enter in local market.
Before providing you a cost estimate I would like to define all the procedures/steps for establishing new license
Procedures to establish a new business
Cost of making new license vary depending on the activity and legal form of the license to register. Detailed procedures/steps
and costs related to them to establish/register a new license is as under:
Trade Name
Select a name of your license; keep different options for the name as you cannot just keep any name of any new license. You
have to get it approved from department of economic development, department is the sole authority to give you approval for
your decided business name. Name can be rejected due to following reasons:
Name already exist in the market under registration of department
Name is not sufficient to be allowed
Name does not match with the activity to be performed under it (a company in a business of trading products choose a name
like products services is not appropriate and allowed. It must be something like products trading. Service means repairs
maintenance e.t.c and trading means buying and selling)
Documents required to reserve a trade name
Passport copies of all the partners, their visa/residential status, emirates ids of resident partners, and some chosen names
Take all the papers and names list to tasheel or ontime office and they will register your trade name under DED (department of
economic development) . You can also reserve a trade name online if you have an online eservices id of DED
Initial Approval
initial yet very important step of registering a license, under which the capability to get in the license of all the partners is seen,
their background checks if any, security checks if any, objections if any, NOCs if any. This also is the step where a separate
personal identification number is been allotted to every partner, which in future represent them everywhere. This is the process
where legal form of the license is been defined (LLC, Sole Establishment, Civil Company)
Initial approval can be rejected due to following reasons:
One of the partner including local UAE National partner (which is a must for every mainland license) having any issue with
government, any fine, any objection
One of the partners having any criminal record any pending case

Documents required for an initial approval

License Application typed and signed, Passport copies of all the partners, emirates ids if any, family book of local partner, visit
visa copy if one partner is on visit visa, NOC letter from the company in which any partner already working as employee, stating
that company dont have any objection if its employee get in the license as investor/partner/owner
Take all these documents to tasheel or ontime office anywhere in dubai and get done with your initial approval. Initial approval
can also be issued before selecting any trade name of the company
Stamp
A company stamp can be made after trade name and initial approval, which is required at the time of issuing license and further
on every transaction of license with departments. Copy of trade name, initial approval, and copy of local partners emirates id is
enough to get a stamp. Not every typing center issue stamp, you can get it urgently in 30 minutes, from presto offices in tawar
center, minutes shops in mirdif city center and deira city center malls. A P.O.Box number is also required on a stamp, which you
can get from emirates post office by showing them copy of your initial approval paper and trade name
Court papers Typing
After trade name and initial approval, comes the step to make an agreement about the company, and between partners
according to the legal form of the license to be register.
For LLC (Limited Liability Company) llc agreement is been made which defines all the information regarding company, details
about the owners/partners/manager of company, profit and loss distribution in the license, ownership distribution of partners. A
sample llc agreement is attached in the photos for a better idea about it.
For Sole Establishment (company owned by a single person), if the company is to be registered under 100% owner ship of UAE
National than there is not any agreement needed to be signed or made, if the company is to be registered under 100%
ownership of expatriate partner (partner who is not UAE National) than a Service Agent Agreement is to be made defining that
local partner is only a service agent of the company and for it he will be paid a fixed amount annually.
For Civil Company (company owned by more than one expatriate partners) two agreements are to get typed, one agreement
called partnership agreement which define ownership and profit & loss among all the expatriate partners and second agreement
a service agent agreement between local partner and expatriate partners (same as under sole establishment case)
Documents for Agreement
Copy of trade name and initial approval, passport & id copies if any, take these papers to any of the typing centers in dubai and
they will type and print it and furthermore will get it attest from a legal translator if the agreement is been typing in English and
Arabic both. If agreement is only in Arabic language, it does not need to be attested from legal translators. Normally 4 sets of
one agreement are made, as one original set is been kept by notary public department for records, one set is required for DED
department at the time of issuing license, one set is to be with local partner and one set with all other partners.
Notary Public (Normally knows as Court)
After the typing of agreements all the partners need to get this attested by Notary Public Dubai Courts commercial section. All
the partners are first required to personally get present in front of judge and sign the agreement, after sign the agreement is to
get stamped from notary public section by paying the fee of notary public which the judge write on while taking signs from all
the partners.

Ejari / Tenancy Contract of office

Partners can get an office space on rent after initial approval, going through court agreement is not necessary for getting an
office. After taking office space, make the tenancy contract under the name of company and register its ejari with land
department dubai. Ejari is a must to register every tenancy contract in order to further use it in your license; normally the
landlords or their agents assist in making tenancy contracts and get them register for ejari
License
After trade name initial approval, court and ejari comes the step to get the license printed from Department of Economic
development (DED). Take the application typed for initial approval, trade name, initial approval, one set of original notary public
agreement and ejari to tasheel, ontime or directly to Economic department office. They will check in the system all the papers
and after on if no objection, will issue payment voucher for issuance of license. This voucher can be paid in bank, post office
tasheel department and even online using a credit card. After paying the fee they will issue you license
All above mentioned steps were to get the license, after the license every new company/license is to be registered with two
main departments, immigration and labor department. This registration is done through establishment cards (immigration
establishment card & labor establishment card)
Immigration establishment card
This card is a registration of every new company with immigration department to issue visas (investor, employment) under
sponsorship of company.
Documents required for immigration establishment card
Application (available at every typing center), License copy, agreement copy, ejari copy, copy of passport, emirates id for all the
partners who are to put their name in the card with their signs, so in future they can issue visas from immigration by signing any
of the partner who are on the card, and location map (even a drawing by hand) of the company showing where your office is
situated in dubai
Visit visa holders cannot add their name in immigration card; they first have to change their visa to investor/partner only than
their name can be added to immigration card. This card is a must to get eligible to issue any visa from immigration on the license
After typing of card application stamp it using company stamp, take signature of all the partners who are to be in card on the
back side of card under their names, local partner is to sign on both of the sides of application card (front with stamp, and back
side under his/her name). Take all mentioned documents to immigration department jafliya, go to establishments section in
section 2 of jafliya and they will issue your immigration card
If you need to get investor/partner visa of all or any partner you dont have to go through labor establishment card (which is to
open employment visas with labor department), after getting immigration card you can apply for partner visa (get entry permit
application typed from any typing center, seal it with company stamp and get the signature of any of the partners among those
who are in the immigration establishment card, attach license copy, immigration card copy, passport copy of partner whos visa
is to get, visit visa copy if the person is on visit visa, cancelation paper copy if the person canceled his old visa and transferring to
partner visa, court agreement copy)
Labor Establishment Card
After being done with immigration card, comes the final step of company formation which is labor card to get your company
register with labor department so in future you can hire employees.
Labor card in fact labor department is most critical element of every company established in dubai, there are many formalities
and procedures for it. It is not as simple as immigration card to add names of every partner on the card so every partner gets the
authority to represent the company with labor department, every partner who wishes to add his name in labor establishment

card also called labor file of company, needs to go through an undertaking from local UAE National partner in court, this
undertaking is called (iqrar tahood, taukeel iqrar) in English form 2 (a sample is attached for your reference in images)
Documents required getting labor establishment card
Application card typed from any typing center, license copy, passport copies, emirates id copies of all the partners who are to be
in the card (form 2 from court is must for every expatriate partner to have authority to sign in labor department if only locals
name is to be in the labor card than there is not any need to go through the undertaking), agreement copy, location map issued
by department of municipality (check the landlord or agent from whom you have taken office for a location map) or you can
submit a hand drawn copy of location map, immigration establishment card copy, sign and stamp of company
Take all the documents to tasheel center, buy an e dirham card (in tasheel department almost every transaction of labor you
need an e dirham card) deposit some money in it, go to any counter with token submit all the papers. Tasheel department will
put your transaction by issuing personal number of local sponsor and all other partners who are in labor card, you will then have
to take all these papers to labor main office in AL Qusais for the activation of your new labor file. Labor department will allot a
number to your company which will represent you for all your transactions with labor.
These are almost all the basic procedures every new license goes through, obviously there are other complications as well
according to the chosen activity of any license to start, there are some specific approvals required for specific businesses which
we will clear in other posts. And I definitely cannot post all the concerned details in only one post, is why consider this a basic
but detailed procedures summary to establish a new license in dubai U.A.E
Almost actual, yet approximate cost to establish a new business in Dubai
When I speak about cost, I actually mean different elements of it
1. Licensing /operational permit cost of a business
2. Cost of making physical office (rent, fit out, decoration)
3. Cost of manpower (how many employees to be hired)
4. Marketing cost to enter in local market.
Cost of License (in UAE DIRHAM)
Trade Name

610

Initial Approval

110

Court Agreement Typing

500 approximate

Notary Public Fee

1000 to 2200

License fee Professional

7000 approximate

License fee Commercial

15000 approximate

License fee General Trading

27000 approximate

Fee of local sponsor

8 to 10000 approximate

Immigration estab Card

900

Labor est Card (labor file)

2100

Tenancy contract, depending upon the office size and area (minimum rent is around 40,000 to 50,000 annually in 4 payments)
Office fit outs (decoration, office furniture, and all other expenses to start a new office including approvals if any) costs around
25 to 50,000 for a normal office. If office is big in size than this cost may vary from 70,000 to 100,000
There Is also an option to take a furnished office in some business center, but not all the licenses can be started in any business
center.
Ejari for registering tenancy contract with land department costs 195 AED, but for ejari companies first have to get register with
dewa (dubai electricity and water authority) by paying a security deposit of 2000.
Most investors who on a very small scale just for their survival do establish their license without any physical office, by acquiring
a virtual office (office just in papers) which cost them from 5000 to 10,000
A professional license (saloons, IT Services, e.t.c) can be completed in around 20,000 to 25,000 which include local fee, license
fee, and immigration & labor cards. Cost of office/tenancy/ejari is not included in it.
A commercial license (trading e.t.c) can be completed in around 25 to 30,000. Some specific license/activities cost more with a
complexity of taking approvals with other authorities as well
Cost to hire new employee (per person)
To hire employees on company cost break up is as follows
Quota approvals, which costs 250 approximate per quota approved, after when your quota is approved with labor department
you put details of your employee (take passport copy of employee and one picture to tasheel department) they will charge you
with a fee of 3000 per person to hire as bank guarantee, 2000 for labor card fee depending on the category of company. After
paying this fee to tasheel labor department link the status of employee with immigration and you must than visit immigration
department to take visa. Typing of visa is needed at this stage which costs 410 if employee is outside UAE and 1060 if employee
is already inside UAE. After visa status change + emirates id + medical is required costing around 1000 to 1500. After emirates id,
medical last and final step is pasting of visa on passport, for which a typing cost of 550 would be paid.
In short a cost of around 7000 per employee is to be paid after completion of license.
Marketing Cost
Advertisement is way expensive in Dubai if using proper channels (newspapers, tv e.t.c), and I believe is not that effective for a
new business, the best marketing way for UAE is words of Mouth. More you have links and contacts with key company
persons and more you are part of professional gatherings, more business you can generate.