Key takeaways
Every figure below is for the same company: one shareholder, one activity, a Sharjah mainland LLC with one two-year investor visa. Government and third-party costs only, unless a line says otherwise. The figures are ceiling budgets from our own practice, indicative for October 2026.
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Year one before rent | Budget AED 19,000 to 24,000 in government costs. AED 24,000 to 30,000 with our fee |
| Rent on top | AED 16,000 to 28,000 a year for a 200 to 300 sq ft office. AED 12,000 to 25,000 for the smallest unit SEDD accepts |
| Year one after rent | AED 35,000 to 52,000 on the 200 to 300 sq ft office |
| Year two | AED 29,500 to 43,500 after rent. No visa is due |
| Year three | AED 33,500 to 49,000 after rent. The investor visa renews |
| How SEDD prices the licence | 13 per cent of your attested annual rent, plus small fixed lines. On a small office, budget up to AED 11,000 for the whole SEDD payment |
| Each extra employee | About AED 4,000 to 7,000 for two years, with the health package |
| To close the company | AED 5,000 to 8,000 and six to nine weeks for an LLC |
Ask three firms what a Sharjah mainland licence costs and you may hear the same answer three times: AED 15,000 to 30,000. It sounds like agreement. It is not.
On one page that range has a minimum rent inside it. On two others rent sits outside. None of them says whether a service fee is in the number. So the same range can describe three different bills, and you only find out which one after you sign the lease.
This page takes the Sharjah mainland licence cost apart, line by line. First the bill before rent, then the bill after it, across three years. The figures come from our own Sharjah practice, and we publish them as ceilings: plan on them and you should not be short. Every AED figure is indicative for 2026, so ask for a written quotation before you budget.
How much does a Sharjah mainland licence cost?
For a one-visa Sharjah mainland LLC, budget AED 19,000 to 24,000 in government costs in year one, before rent. Rent adds AED 16,000 to 28,000 for a 200 to 300 sq ft attested office. So year one lands at AED 35,000 to 52,000 after rent. Year two falls to AED 29,500 to 43,500.
That is the short answer. Three things make it move.
The first is the unit. A Sharjah mainland licence cannot be issued on a shared desk, so every file carries a real tenancy, and the licence fee is worked out from it. The second is who is in the number. Add our fee, which starts at AED 5,000, and the budget before rent becomes AED 24,000 to 30,000. The third is the year. The investor visa runs for two years, so year two is lighter and year three is not.
Year one before rent: the seven lines
Here is the whole budget, with nothing folded in.
One-shareholder LLC, one activity, one investor visa. Ceiling budgets, indicative, October 2026.
| Line | Year one | Comes back every year? |
|---|---|---|
| Initial approval and trade name | AED 1,000 to 1,500 | No |
| Memorandum notarisation | AED 200 for each shareholder who signs | No |
| SEDD voucher: licence fee and SEDD's smaller lines | Budget up to AED 11,000 | Yes |
| Sharjah Chamber membership | AED 1,200 to 2,000 | Yes |
| Tenancy attestation, Sharjah City Municipality | 4 per cent of rent, minimum AED 500 | Yes, on each renewed contract |
| Establishment card and immigration file | AED 1,500 to 2,500 | Yes, at AED 1,000 to 1,500 |
| One investor visa, two-year | AED 4,000 to 5,500 | No. It returns in year three |
| Government budget before rent | AED 19,000 to 24,000 | |
| Our fee | From AED 5,000, plus 5 per cent VAT on the fee | Quoted per file |
| Budget before rent, with our fee | AED 24,000 to 30,000 |
Add the low end of each line and you get AED 19,400. Add the high end and you get AED 23,700. We publish the band a little wider on both sides, so it holds for a file that pays the least on every line and for one that pays the most.
The SEDD voucher
The Sharjah Economic Development Department (SEDD) issues the licence and prices it from your tenancy contract. Its licence fee is 13 per cent of the attested annual rent. Where every partner is Emirati, the rate is 8 per cent. The same rule applies at first issue and at every renewal.
That fee does not travel alone. SEDD puts several smaller lines on the same payment voucher:
- the commercial register certificate, priced by legal form
- the signboard permit, AED 200
- printing, AED 300
- e-services, AED 100
- the representative card, AED 300
For a small office, we budget up to AED 11,000 for the whole voucher. Treat that as a ceiling for planning, not as a fee SEDD charges. On SEDD's published lines, a voucher only reaches AED 11,000 once the rent is about AED 70,000 a year. A smaller office should come in below it.
So be careful with any quote that calls AED 11,000 "the licence fee". It is a budget for one payment, and it is one line of seven.
The two small lines before it are paid once. SEDD grants an initial approval and reserves the name, on the same logic as trade name registration elsewhere in the country. An LLC's memorandum of association is then notarised at SEDD's legal affairs counter, at AED 200 for each shareholder who signs. Drafting the Arabic memorandum is part of our fee, not a government line.
A Chamber class you are given, not one you pick
Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry membership is due at issue and at every renewal. You do not choose your class. The Chamber assigns it from your activity and legal form when you register with your licence and lease.
A standard trading LLC lands at about AED 1,500 to 2,000 a year. A small consultancy sits lower, at about AED 1,200. The class only moves if your activity list changes. The Chamber publishes no public fee table, so these are the figures from our own practice.
Tenancy attestation at 4 per cent
Sharjah does not use Dubai's Ejari system. Sharjah City Municipality attests the tenancy contract instead, and SEDD will not price your licence until the stamp is on it. The charge is 4 per cent of the annual rent, with a minimum of AED 500. It is paid again each time the tenancy renews.
Establishment card and the investor visa
The establishment card opens the company's immigration file. Budget AED 1,500 to 2,500 in year one and AED 1,000 to 1,500 at each renewal.
The investor visa is a two-year residence permit. The AED 4,000 to 5,500 covers the entry permit, the change of status, the medical test, the Emirates ID and the residence stamping. It does not cover health insurance. For the investor, insurance is our advice and not a condition of the permit, so it sits outside the budget.
On a clean file the licence takes 5 to 7 working days from complete documents. Allow about four weeks to the first Emirates ID.
Rent is the line you choose
Every figure so far is set by someone else. Rent is the one line you control, which is why we keep it out of the budget and price it apart.
SEDD needs a walled unit with a tenancy in the company's name. A partitioned room in a business centre passes when it has its own contract. An open desk on a shared floor does not. The smallest unit a landlord will attest is about 150 to 200 sq ft, and it rents for AED 12,000 to 25,000 a year.
Most founders want a little more room than that. For a 200 to 300 sq ft attested office, these are the figures we quote.
| Districts | Annual rent, 200 to 300 sq ft office |
|---|---|
| Al Qasimia, Abu Shagara, Al Majaz | AED 16,000 to 22,000 |
| Al Khan, Al Taawun, Al Nahda | AED 22,000 to 28,000 |
The second row is the Dubai side of the emirate. The closer an office sits to the border, the more it costs. Listings put Al Nahda at about AED 82 per sq ft a year and Al Qasimia at about AED 40. So a border address can cost double the inner-city rate for the same floor area.
Three landlord-side costs also scale with rent, and none of them is in any figure here: the security deposit, the agent's commission and 5 per cent VAT on commercial rent. Ask for all three in writing before you sign.
Anything that holds stock, prepares food, repairs vehicles, treats patients or cuts hair needs a shop, workshop or clinic unit, not an office. Your activity therefore decides which kind of rent you are pricing. The premises rule is set out in full in Sharjah Business Setup: Start With the Office, Not the Fee.
How your lease sets the licence fee
In most emirates the licence fee is fixed by your activity. In Sharjah it follows your lease. Two government lines move with the rent: SEDD's licence fee at 13 per cent and the Municipality's attestation at 4 per cent. Together that is 17 dirhams in every 100 of rent, every year.
On a small office you can stop there and use the ceiling budget above. On a showroom, a warehouse or a large office, do the sum on the contract itself.
| Annual rent on the contract | SEDD licence fee at 13 per cent | Attestation at 4 per cent | Both lines |
|---|---|---|---|
| AED 100,000 | AED 13,000 | AED 4,000 | AED 17,000 |
| AED 120,000 | AED 15,600 | AED 4,800 | AED 20,400 |
| AED 160,000 | AED 20,800 | AED 6,400 | AED 27,200 |
| AED 200,000 | AED 26,000 | AED 8,000 | AED 34,000 |
The table shows the two rent-linked lines only. SEDD's smaller voucher lines, the Chamber, the card and the visa come on top.
Two things follow. A bigger unit costs more at every renewal, not only in year one. And a rent rise costs you twice. A 5 per cent rise on a AED 120,000 unit adds AED 6,000 of rent, AED 780 to the licence fee and AED 240 to the attestation.
The factory version of this sum is in Sharjah Industrial Licence: Why the Fee Follows the Rent.
When the lease changes after the quote
Here is how a quote and a bill come apart. This is a representative case, not a named file.
A building-materials trading LLC held a quote of AED 21,000 before rent. The quote was built on a small office and the AED 11,000 budget for the SEDD voucher. The owners then signed a showroom at AED 110,000 a year.
The licence fee is 13 per cent of rent, so it came to AED 14,300. The attestation, at 4 per cent, came to AED 4,400. The year-one bill before rent was AED 27,900.
No new charge appeared. The quote was not wrong for the office it priced. The lease changed, and the bill followed it. So fix the unit first, then ask for the quote.
Sharjah mainland licence cost after rent, year by year
Year one is the worst year to judge on, because the one-off lines sit inside it. Look at three.
Same company throughout: one shareholder, one activity, one investor visa. Government costs and rent only. No service fee. Health insurance and the other items further down sit outside every figure. Ceiling budgets, indicative, October 2026.
| 200 to 300 sq ft office | Smallest attested unit, 150 to 200 sq ft | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent inside each year | AED 16,000 to 28,000 | AED 12,000 to 25,000 |
| Year one | AED 35,000 to 52,000 | AED 31,000 to 49,000 |
| Year two, no visa due | AED 29,500 to 43,500 | AED 25,500 to 40,500 |
| Year three, visa renews | AED 33,500 to 49,000 | AED 29,500 to 46,000 |
| Three-year sum of the bands | AED 98,000 to 144,500 | AED 86,000 to 135,500 |
Three things stand out.
Year two is not half of year one. Many founders expect renewal to be small. It is not, because the largest lines recur. The SEDD voucher, the Chamber, the attestation and the card renewal come to about AED 13,500 to 15,500 before rent. Then the rent comes round again.
Year three climbs back. The investor visa returns at AED 4,000 to 5,500. If you sponsor staff, their permits renew on the same two-year cycle, so the bump grows with the team.
Rent is the largest line by far. Across three years, rent makes up between two-fifths and three-fifths of the total, depending on the unit. No licence line comes close. If you want a lower bill, the lease is where to look.
Two planning notes. SEDD offers no multi-year licence and no standing discount on a standard LLC, so every year renews at the full formula. And a late renewal adds to the bill. The fine starts from AED 200 a month after the expiry date and rises. After three months, the online renewal route closes and the file goes to SEDD's inspection division.
The dates, the steps and the fine in full are in Sharjah Trade Licence Renewal: Fees and the Three-Month Rule. Our trade licence renewal service runs the filing each year.
What does general trading add to the cost?
Less than most founders expect from SEDD, and more than they expect from the landlord.
SEDD charges nothing extra for a general trading licence. The licence fee is still 13 per cent of the rent. The difference is at the Chamber, which places general trading one class above a single-line trading licence. That adds about AED 1,000 to 1,500 a year, and it comes back every year.
The larger cost is the premises. Once you hold stock, a small office no longer fits the activity. You need a walled unit or a warehouse, and a bigger lease means a bigger licence fee and a bigger attestation.
Some product lines add a third cost. Foodstuffs, cosmetics and electrical goods on the activity list each bring an approval fee from the authority that regulates them.
One licence covers up to ten activities in the same category, and SEDD does not charge for each one. Adding an activity after the licence is issued is a licence amendment, at about AED 300 to 500 with printing. Mixing a commercial activity with a professional one is different. That needs a second licence. How the categories work is set out in Sharjah Trade Licence Activities: The Category Decides.
What each extra employee costs
The budget carries one investor visa. Every employee is a separate cost, on the same two-year cycle.
| Line, per employee, for two years | Indicative cost |
|---|---|
| Work permit from MOHRE, with the offer letter and contract | AED 1,000 to 2,500 |
| Entry permit, change of status and residence stamping | AED 1,500 to 2,000 |
| Medical test, standard or express | AED 300 to 700 |
| Emirates ID | AED 370 |
| Basic health package, two years | About AED 1,000 to 1,300 |
| Each employee, two years | About AED 4,000 to 7,000 |
Two things decide where a hire lands in that range. The company's MOHRE category sets the work permit fee. And the change of status only applies if the person is already in the UAE.
Health cover is not optional for staff. An employee needs a basic health plan before a work permit issues or renews, and plans start from about AED 500 to 650 a year, depending on the insurer.
The steps are federal, so they match any other mainland employment visa. Our guide to Dubai employee visa cost sets them out one by one.
A starter office carries the investor plus one or two staff, so we quote three visas as the safe entry figure. Sharjah publishes no ratio of visas to floor area.
What sits outside the budget
The tables above price one specification. These items sit outside it. Some will apply to you and some will not.
- Our fee. From AED 5,000 on a standard file, and up to about AED 6,000 on a complex one, plus 5 per cent VAT on the fee. Government fees are passed on at cost.
- A shop sign. SEDD's AED 200 signboard permit is on the voucher. A street-facing shop pays it every year and also pays the Municipality's advertising fee, usually AED 500 to 1,500 a year for a standard shopfront. An office in a tower pays the AED 200 once.
- Activity approvals. Food, health, education and some other activities need an approval from a second authority before SEDD issues. Those fees vary by activity.
- Landlord costs. The deposit, the agent's commission and VAT on the rent, as set out above.
- Health insurance. For the investor it is advice. For staff it is required, and it is in the employee table.
Our fee covers the trade name, the initial approval and the Arabic memorandum. It covers the attestation run, the SEDD filing, the Chamber registration and the establishment card. It also covers one investor visa and the corporate tax registration. Four things raise it: a corporate or overseas shareholder whose documents need attesting, an activity that needs an outside approval, more than one visa, and a stock-holding file that has to pass inspection.
Two more items cost nothing in fees but carry a deadline.
The first is tax. A new company must complete corporate tax registration with the Federal Tax Authority within three months of the date its licence is issued. Registration is free. Late registration carries a penalty of AED 10,000 under Cabinet Decision No. 75 of 2023, as amended. The penalty is waived if the first return is filed within seven months of the end of the first tax period. Corporate tax itself is federal, at 9 per cent on taxable income above AED 375,000, whichever emirate issued the licence.
The second is the bank. Opening the account carries no government fee, but banks set their own minimum balances and monthly charges. Most of the preparation sits in the work of opening a business bank account. Approval rests with the bank.
Three files that are priced differently
The budget assumes a service or trading LLC. These three files are built another way.
A factory. An industrial file adds lines that an office never sees. Fire compliance runs AED 5,000 to 10,000 a year all in. The environmental permit is AED 700 to 2,200 a year by risk class. The power connection is a one-off AED 1,000 per kVA of load. The Chamber places a manufacturer at about AED 2,000. The plain definition is in our industrial licenceentry.
A sole establishment. A foreign professional who files a sole establishment in Sharjah still signs a local service agent. The agent holds no ownership and no control, and charges a flat AED 5,000 to 10,000 a year. At that level, a single-shareholder LLC usually costs the same or less over three years, and it removes the agent. The wider trade-off is covered in sole proprietorship vs LLC.
A branch of a company you already own. Half of our Sharjah mainland files are Dubai companies expanding north. A Sharjah branch office budgets at AED 15,000 to 18,000 before rent and visas, again as a ceiling. That covers the SEDD voucher, the Chamber, the attestation, the approvals and the establishment card. A branch that holds stock needs a warehouse or shop unit, and its licence fee grows with that rent.
Is a Sharjah free zone cheaper than the mainland?
For a service business that needs no walled office, usually yes, and the reason is the rent. A free zone company can run on a desk. A mainland company cannot. So the zone removes the largest line on this page.
That is why nine in ten of the Sharjah companies we set up are not on the mainland. A tutoring business we placed in SRTIP is 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 mainland earns its cost in three cases: you need a shopfront, you hold stock, or your customers need a mainland invoice from a Sharjah address. If none of those applies, price a zone first. We use SHAMS and SPC Free Zone for services, media and e-commerce, SRTIP for lab and light industrial work, and Hamriyah Free Zone for anything that needs a warehouse, a plot or a port.
The general test is the one that governs free zone vs mainland in Dubai. The Sharjah version, with both routes priced, is in Sharjah Free Zone vs Mainland: Desk, Stock or Shopfront?.
Want the bill built on your own unit?
Send us your activity, your headcount and the unit you are looking at. We will price years one, two and three on that contract, show every line, and tell you plainly if a free zone fits better.
What it costs to close a Sharjah licence
No cost page should stop at the way in. Here is the way out.
Closing a Sharjah mainland LLC costs AED 5,000 to 8,000 and takes six to nine weeks. That covers the liquidator's letter, the newspaper notice, SEDD's fees, the visa cancellations and the closure of the establishment card. SEDD requires a 45-day notice to creditors, and that notice sets the clock.
A sole establishment is quicker: AED 3,000 to 4,500 and two to three weeks.
The order matters. Staff visas are cancelled first and the investor's last. Apply to deregister for corporate tax within three months of the closure. Nothing paid to SEDD is refunded for the unused part of the year, so time the closure to the licence expiry where you can. The full process is set out under company liquidation in the UAE.
Five checks to run on any Sharjah quote
Put any quote you hold through these five questions. Each one maps to a section above.
- Is rent in the number? If it is, ask for the unit size and the district. If it is not, add it yourself.
- Is the service fee in the number? A government-only figure and an all-in figure differ by AED 5,000 or more.
- Which year is it? A year-one figure tells you little about years two and three. Ask for all three.
- How many visas? One investor visa is the usual base. Each employee is a separate cost.
- What rent does the SEDD line assume? The licence fee is 13 per cent of the lease. A quote built on a small office will not hold for a showroom.
A quote that answers all five is one you can budget on. A quote that answers none is a headline.
Budgeting your Sharjah mainland licence cost
Before rent, budget AED 19,000 to 24,000 in government costs for a one-visa Sharjah mainland LLC in year one. After rent, budget AED 35,000 to 52,000 on a 200 to 300 sq ft office. Then AED 29,500 to 43,500 in year two and AED 33,500 to 49,000 in year three.
So budget on three numbers, not one. Fix the unit first, because the lease sets the rent, the attestation and the licence fee itself. Then count the people, because each visa comes back every two years. Then ask what sits outside the quote.
Best Solution has formed companies in the UAE since 2014 and licenses on the mainland in all seven emirates. Our mainland licence service runs a Sharjah file from the lease to the establishment card, and the UAE residence visa service picks up where the licence stops. Book a free consultation on +971 52 233 0011 or connect@best-solution.ae. What we handle for you is set out in Business Setup Consultants in Sharjah: Which Route, What Fee.
If you are still weighing emirates, the same treatment exists for Ras Al Khaimah trade licence cost, Umm Al Quwain trade licence cost, Fujairah mainland licence cost and the cost of starting a business in Dubai. The fee base for the nearest of the northern emirates is in the Ajman trade licence guide, and the matched comparison with Dubai is in Sharjah vs Dubai Mainland: Near-Level Licence, Lower Rent.
