What this is
Incorporating the entity, in the jurisdiction the business actually needs.
The decision that matters
Mainland gives direct access to the onshore UAE market and costs more to run. A commercial free zone is faster and cheaper and cannot contract freely onshore. A financial free zone gives you a common-law system and its own regulator. Offshore gives you a holding vehicle and nothing else.
None of them authorises a regulated activity. That is a separate permission, and if it is in contemplation it should drive the incorporation decision rather than follow it.
What the work involves
Trade name and activity selection, which is more consequential than it looks — the activity code has to genuinely describe the business or it will not survive a regulator reading it. Incorporation documents. The attestation chain for foreign corporate shareholders, which is usually the longest lead item. Establishment card, visa quota and bank introduction.
Group structures
Where a holding layer, an intellectual property vehicle or a founder company is genuinely useful, we structure it. Where it is being added because it sounds sophisticated, we say so — each layer is a recurring cost and another set of filings.
Reguladores
Preguntas frecuentes
Free zone or mainland?
Free zone, unless the customers are onshore UAE entities. That single question decides it more often than any other.
Fuentes
- Scope of work described here reflects our practice, not a regulatory requirement — Regulatory statements on these pages carry the same review status as elsewhere on the site