Register a company in Jebel Ali, the free-zone original.

Mostly - incorporation and licensing run by power of attorney, and several banks pre-approve remotely. Visa stamping and Emirates ID biometrics require presence, and most founders combine that trip with the bank meeting. One visit, well-sequenced, completes everything.

Setup from $4,400, or $6,900 with banking - plus JAFZA's own licence and premises fees, which scale from flexi-desk economics to warehouse leases. Renewals with accounting and audit run from $3,500 a year. Dubai-grade output at Dubai-grade cost; the port is what you are buying.

Yes - conditionally, and the condition is the point. QFZP status keeps qualifying income (zone-based trading, manufacturing, logistics, defined services) at 0%, in exchange for real substance in the zone, audited accounts, and non-qualifying revenue under the de minimis line of 5% or AED 5 million. Break the conditions and the whole book pays 9% for years. We design the zero to survive - or tell you early that your model belongs at 9%.

Mainland-sourced revenue - selling into the UAE domestic market without the qualifying wrappers - plus any non-qualifying income above the de minimis line. Mainland sales route lawfully through distributors or a mainland branch with its own 9% books. The mapping of which revenue lands where is the core of the tax design, done before incorporation.

Adequate people, premises and expenditure in the zone relative to the income claimed: a flexi-desk trading company with two staff can qualify for desk-scale flows; a nine-figure book claimed from the same desk fails audit. Substance scales with ambition, and JAFZA's premises ladder - desk, office, warehouse, plot - exists precisely for that. We size it to the audit.

The licence plus premises set a visa quota - a flexi-desk carries a couple, offices and warehouses more - and residence visas for owners and staff process in two to four weeks each with medicals and Emirates ID. No personal income tax applies to any of it. Family sponsorship follows the standard Dubai rules.

Serious and worth it: the post-grey-list era made Emirates KYC thorough - source of funds, real activity, credible counterparties - and rewarded clean files with world-class multi-currency banking. Two to four weeks with a well-built application is normal. The days of accounts on a certificate alone are gone everywhere; the UAE simply says so clearly.

Structure by shareholder count: the FZE takes exactly one (person or company), the FZCO two to fifty. Functionally identical otherwise - same licences, same QFZP eligibility, same visas. Groups often use an FZE under a holding company; partners use an FZCO. Thirty seconds of strategy, decided by your cap table.

The port. DMCC and peers serve desks and services superbly, but goods businesses gain from berth adjacency: cargo clears into your warehouse without leaving the zone, re-exports load without road legs, and industrial plots sit minutes from cranes. If your business ships things, JAFZA's logistics arithmetic usually wins; if it does not, we say so and place you where your model belongs.

Licence and incorporation: one to two weeks. Premises and immigration file: alongside. Banking: two to four weeks. Visas: two to four each. A working, banked, visa-carrying Jebel Ali operation inside six weeks is the working default.