Business Setup Consultants in Sharjah: Which Route, What Fee

Key facts: our Sharjah setup service

Nine in ten of the Sharjah companies we set up are not on the Sharjah mainland. They are in a Sharjah free zone. That is an odd thing for business setup consultants in Sharjah to say first. It is also the most useful thing we can tell you before you sign a lease.

Sharjah has two licensing systems, and they suit different businesses. A firm that files only one of them will sell you that one. We file both. So this page answers two questions, in order: which route fits your business, and what we charge to run it. Every AED figure here is indicative for 2026.

Sharjah has two systems, and we file both

The Sharjah Economic Development Department (SEDD) licenses companies on the mainland. Each Sharjah free zone licenses its own. The two share no office rule, no visa rule and no price list.

The office rule is what separates them. A mainland licence needs a walled unit with a tenancy contract in the company's name, attested by Sharjah City Municipality. A shared desk does not pass. A free zone company can run on a flexi desk. That one difference decides most files.

This is the house rule our team works to:

We are a channel partner for SHAMS, SPC Free Zone, SRTIP and Hamriyah Free Zone. On the mainland, our in-house PRO team files at SEDD under our own representative card, with no partner firm or typing centre in between. SEDD issues commercial, professional and industrial licences. Foreign owners can hold 100 per cent of a Sharjah mainland LLC for the common commercial and professional activities, with no local sponsor.

An auto spare parts trader came to us asking for a Sharjah mainland LLC, because he assumed he needed a shop licence. He had no shopfront, held no stock in Sharjah, and sold to buyers abroad and to other traders. We set him up as an SRTIP free zone company instead. The deciding fact was that he had no walk-in customers and no mainland retail invoices.

A tutoring business we placed in SRTIP is just as typical. It had no stock, no walk-in customers and one owner visa. A mainland licence would have doubled its fixed costs for nothing it needed.

The general trade-off is set out in our guide to free zone vs mainland in Dubai, and the same logic holds in Sharjah. The Sharjah version is in Sharjah Free Zone vs Mainland: Desk, Stock or Shopfront?.

Who gets paid on a Sharjah mainland file

Most quotes for business setup services in Sharjah give one number. It helps to see who receives each part of it. This is a one-shareholder LLC with one activity and one investor visa.

With our fee, year one before rent comes to about AED 24,000 to 30,000, before VAT on our fee. Health insurance sits outside every line.

SEDD prices the licence from your lease. Its fee is 13 per cent of the attested annual rent, or 8 per cent where every partner is Emirati. Those are the rates on SEDD's licence issuance page and in its FAQ. The rest of the voucher is made of SEDD's smaller published lines:

On a small office we budget up to AED 11,000 for the whole voucher. Treat that as a ceiling for planning, not a quote. On SEDD's own lines, the voucher only reaches AED 11,000 at a rent of roughly AED 70,000 a year, and an AED 30,000 office lands near half of that. That is our arithmetic from the published lines, not a figure from a voucher. Your own lease and company type set the real number. Because the voucher is budgeted at its top, the totals in the table above are ceilings too.

Year two is lighter. Budget about AED 13,500 to 15,500 before rent, on the same ceiling basis, because the investor visa runs for two years. It returns in year three at AED 4,000 to 5,500.

The trade name line moves with the name you choose. An Arabic name lands near AED 1,000. A translated or foreign name pushes the file to the top of the band. The full build, year by year, is in Sharjah Mainland Licence Cost: Before Rent, After Rent.

What our fee covers, and what moves it

Our fee starts at AED 5,000 on a standard one-visa LLC, and rises to about AED 6,000 on a complex file. It is agreed in writing before work starts. VAT at 5 per cent is added to our fee. Government fees are passed on at cost, with no VAT added by us. The fee sits on its own line, below the government costs, so you can see which part is ours.

So the fee follows the work on the file, not the size of the company. A band top of AED 30,000 allows for a fee of up to AED 6,000 on a harder file.

Two things stay with you whatever we are paid. You supply the documents, starting with passport copies. And you attend the medical test and the Emirates ID biometrics in person.

Four commitments come with every engagement. A fixed fee, agreed in writing before work starts; that is our fee, and government fees are charged at actual cost. A reply on WhatsApp within 24 hours, which is a reply time, not a promise that the issue is closed in 24 hours. One named coordinator on your file. And the same in-house team on your renewals.

The lease is checked before the licence is priced

On the Sharjah mainland, SEDD will not price your licence until the tenancy is attested, and the licence fee is a percentage of the rent. So a wrong lease costs you twice: once in rent, and again on the SEDD voucher and in weeks. That is why reading the lease offer and the landlord's ownership documents is a standard step on every Sharjah file we run. Three checks come before any signature.

• The unit against the activity. A partitioned business-centre room with its own contract passes for an office activity. Anything that holds stock, prepares food, repairs vehicles, treats patients or cuts hair needs a shop, workshop or clinic unit.
• The unit against the headcount. Sharjah publishes no visa ratio per square metre. Immigration sets the quota after the licence, from the activity and the attested unit size together. On a starter office of 150 to 200 sq ft we plan on three visas. Trading activities get less room than consultancies.
• The landlord's paperwork. The Municipality will not attest a lease while the owner's documents are out of date. One Sharjah branch we opened took three weeks instead of seven working days for exactly that reason.

Send us the lease offer before you sign it. An offer is far easier to change than a signed lease.

Sharjah does not use Dubai's Ejari system. The Municipality attestation does that job. Once the stamp is on the contract, we request SEDD's technical evaluation of the premises the same day. A business-centre office usually clears on documents alone. Shops, workshops and food activities get a physical inspection. If you have no unit yet, we introduce landlords and agents we already work with, and the options are set out under our office setup service. The premises rule in full is in Sharjah Business Setup: Start With the Office, Not the Fee.

The order we run a SEDD file in

The table below is a representative run for a single-shareholder trading LLC in a business-centre office.

These are representative ranges from our own practice, not service levels. SEDD captures the beneficial owner details at registration, before the licence issues, and we file them with the licence. The establishment card is still a separate application after the licence in Sharjah. Door to door, a clean file reaches the first Emirates ID in about four weeks when the founder is already in the UAE. A founder flying in should allow four to six.

Some activities wait for another authority before SEDD can issue. Food, health, education, media and finance all do, and that can add weeks. The way to map this early is the same in every emirate, and it is set out in our guide to choosing a business activity. The Sharjah rules are in Sharjah Trade Licence Activities: The Category Decides.

We work the trade name and the initial approval to a 90-day window, and we renew them before they lapse. A lapsed name can be taken while you wait. Each step in filing order is covered in Sharjah Mainland Company Formation: Lease, Licence, Visa.

Want your route settled before you sign anything?

Tell us what you will sell, where your customers are, who needs a visa in year one, and whether customers will visit you. We will tell you mainland or free zone, which unit passes, and send a written quote with our fee on its own line. Call or WhatsApp +971 52 233 0011, or email connect@best-solution.ae. The consultation is free.

Running the file while you are abroad

Everything up to the visa can run without you in the country.

1. Sign a power of attorney at home. You sign it before a notary in your own country. The UAE embassy there attests it, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs attests it here, and it is translated into Arabic. A power of attorney attested this way is accepted. It does not need to be notarised again in the UAE.
2. We sign and file for you. Our representative signs the memorandum under that power of attorney at SEDD's legal affairs step. A non-resident cannot hold a verified UAE PASS, so the SEDD steps run under our representative card as the filing agent.
3. You fly in once. Plan one trip of five working days for the medical test and the biometrics. Book a full week, so a medical retest does not force a second flight. Fly only once the entry permit is issued.

Start the power of attorney first. Embassy attestation is the slowest part of a remote file, and it often takes longer than the whole SEDD leg. Our notary and power of attorney service prepares the wording, our UAE attestation team runs the chain, and legal translation handles the Arabic.

A company as shareholder adds an attestation chain of its own for its corporate papers, and that is one of the things that raises the fee.

If the right answer is a free zone

For a business that needs no walled office, a zone removes the largest line on a mainland file, which is the rent.

On the same one-visa basis, year one in SPC Free Zone, SHAMS or SRTIP runs about AED 14,000 to 17,000 in zone and government costs. That covers the licence, the registration, the desk, the establishment card and the investor visa. It is about a quarter less than the mainland budget before rent, and the desk is already in it. Year two runs about AED 7,500 to 9,500.

Our fee on a free zone file starts at AED 2,500 plus VAT, shown on its own line, as on a mainland file. It is lower than the mainland fee because there is no memorandum to draft, no tenancy to attest and no SEDD run.

Visas work differently in each zone. At SPC and SHAMS you buy the visa count as a package. At SRTIP the office size sets it.

What a zone company cannot do is open a shopfront in the city or invoice every mainland customer directly. If that need comes later, the usual route is a SEDD branch of the zone company, or a mainland distributor. A representative case: a furniture wholesaler in SHAMS found that its fit-out customers wanted local tax invoices and next-day delivery. It opened a SEDD branch with a small warehouse and kept the SHAMS company for export invoicing.

Our free zone licence team files the zone side. Each zone has its own guide: SPC Free Zone in its Sharjah Publishing City setup guide, SHAMS in its Sharjah Media City setup guide, SRTIP in SRTIP Free Zone Setup: Sharjah's Innovation Park and Hamriyah in Hamriyah Free Zone: Sharjah's Heavy-Industry Hub.

Two shorter mainland routes we screen for

The Instant Licence. SEDD issues it for activities that need no outside approval. In year one it needs no attested lease and no notarised memorandum, and it caps the team at three. SEDD's own wording is "within one day". That is SEDD's figure, not ours. Budget up to AED 18,000 in year one before visas, with our fee included. That is a practitioner figure from our own quoting and a ceiling, because SEDD publishes no fee schedule for the Instant Licence.

The lease is deferred, not removed. The full file comes due at the first renewal. So we steer three kinds of client away from it: anyone who needs more than three staff, anyone with a non-office activity, and anyone who will need a lease in year one anyway, for a bank account or an employee visa.

A branch. Half of our Sharjah mainland files are Dubai companies expanding north. A Sharjah branch office keeps one legal entity and adds a Sharjah address. Budget up to AED 18,000 before rent and visas, again as a ceiling. The branch still needs its own attested Sharjah unit, and a free zone parent adds a no-objection certificate from its zone. A foreign trade name on a branch carries SEDD's higher name fee, so it sits outside the trade name line in the table above.

The bank account: our part and the bank's

The bank decides, under its own compliance policy. No consultant controls that, and we will not promise an account.

Our part is the file. We prepare the business summary, the source of funds note and the ownership pack. We make one introduction to a bank that suits the activity, and we prepare you for the interview. The firm has supported more than 4,500 corporate bank account applications.

Two Sharjah points. Sharjah has full branch networks, so you meet the bank at a Sharjah branch and are not sent to another emirate. And banks apply the same substance test here as in Dubai: a real office, and an activity that matches the money coming in. Plan on three to six weeks from a complete file with the Emirates ID in hand. Open the application once the Emirates ID issues, not at the licence stage. What a strong file looks like is set out in opening a business bank account in Dubai.

After year one: renewals on a calendar

A Sharjah licence renews every year, and the lease has to be ready first. We work each renewal to three dates.

• 90 days before expiry. We open the file and check fines, approvals and the lease end date.
• 45 days before. The renewed lease should be signed and attested.
• 30 days before. We file with SEDD.

From a signed, renewed lease to the licence usually takes three to five working days on our files. SEDD's guidance asks for an attested contract that stays valid for at least three months after you submit. There is no grace period. The late fine starts from AED 200 a month on the expiry date and rises from there, and we count a part month as a full one.

An owner abroad renews through us and does not need to travel. An Instant Licence adds one more date: a lease deadline at month nine, because the full file falls due at the first renewal.

Our trade licence renewal service runs the cycle. The rules are in Sharjah Trade Licence Renewal: Fees and the Three-Month Rule.

If SEDD sends the file back

Most vendor pages skip this. It is worth asking anyone you hire.

Government fees already paid are lost. The trade name, the initial approval and the tenancy attestation are paid for a service already delivered, and neither SEDD nor the Municipality refunds them. SEDD's main voucher is paid near the end, after the lease and any outside approval are in place.

Our fee works like this. If SEDD sends the file back, we first refile on the corrected activity, or move you to a Sharjah free zone, with no second fee for the work already done. If you want neither, we refund the stages we have not started. That is a stage-based refund, and nothing more is promised.

On the files we have run, SEDD has not refused a Sharjah application outright. Files come back for correction, usually for one of three reasons: a trade name that clashes with one already registered, an activity that needs an outside approval, or premises that do not match the activity. A fourth delay sits with the landlord, whose papers can hold the attestation. Settle all four before anything is paid to SEDD.

Bringing us a Sharjah file someone else started

The first review is free, and there is no takeover or transfer fee. You pay only our normal fee for the work that follows.

You show us the file through your UAE PASS. For any filing, you sign an authorisation or a power of attorney, and our PRO files under our SEDD representative card. SEDD's online renewal can also be completed by the owner or by the manager named on the licence. Some renewals cannot be done online and need a visit to a SEDD branch. Four things force that: a licence more than three months expired, a disputed fine, a partner or activity change filed with the renewal, and a lapsed outside approval. Our PRO handles the visit.

The files that come to us usually have one of five things wrong: an expired establishment card, late renewal fines running from AED 200 a month, a lapsed tenancy attestation, no beneficial owner filing, or no corporate tax registration, which carries an AED 10,000 late penalty. One Sharjah branch of a Dubai company came to us with the licence renewed but the establishment card expired. Its visas were blocked until we cleared the card.

Before you move a file, check where it stands. How to read a Sharjah licence record is covered in Sharjah Trade Licence Check: Expiry, Fines, Clean Record.

Files we send somewhere other than the Sharjah mainland

A SEDD licence is the right tool for a real presence in Sharjah. For these files it is not, and we say so on the first call.

• A service business that needs only a licence and a visa. A Sharjah free zone does that with a desk, as set out above.
• A Dubai company that wants lower-rent space for back-office staff. It does not need a second company. A Sharjah branch does the job, and the Dubai licence keeps invoicing its customers. The numbers are in Sharjah vs Dubai Mainland: Near-Level Licence, Lower Rent.
• A factory or a heavy store. A warehouse, plot or port file belongs in Hamriyah. A production unit on the mainland follows its own rules, set out in Sharjah Industrial Licence: Why the Fee Follows the Rent.
• A foreign professional working alone. A sole establishment needs a local service agent, at about AED 5,000 to 10,000 a year. A single-shareholder LLC carries the same activity with no agent.
• A gated profession. A clinic needs a licensed medical director. An engineering consultancy needs a licensed engineer. An audit firm needs a registered auditor as partner. Court advocacy is reserved for UAE nationals.
• A business with no tie to Sharjah. Then price the neighbours too. Our RAK mainland setup consultants, Fujairah mainland setup consultants, Umm Al Quwain business setup services and business setup in Ajman pages cover those.

Start with the route, then the quote

Most Sharjah business setup consultants answer an enquiry with a price. The better first answer is a route. Mainland or free zone decides your rent, your visa count, your invoice and your renewal, and it is hard to reverse once a lease is signed.

So ask any business setup consultants in Sharjah you shortlist three things. Do they file both sides of Sharjah? Is their fee on its own line? And will they read the lease before you sign it? If you are still weighing firms, choosing a business setup consultant in Dubai lists the questions that apply in any emirate.

Best Solution has formed more than 5,000 UAE companies since 2014 and licenses on the mainland in all seven emirates. Our mainland licence service runs a SEDD file from the lease to the first Emirates ID, and our PRO services carry on after it. When you are ready, call or WhatsApp +971 52 233 0011, or email connect@best-solution.ae.

This page is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. All AED figures are indicative for 2026, reflect our current quoting and our own Sharjah files, and are not SEDD rates or service commitments. Client examples are representative. Licence approval rests with SEDD and any authority whose approval your activity needs, visa approval with the federal authorities, and bank account approval with each bank. Request a written quotation before you budget.