To get a commercial license in Dubai, you choose your activities, reserve a trade name, get initial approval from the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), register a tenancy for your office on Ejari, then pay and collect the license. A clean file takes one to three weeks. Most owners spend roughly AED 30,000 to 50,000 in the first year.
What a commercial license actually covers
Clients ring us asking for a commercial license when what they mean is any license that lets them trade. In Dubai it's more specific than that. A commercial license is for buying and selling: general trading, import and export, wholesale, retail, e-commerce with stock. If you sell your own skills, you want a professional license. If you make things, it's an industrial one.
Our commercial license page lists the activity groups, but the real work is matching your business to the right activity codes. That step matters more than people expect. The activities on your license decide the fee, the approvals you need from other authorities, and even what the office has to look like. A food trader needs Dubai Municipality sign-off. A company selling medical devices needs health authority approval. Pick the wrong code and you either pay for activities you'll never use, or you find out at the bank that your license doesn't cover what you actually sell.
The steps, in the order that saves rework
Order is where files go wrong. People sign an office lease first because it feels like progress, then learn the activity they need isn't allowed in that unit. This is the sequence we follow.
- Fix the activities and the legal form. Most owners go with an LLC. A sole establishment is possible too, but you carry unlimited personal liability.
- Reserve the trade name with DET. Names are checked against existing ones and against rules on religious, political and misleading words.
- Get initial approval, which is DET confirming that the name, activities and ownership are acceptable in principle.
- Secure the office and register the tenancy on Ejari. The tenancy dates have to cover the license period.
- Collect any external approvals your activity needs, sign the memorandum of association and pay the fees.
- Receive the license and establishment card. Visas, the bank account, VAT and corporate tax registration all come after this.
None of it is hard on its own. It's the small mismatches that burn a week each, like a name spelled one way on the memorandum and another on the tenancy.
To make it concrete, take two partners starting a general trading company with an import activity. They fix the activities, reserve a name, take a small furnished office, and sign the memorandum with their passports and photos on the table. If everything is ready on day one, the approvals and fees usually finish the file inside two weeks. The ones who take two months are nearly always the ones who changed an activity halfway through.
Documents you'll need
For each shareholder we need a passport copy, a passport photo and, for UAE residents, the Emirates ID and visa copy. If you're on an employment visa, expect to need a no-objection letter from your employer. If a company is a shareholder, its incorporation papers have to be attested, and that attestation chain is usually the slowest part of any file we handle. Everything else, such as three name options, the activity list and a working email and phone number, you can prepare in an afternoon.
What it really costs
At the time of writing, the DET license fee for a commercial license usually sits between AED 10,000 and AED 15,000 a year, depending on the activity. That's the number everyone quotes, and it's the smaller half of the story.
Around it you'll pay for name reservation (from a few hundred to a couple of thousand dirhams), the memorandum and notarisation (about AED 1,500 to 3,000), the establishment card (roughly AED 1,000 to 2,000) and any external approvals, which run about AED 500 to 3,000 each. The Ejari registration itself is a small fee, but the rent behind it is the biggest line in the budget. Each residence visa adds roughly AED 4,000 to 6,000 for two years.
Add it up and most clients land between AED 30,000 and AED 50,000 in year one, mostly depending on the office. Renewal is cheaper because you're not paying setup costs again, though the rent and the license fee come round every year. Fees move, so treat these as ranges and ask us for a written quote on your exact activities.
Budget for the boring ones
Corporate tax registration is compulsory even for a company with no profit yet, and VAT registration becomes compulsory once taxable turnover passes AED 375,000. Both are free to register. Missing the deadlines is not free.
How long it takes, and where files get stuck
A clean file moves in one to three weeks. The delays we see most often are a trade name rejected on the first try, an activity that needs an outside approval nobody mentioned, and a landlord who's slow with the papers needed for Ejari. None of these is fatal. They're simply why we ask for the activity list before the tenancy, never after.
Names deserve a moment of care, because they are the most common first-week delay. Avoid anything that looks like a government body, a bank or a religious term, check that nobody holds the name already, and have three options ready in order of preference. A name that is too close to a famous brand can pass DET and still be a problem later, which is one reason we also check trademarks before a client prints anything.
One piece of opinion. Don't choose your office on price alone. The cheapest address that clears Ejari is often the one that causes trouble later, when you need more visas or an inspector turns up. If you're unsure, a furnished cabin in a business centre usually costs less than people think and takes most of the tenancy headaches off your plate.
Common questions
How long does a commercial license take in Dubai?
A clean file usually takes one to three weeks from name reservation to license. Activities that need an approval from another authority, or shareholders that are companies with documents to attest, can add a few more weeks.
Can a foreigner own 100% of a commercial license company?
For most commercial activities, yes. Since the 2021 company law changes, mainland companies in Dubai don't need a local partner for the majority of activities. A short list of strategic sectors still has conditions, so we check your activity before quoting.
Is a commercial license the same as a trade license?
Not quite. Trade license is the general term for any business license. A commercial license is one type of it, the type for buying and selling goods. Professional and industrial licenses are the other main types.