Key takeaways
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Advertised entry price | From AED 12,900 for a zero-visa licence, indicative |
| Median year one, one visa | AED 23,500 across our own IFZA files, with a range of AED 19,500 to 34,000 |
| What the package buys | A visa quota, not a visa. Each visa is charged on top, every time |
| Largest line after the licence | Visa processing at AED 4,600 to 6,700 per person |
| Multi-year saving | 10 to 15 percent at two years, about 20 percent at three, 25 to 30 percent at five, on the licence fee only |
| Late renewal | AED 1,000 a month on the licence, plus AED 1,000 a month on the establishment card |
| Year two | AED 26,800 to 40,200 for a one-visa company that stays under the simplified statement threshold |
IFZA advertises a licence from AED 12,900. The number is real. It is also the smallest number you will ever see attached to this zone. It buys a Dubai trade licence with no visa, no immigration file and no bank account.
The gap between that figure and the true IFZA licence cost is not a trick. It is a division of labour. The free zone is the licensing authority. It registers the company, issues the trade licence and amends it. Almost everything a working business needs sits outside that licence, on a different invoice, on a different date.
Across the IFZA files in our own client book, the median all-in spend in year one for a one-visa consultant is AED 23,500. This page shows how AED 12,900 becomes that, line by line. Every figure here is indicative and reflects our current quoting practice rather than a published authority rate. Ask for a written quotation before you budget.
What an IFZA licence costs in year one
The realistic IFZA licence cost for a solo consultant taking one residence visa on a flexi desk in Dubai builds like this. It is the single most common IFZA shape we handle.
| Line item | Indicative 2026 cost |
|---|---|
| IFZA licence package, one visa quota, flexi desk included | AED 14,900 |
| Establishment card, which opens the immigration file | AED 2,000 |
| Visa processing per person: entry permit, status change, medical, Emirates ID, stamping | AED 4,600 to 6,700 |
| Health insurance, basic compliant plan | AED 1,500 to 1,800 |
| ILOE unemployment insurance | AED 120 to 150 |
| Indicative year-one total | AED 23,120 to 25,550 |
Our own numbers sit right on that band. The median all-in year-one spend is AED 23,500. The full range runs from AED 19,500 to AED 34,000, and the middle half of files lands between AED 21,500 and AED 26,500. Median time from payment to licence issued is four working days.
A zero-visa licence is cheaper and behaves differently. It has no establishment card and no immigration file, so it stops at about AED 13,400 and stays there. That is the right product for a holding structure. It is the wrong product for anyone who needs to live here.
For a wider view of how this compares with other routes, we have set out the real cost of starting a business in Dubai across mainland and free zone options.
What sits on the IFZA invoice, and what lands after it
This is the whole answer to why a zone quote and a consultancy quote differ. Both are honest. They cover different things.
On the IFZA invoice:
- Trade licence fee, priced by activity count and visa quota
- Company registration and incorporation fee
- Flexi desk or workspace allocation
- Establishment card issuance
- Visa quota allocation, which is not refundable
- Portal, e-signature and document issuance charges
- 5 percent VAT on zone services
One myth worth killing here. IFZA does not take a security deposit on an investor or employment visa. A deposit applies only to an investor's dependent visa, and that is the one sum that comes back at liquidation.
After the licence is issued:
- Entry permit
- Status change if you are already in the UAE, or entry on the permit
- Medical fitness test
- Emirates ID
- Visa stamping
- Mandatory health insurance
- Corporate bank account application and compliance pack
- FTA corporate tax registration
- VAT registration where the thresholds are met
- UBO register filing
- Bookkeeping engagement
- The financial statement IFZA asks for at the first renewal
- Document attestation and legalisation where a corporate shareholder is involved
- PRO, typing centre and courier charges
- Mail handling or PO Box where the flexi desk does not include it
Seven items on the first list. Fifteen on the second. That imbalance is the entire reason a AED 14,900 headline turns into a AED 23,500 reality.
Your package buys a quota, not visas
This is the most misunderstood mechanic in IFZA pricing, and it costs founders real money.
A one-visa package does not contain a visa. It contains the right to issue one residence visa. The visa itself is charged separately, every single time, at AED 4,600 to AED 6,700 per person. Two visas means two full visa costs on top of the two-visa package price, not instead of it.
How the quota maps to headcount, and what each tier allows, is covered in IFZA Visa Quota: How Packages Set the Visa Count.
What does it cost to add a visa in month seven?
Adding a second visa mid-term costs AED 5,000 to AED 7,500 and takes 10 to 15 working days. That is a quota upgrade of roughly AED 2,000 from a one-visa to a two-visa allocation, plus the full visa processing cost of AED 4,600 to AED 6,700 for the person taking it.
The upgrade is available mid-term. You do not have to buy a fresh package at full price. But here is the part nobody publishes: the upgraded quota runs to your existing licence expiry, not for twelve months from purchase. Buy in month seven and you pay for a full quota slot while using five months of it. Then you pay the full two-visa rate again at renewal.
Mapping headcount across 18 months before you choose a package removes this cost entirely. It is the first thing our consultants model on any IFZA quote.
The corporate shareholder cost that sits outside the zone
A common assumption is that a corporate shareholder carries an IFZA surcharge. It does not. An IFZA licence takes up to three shareholders at no extra cost, whether they are people or companies. Beyond three, IFZA charges AED 350 per additional shareholder. That covers the extra entity review, the corporate structure entry on the register, and the appointment of a natural-person manager with specimen signature, which IFZA requires when no individual shareholder is on file.
The real cost sits outside the zone. Attestation and legalisation run AED 3,000 to AED 6,000 per corporate shareholder. Four documents drive it: the parent company's certificate of incorporation, its memorandum and articles, a board resolution authorising the UAE entity, and a certificate of incumbency or good standing.
Each one needs notarisation in the country of incorporation, UAE embassy attestation there, MOFA attestation here, and legal Arabic translation. Add five to ten working days before IFZA will even open the file.
Realistic all-in uplift once translation, the manager appointment and PRO handling are counted: AED 5,000 to AED 9,500. It doubles where there are two corporate shareholders in different jurisdictions. We quote this as a fixed line at proposal stage rather than a subject-to-attestation footnote, which is why we price the attestation leg before the file opens.
Multi-year prepayment: what the discount actually covers
IFZA sells two, three and five-year terms at a discount. The 2026 bands are roughly 10 to 15 percent on two years, about 20 percent on three, and 25 to 30 percent on five.
Two corrections matter more than the percentages.
The discount applies to the licence fee line only. Visa costs, the establishment card, health insurance and the annual financial statement are all charged as they fall due. A founder who reads 30 percent off and applies it to their whole year-one number will be short by several thousand dirhams.
Prepaid years are not refundable and not transferable. Close in year two of a five-year term and the remaining three years are gone. Move to another free zone or to mainland and they are equally gone. There is no credit mechanism between zones.
So we only recommend a multi-year term when three things are true: the activity is settled, the shareholder structure is settled, and there is no realistic mainland move in the next 36 months. Where a founder is still testing the market, one year at full price is the cheaper decision.
Having placed companies across more than 50 free zone partnerships since 2014, the restructures we see are rarely caused by the zone being wrong on day one. They are caused by the business changing faster than the prepayment allowed for.
What happens if you renew an IFZA licence late?
A late IFZA renewal costs AED 1,000 a month on the trade licence and a further AED 1,000 a month on the establishment card. For any company holding visas, the effective rate is AED 2,000 a month. The two documents carry different expiry dates, so a founder watching only the licence can be accruing on the card without knowing.
There is no published cap and no grace period we would ever advise relying on. The meter does not pause because you have decided to liquidate. It stops when the renewal is paid in full, or when deregistration completes.
The blocking sequence does more damage than the fine.
- From the expiry date, immigration transactions freeze. No new visas, no renewals, no cancellations. A staff member whose visa expires in that window has no legal route to renew
- Within weeks, portal amendments, activity changes, shareholder changes and quota upgrades all become unavailable
- Around 90 days, the file moves to non-compliant status. Nothing moves until settlement in full, and reinstatement adds its own processing time
Separately, a lapsed licence surfaces at your bank's annual KYC review and can freeze the account on its own, independently of anything IFZA does. We track the licence and the establishment card as two separate renewal dates, with advance notification, on every client we maintain.
What year two costs, and the item most founders put in the wrong year
Year one buys the licence. Year two is when compliance arrives. Here is the stack for a one-visa FZCO with turnover under AED 3 million.
| Year-two item | Indicative cost |
|---|---|
| Licence renewal, one visa | AED 14,900 to 17,100 |
| Establishment card renewal | AED 2,000 |
| Simplified financial statement | AED 500 to 1,500 |
| Bookkeeping, annual | AED 6,000 to 12,000 |
| Corporate tax return filing | AED 2,500 to 5,000 |
| Health insurance renewal | AED 900 to 1,800 |
| Realistic total | AED 26,800 to 40,200 |
Two of those items are missed in almost every published cost guide: the establishment card renewal and the health insurance renewal. Both are mandatory, and both fall on dates of their own, not on the licence date.
One item is usually placed in the wrong year. Corporate tax registration is a year-one obligation with an FTA deadline, not a year-two cost. Missing it carries an administrative penalty of AED 10,000 under Cabinet Decision No. 10 of 2024, which amended Cabinet Decision No. 75 of 2023 and took effect on 1 March 2024, under Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 on corporate taxation. What lands in year two is the return filing.
One threshold moves the number by several thousand dirhams. The simplified statement is available only where turnover is AED 3 million or less and the company had nine or fewer employees at any point in the financial year. Breach either condition and audited statements are required at AED 3,500 to AED 7,500, pushing year two toward AED 40,000. VAT filing, where the company is registered, adds AED 3,000 to AED 6,000 on top.
The same AED 3 million figure is the revenue ceiling for Small Business Relief under Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023, so crossing it changes your tax position and your reporting burden in the same year. As an FTA certified practice we run the threshold test at month nine, not at renewal, because an audited statement cannot be produced in the fortnight before a licence expires.
The renewal year itself is broken down in IFZA Licence Renewal: AED 17,100 One-Visa Cost.
Four variables that move an IFZA quote
What separates the bottom of our range from the top is not negotiation. The zone fee is the zone fee. Four things move the IFZA licence cost.
1. Activity classification
A green activity clears without external approval. An amber one adds regulator clearance, AED 2,000 to AED 6,000, and three to six weeks. This is decided before you pay, and it is the reason choosing your business activity in Dubai deserves an hour rather than a guess.
2. Shareholder type
A corporate shareholder adds AED 5,000 to AED 9,500, almost all of it attestation and translation outside the zone.
3. Activity count
Beyond the bundled allocation, each additional activity code runs AED 1,000 to AED 1,500. Founders add them defensively rather than accurately, and pay for codes they never invoice against. Which codes group together on one licence is covered in The IFZA Activity List: 2,000+ Activities, One Licence.
4. Banking
A first-application approval costs nothing extra. A re-application costs four to eight weeks and a second compliance pack. Approval always rests with the bank under its own compliance policy, and no consultant can guarantee it. What we can influence is the file, and opening a business bank account in Dubai is largely a document exercise. Across more than 4,500 corporate bank account applications, our first-application record is strong, and clients tell us it is better than what they see going alone. What makes a file land first time is set out in IFZA Bank Account: What Makes a Strong Application.
Where a client understands their activities clearly and brings complete documents, approval is straightforward in almost every file we handle, with minimal additional cost.
Want the exact number for your setup?
Tell us your activity, your headcount plan for the next 18 months and where your customers are. We will send a written quotation with every line shown, including the ones that land after the licence.The consultation is free and we quote the same way whether you take one visa or five.
When the cheap package is the wrong buy
IFZA is an excellent product for the right business. Four profiles regularly buy the wrong tier, and the repair costs more than the correct package would have.
You sell to UAE mainland businesses
A free zone licence cannot invoice mainland customers directly. The repair is either a free zone to mainland operating permit from DET, which requires a genuine physical office inside the free zone rather than a flexi desk, or a parallel mainland entity. Cost to fix: AED 7,000 to AED 15,000 for the permit route with the office upgrade on top, or AED 20,000 to AED 35,000 for a mainland licence with Ejari.
You bought zero visa and want residency later
A zero-visa licence has no establishment card and no immigration file. Adding both mid-term costs AED 6,000 to AED 9,500 and takes three to four weeks. The bigger loss is the residency clock, which matters for anything measured in years of UAE residence.
You bought zero visa and want a UAE bank account
Most banks want a resident signatory. Zero-visa files stall at compliance more often than they are formally declined, which is worse, because a stall gives you nothing to appeal. We do now arrange non-resident accounts for both companies and individuals, so this is solvable, but it is easier to avoid.
You declared a cheaper activity than the business performs
The amendment fee is minor. The consequences are not. A mismatch surfaces at bank review, at VAT registration and at corporate tax assessment, often all at once.
One from our own book. A management consultancy FZCO came to us having bought a zero-visa package on price alone. Within four months, about 80 percent of its pipeline was Dubai mainland corporates that needed a mainland-invoiceable supplier, and the founder needed residency for a tenancy. Repairing both took six weeks and roughly AED 26,000, more than the original package and the correct package combined.
The diagnostic that separates the right buyer from the wrong one is a single question asked before the invoice, not after: where does 80 percent of your year-one revenue come from?
Getting your IFZA licence cost right
AED 12,900 is an honest headline for an honest product. It is a Dubai trade licence and nothing more. Once you add a visa, an Emirates ID and a bank account, budget AED 23,500 as your central case and AED 26,500 as a comfortable ceiling. Then plan for year two, which most founders discover rather than budget.
Three decisions carry almost all of the IFZA licence cost risk: the activity you declare, the visa quota you buy, and whether you prepay years you may not use. Get those right and IFZA is one of the better value licences in Dubai. Get them wrong and the repair costs more than the saving.
If you want the comparison against pricier Dubai zones before you commit, that trade-off is covered in IFZA vs DMCC and Meydan: Budget vs Prestige Zones, and the sequence itself in How to Set Up an IFZA Company: Partner-Led Steps.
Our consultants have handled business setup in Dubai since 2014, and a written quotation with every line visible costs you nothing. Book a free consultation and we will build your number from your actual plan, not from a package page. More on the zone itself sits on our guide to the IFZA free zone in Dubai Silicon Oasis.
