When talking about the UAE corporate solutions, it may look quite different when compared to other jurisdictions. The possibility to register companies of different types and in different free zones can make the choosing of the right company type in the UAE to be a challenging task. In this overview we aim to simplify for you the process on how to choose a company type and place of its registration across the UAE. We also help you to choose the right company in Dubai or other part of the UAE which would be least expensive for your particular needs.
Note: please bear in mind that when choosing the right company you need to see not only its price and choose the one which is simply the least expensive. You need to make sure that the company you choose is the right combination of low cost, the necessary license, facilities, number of visas (if required) and price, and not concentrate on the price factor only.
There are main 3 types of companies in the UAE – main land, free zone onshore and free zone offshore. Each type has its specifics, licensing requirements, business premises requirements, visas regulations and costs. If talking just about the price factor, the least expensive ones are free zone offshore companies, followed by free zone onshore and then – the mainland companies. However this is right only if we choose the basic types of companies. For example, a free zone onshore company in Dubai International Financial City would be more expensive than a regular mainland company. Thus the right choice depends on number of factors and the “cheap” solution may not be the right one for you.
We start with the mainland companies which may be the right solution to choose in case you plan to do business inside UAE and the free zone solution does not fit the requirements. For example, you need to open your business in a certain location in Dubai which is not in a Free Zone. The mainland company is not the cheapest solution, however in such case it is the only option for you to choose from. Some other cases may also make the registration of such company to be the only option, for example, certain activities can be performed by mainland companies only. Such activities include real estate brokerage and tourism in the country and some other ones.
Second scenario – you are not linked to a certain location, but have certain requirements in terms of facilities and infrastructure, for example, you require a physical storage or production space and need to have the proximity to a port or airport. In such case a free zone company in a free zone which offers what you require would be the cheapest solution as other options would not fit your requirements.
Third scenario – your business may touch the UAE and / or be outside of the country, but you are not bound to a certain main UAE territory (for example, to a certain shopping mall or a district) or the territory of a particular free zone. In this case the right solution would be to choose one of the free zones where you can obtain the type of the license you require and the overall company costs would be the optimal when compared to available and applicable alternatives.
Other scenario - you just need a company to execute your international business means all what you need in the UAE is just a company and bank account – in such case the right and the cheapest solution would be the UAE offshore company with the bank account in one of the banks in Dubai.
As you can see there may be very different cases and requirements for your company thus to know how to choose the right and least expensive one, you need to factor all the components and requirements it needs to meet. And then you can choose the cheapest and most effective one from the solutions which are available for your particular needs.
In case you need a guidance on selecting the right low cost company type – please get in touch with us and we provide you all the info you need and you would know how to make the right choice on the corporate solution in the UAE.
