Honest range. A Trade or Service license with no visas and a virtual address lands around AED 17,000–18,500 all-in. Adding 2–3 visas and a smart office pushes it to AED 36,000–40,000. An Industrial license with a 125 sqm warehouse and 4+ visas starts around AED 70,000+ and scales with warehouse size.

These are total prices including SAIF Zone authority government fees, visa fees, facility rental for year one, and our consultancy fee — every component on a separate line in your written quote. The "from AED 5,750" headlines you'll see elsewhere are usually license-only and exclude everything you actually need to operate.

No. And nobody honest can. UAE banks (Mashreq, Emirates NBD, ADCB, RAKBANK) run independent KYC, source-of-funds, and risk assessments. The bank decides — not the consultant.

What we can do: prepare a complete KYC file, introduce you to relationship managers we've worked with for years, support you through follow-up requests, and reapply with a different bank if needed. Our intro-to-meeting rate is roughly 94%. Our meeting-to-approval rate is well over 80% when files are prepared correctly. Anyone guaranteeing 100% approval is either lying or about to be wrong.

UAE corporate tax (9% on profits above AED 375,000) became effective in 2023. SAIF Zone companies can qualify for Qualifying Free Zone Person (QFZP) status with 0% on qualifying income — but only if they meet substance requirements (real office, real employees, real activity in the free zone) and earn from qualifying sources.

If you sell to UAE mainland customers, that revenue is typically not qualifying. We help structure your operations to maximize QFZP eligibility and file your CT registration within the mandatory 90-day window post-license. Anyone promising "tax-free guaranteed" without examining your activities is overselling.

Three reasons. First, cash without an invoice is the dominant pattern in UAE setup scams — we don't want our process to look anything like that. Second, you deserve a complete paper trail of every dirham. Bank transfer and government-portal payments give you exactly that. Third, UAE AML regulations have tightened significantly — cash creates compliance friction for everyone. Bank transfer or direct payment to the SAIF Zone portal: those are your only options.

Year-2 typical budget: license renewal (around AED 10,000–12,500 for Trade, similar to initial license minus one-time registration), facility renewal (your office or warehouse rent), visa renewals every 2 years, mandatory annual audit if your license type requires it (around AED 5,000–8,000), VAT and CT compliance (around AED 6,000–12,000 if outsourced to us), and ESR / UBO filings.

We provide a written Year-2 budget alongside your initial quotation. No renewal shock twelve months in.