The Process of Getting Initial Approval to Register a Business in Dubai

To register a company in Dubai outside the free-zones, every business person has to take set of approvals from the Department of Economic Development (DED) as per the Law No. 13 of 2011. DED is responsible for the regulation of economic activity for all businesses outside the free zones. It is the authorized body which a person has to contact for obtaining a license to perform business in Dubai; for getting classification of economic activity which is permitted within Dubai; for getting trade permits for executing marketing activities; or setting business work hours.

To register a business in Dubai and commence business activities, DED issues instant license to investors that allows investors to commence their business on an immediate basis and gives a duration of 120 days to complete the remaining requirements of licensing, which even includes getting approvals from the government authorities.

Scroll down to learn the process required to get initial approval to register a company in Dubai:

The first step is to reserve a business trading name and get approval for the same from the Department of Economic Development. For the ease of the investors & business persons, the Department of Economic Development also offers e Services through law firms in Dubai. Via the online website, applicants can get the list about restricted & regulated trade names and can even get online approval for trade name of their business. The cost to obtain trade name varies on the basis of content & language of the name.

This is a straight-forward process. Once the applicant fills the online application and submits it to DED, he is given a pickup date of the approval form.

Along with the application for trade name approval, an applicant can also submit other essential initial approval applications. To submit these applications, he must ensure that he has done the complete paperwork and has attached all the documents required by the approval authority. At this point, do not forget to check whether you need to submit any necessary special approval from Ministries corresponding to your business.

To get approvals for opening a branch of existing business and register a business in Dubai for the same, one has to submit a different set of documents that verify the lawfulness of the branch and its prospecting managers.

Initial approval process for initiating business within a free zone:

If a business person wishes to commence business in Dubai within a free-zone, then there is a different process for getting initial approvals. The approvals to commence business in a free zone are taken care by the free zone authority. To proceed with this, an applicant has to follow an entirely different application process.