Frequently Asked Questions

If you want to legalize your documents in order to use them in the Emirates, or you want to attest the documents issued by UAE authorities in any other country, you need to follow the procedure of consular legalization and attestation by Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in United Arab Emirates. Apostle is not accepted in this country, because UAE did not join the Hague Convention about Apostle.

Birth certificate, degree documents attestations, marriage certificate and other certifications are considered to be personal documents. Please contact us to get full description of legalization in your case.

Company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association, Certificate of Incorporation, license, company’s registers, share certificates etc. are the corporate documents. Please contact us to get full description of legalization in your case.

Consular and MoFA attestation normally takes 2-5 days, depending on each consulate mode of operation.

UAE banks are very loyal to the business of their customers and do their best not to pose any obstacles. However, in some cases of large transactions (above USD 200.000), your relationship manager may request for some supporting documentation like invoice, contract or bill of lading.

Yes, some UAE banks open personal and corporate accounts for non-residents (individuals and companies). Please contact us for this matter.

1. Original passport (for verification only)
2. Bank statement for the last 3-6 months from personal account in any other bank
3. Utility bill
4. Short CV
5. Business description

Yes, you have to. All the applications must be signed in front of a banker. We can minimize your visit to UAE to 1 day only to sign all the required documents.

Yes. Depending on the bank, where you opened the account, this monthly average balance may alter between AED 20 000 and AED 250 000.

Certainly, it is possible.

From our point of view, it is very simple in many situations. You must focus on your objectives. If you just need a company and a bank account – you should go for an offshore company. If your choice is to have 100% ownership and you want a simple registration with conducting your business worldwide, get residency status and get access to UAE market through intermediaries, then you need a free zone company. Mainland/local companies, allow you to have full access to local market, but require 51% ownership by a UAE citizen and 49% by a foreigner – for commercial companies, or a local agent and 100% ownership by a foreign representative – for some professional activities.
Of course, real situations may have plenty of peculiarities. We can advise you more

In some cases, you need to have straight access to UAE’s local market. Some of obvious examples are: retail shops, boutiques, mini- or super-markets. Although, in case if you decide to conduct a professional activity, such as legal advisory, maintenance services, health and beauty services, a dentist office, you just need a local agent, who represents you in front of local authorities, but does not pretend at the company’s profit.

If you register a company in UAE mainland, you must follow only UAE Commercial Companies Law 2015 (New CCL or CCL 2), which implies that at least 51% of a local company (LLC) registered outside the free zones, should belong to a UAE citizen. However, we can assist you with preparation of an additional agreement alongside with the company’s Memorandum of Association, where a local partner states that he does not pretend at the company’s profit against the annual remuneration.
The rules of profit division are levied, when you have some professional activities such as legal advisory, maintenance services, health and beauty services, a dentist office and some others.

Yes, you can. According to the UAE commercial law, you may have a local agent, who performs only representative functions, if you conduct a professional activity in UAE. For other cases, you have a local partner 51%-ownership of your company. Legal advisories can omit participation of local agents in their company’s structure.

Commercial companies perform trading activity as per statement in their trade license. It means that they can trade in specific goods, mentioned in their licenses, or trade in any goods, which do not require additional approvals (like medications) in case of General Trading licenses. A service license allows the company to offer professional services (medical, consultancy, engineering and others) in the UAE.

Yes, you can. Some free zones offer flexi-facilities (desks or offices), which are considered to be the most effective solutions for start-ups. Flexi-desk and flexi-offices allow to apply for up to 2-5 resident visas in most of the cases.

Any company registration fees greatly vary depending on these factors:

1. Company’s activity
2. Your target market
3. Number of partners and prospected employees
4. Office size
5. Further business development and expansion
6. Plans to hire staff.

The final calculation cost can be done, when you send us a request with this and additional information about your business model. We will help you to calculate the final registration cost taking into account all the factors.
For the general information about the registration you can see the following page.

It usually depends on the complexity of your choice of a business structure. In most cases it is just 2-4 days.