Telephone Numbers
Telephone Numbers
For detailed information +90 542 381 3868'Call.
Short answer: Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET, still widely called the DED) issues four main licence families – commercial, professional, industrial and tourism. Your activity code decides which family you fall into, which external approvals you need, and how long your licence will take. Choosing the wrong code is the single most common and most expensive setup mistake.
A commercial licence covers buying, selling, importing, exporting and distributing goods. General trading is a broader and more expensive variant of it that lets you deal in many unrelated product groups under one code.
A professional licence covers knowledge-based services: software development, marketing and management consultancy, engineering, accounting, design, training and similar. It is usually the cheapest route and the fastest to issue, because fewer external approvals are involved.
An industrial licence is required for manufacturing, assembly, processing and packaging. It brings municipality, civil defence and environmental approvals with it, so both the timeline and the budget sit well above the other categories.
A tourism licence applies to travel agencies, tour operators and hospitality activities, and requires clearance from the Department of Economy and Tourism’s tourism arm alongside financial guarantees in some sub-categories.
The most frequent misunderstanding we see is a consultancy applying for a commercial licence. If you sell expertise rather than goods, you belong under a professional licence. Conversely, a professional licence will not cover product sales; the mismatch surfaces the moment you issue your first invoice.
DET describes every economic activity with a standardised code. There are well over a thousand of them, and each one maps to a licence category and, where relevant, to an external regulator. Food-related activities need Dubai Municipality clearance, healthcare needs the Dubai Health Authority, real estate brokerage needs RERA registration, and financial advisory needs approval from the relevant regulator. Choosing a code is therefore not paperwork: it sets your timeline and your budget.
You can hold several codes under one licence, provided they sit in compatible categories. Most licences comfortably accommodate three to ten codes, with the fee rising in steps as you add more. Trying to squeeze two genuinely unrelated businesses under a single licence is usually a false economy; a second company is often cleaner and cheaper to administer.
Start by listing the invoice lines you expect to issue over the next three years. Every invoice line is an activity, and every activity needs a code. Then split the list in two: revenue you will earn now, and revenue you hope to earn later. Add the first group to the licence without hesitation. Evaluate the second group against whether it triggers an external approval – adding a regulated code prematurely can delay your licence by weeks.
The second rule is to think about the language your customers will use in their contracts. Corporate buyers and government entities expect the service they are purchasing to appear explicitly on your licence. When the contract subject and the licence wording diverge, payments stall in the supplier onboarding process. Choose codes against commercial reality, not against the cheapest option on the price list.
| Business model | Licence family | Likely external approval |
|---|---|---|
| Software development and IT consultancy | Professional | Usually none |
| General trading and import | Commercial | Customs code, product-specific clearance |
| Cafe, restaurant or food retail | Commercial | Dubai Municipality, civil defence |
| Clinic or aesthetic services | Professional | Dubai Health Authority |
| Real estate brokerage | Commercial | RERA registration and broker card |
| Travel agency | Tourism | Tourism authority approval, bank guarantee |
| Small-scale manufacturing and packaging | Industrial | Municipality, environment, civil defence |
Notice that external approvals are almost always assessed together with your address. Civil defence looks at the building’s fire systems; the municipality inspects everything from kitchen ventilation to waste handling. For food and healthcare activities in particular, arrange a pre-inspection before signing the lease and you will avoid an expensive fit-out surprise.
Naming rules are strict. Religious and political references are refused, as are country names and anything confusingly similar to a registered trademark. If a shareholder’s personal name is used, it must appear in full rather than as initials. Reservations are typically valid for six months. Prepare three alternatives so a rejection does not stall the project.
Activity codes and the shareholding structure are submitted here. Initial approval is the government saying it has no objection to your business; it is not yet a licence, but it unlocks the following steps.
Depending on the code, municipality, health authority, civil defence or a sector regulator becomes involved. This is the least predictable part of the process and can take two to six weeks in regulated sectors.
The memorandum is notarised and the Ejari-registered tenancy contract is uploaded. The address must be zoned for the activity you selected.
Once fees are settled the trade licence is issued electronically, followed by the establishment card, the labour file and your visa quota.
The memorandum sets out more than share percentages: profit distribution and signing authority are defined there too. Share percentage and profit share can be set differently, which matters for companies taking on investors. Appointing a general manager is mandatory and that person is named on the licence. Defining the general manager’s authority precisely avoids arguments with banks and government departments later. Corporate shareholders are permitted, but the parent company’s documents must be apostilled and legally translated into Arabic – add two to three weeks to the timeline for that.
Corporate tax registration is required after licensing, regardless of whether tax is actually payable. VAT registration is mandatory once taxable supplies exceed AED 375,000 and voluntary above AED 187,500. Ultimate beneficial owner filings, record-keeping duties and, depending on your sector, anti-money-laundering obligations also apply. See our overview of the Dubai tax system for the full framework.
Trade licences renew annually and a valid Ejari contract is a condition of renewal. Late renewal attracts penalties and can block visa transactions. Adding an activity code, changing a shareholder or updating the address each requires a separate amendment application, a reissued licence and the associated fees. Getting the code right at incorporation is always cheaper than correcting it later.
A professional licence with no external approvals typically runs from name reservation to issuance in one to two weeks. Activities needing municipality or civil defence clearance can stretch to four to six weeks. On budget, the licence fee is only one line: office, visas and government charges determine the total. See our Mainland cost breakdown for the detail, and our Mainland versus free zone comparison if you are still choosing a structure.
First, picking the cheapest-looking code and then bending the business to fit it – this surfaces at the first audit or the first corporate client. Second, loading every future ambition onto the licence at day one, which raises the fee and can trigger approvals you did not need yet. Third, signing a lease before confirming that your activity is permitted at that address. Avoid these three and the application usually goes through cleanly. If you would like the code mapping done for your specific model, our Dubai company formation team can prepare it.
Free zone authorities maintain their own activity lists, and they do not always mirror the DET catalogue. An activity that is straightforward on the mainland may be unavailable in a particular zone, or may be described differently and carry different approval requirements. This matters more than most founders expect, because banks and corporate clients read the licence wording literally. Before committing to a zone, ask for the exact activity description that will appear on your licence and compare it with the DET equivalent.
There is also a substance dimension. Free zone companies hoping to benefit from the qualifying free zone tax regime must be able to demonstrate genuine activity within the zone, and the activity has to fall within the qualifying list. A licence description that is vague or mismatched can undermine that position during a review, so precision at the licensing stage protects you at the tax stage.
Getting the paperwork ready in advance is the simplest way to compress the timeline. For individual shareholders you will normally need passport copies valid for at least six months, a recent photograph on a plain background, and an entry stamp or residence visa copy if you are already in the country. For corporate shareholders, expect to provide the certificate of incorporation, memorandum and articles, a board resolution authorising the new entity, and a certificate of good standing – all apostilled and translated into Arabic.
Beyond identity documents, prepare a one-page business description. Regulators and banks both ask for it, and a clear description written once saves repeating yourself across five different forms. Include your target customers, your revenue model, your expected annual turnover and the countries you will trade with. Vague answers here are the most common trigger for additional questions later in the process.
Most licences comfortably carry three to ten related codes. The fee increases in steps, and unrelated activities may require a separate licence.
Yes, through an amendment application. It means a reissued licence and fresh fees, and any newly added regulated activity will need its own approval.
No. Product sales belong under a commercial licence. Mixing the two without amending the licence creates a compliance gap.
One year in the standard case, renewed annually against a valid tenancy contract.
+90 542 381 3868
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