The default choice for consultants, agencies and holding setups: a huge activity list, no office requirement at entry tiers and one of the fastest issuance times in Dubai. Pricing is broker-driven — the same licence is quoted at different numbers by different agents, so compare against the official tariff.
The numbers
Licence fromAED 12,900
Visa quotaup to 3 on the entry tier
Activities2,000+
Officenot required at entry tiers
Setup time3–5 business days
LAST VERIFIED: 21 JUL 2026 · Tariff verified against the official schedule.
Who IFZA actually fits — and who it doesn't
IFZA is built for licences that live on a laptop. If you run a consultancy, a marketing or design agency, a coaching or advisory practice, an IP-holding vehicle or a management holding, the combination of 2,000+ activities, no office requirement at entry tiers and 3–5 day issuance is hard to beat inside Dubai. You get a genuine Dubai licence and address in Dubai Silicon Oasis without signing a lease.IFZA fits less well the moment physical goods enter the picture. It is a licensing authority, not a port or industrial estate — there is no on-site warehousing, customs yard or heavy-logistics infrastructure, so import/re-export and manufacturing setups belong in JAFZA or a northern-emirates industrial zone, not here. It is also not the address to pick purely to impress a bank or an institutional client — DMCC and DIFC read stronger on paper. And like every free zone, an IFZA company cannot sell directly to the UAE mainland without a distributor or a mainland branch.
What the AED 12,900 headline covers — and what it doesn't
The from-price is a one-year, zero-visa trade licence with the free-zone registered address. It is real, but it is the floor, not the all-in. Everything tied to people and compliance is quoted separately, which is exactly why the same licence appears at wildly different totals from different agents.
Before you compare quotes, price the whole picture — licence, immigration file and each visa — in our setup-cost calculator rather than reacting to the headline number.
Visas, office and substance without a desk
The default quota is three visas, and IFZA grants that at entry tiers without a leased office because the allocation runs against its own facility. That does not make the visas free: each one needs an establishment card opened first, then the usual per-person immigration flow — entry permit, status change, medical and Emirates ID. To go beyond the package quota you move up a tier or add a flexi-desk.One point brokers skip: a licence with no real presence is a corporate-tax question, not just an immigration one. Free-zone companies pay 9% only above AED 375,000, and 0% on qualifying income under the QFZP regime — but the 0% depends on adequate substance in the zone. A purely nominal IFZA shell can fail that test. If tax treatment matters to you, read our corporate-tax guide before you pick a tier.
IFZA vs Meydan vs the northern emirates
The closest like-for-like is Meydan at AED 12,500: same Dubai bracket, same remote setup, similar visa logic. Meydan leans fully-remote and e-commerce-first with its own add-on menu (NOC letters, activity changes); IFZA runs through registered channel partners, which is where the broker-driven pricing spread comes from. Pick on the quote you can verify and the partner you trust, not on the sticker.If the Dubai address is not essential, SHAMS and other northern-emirates zones undercut both on price — the trade-off is a Sharjah or RAK address instead of Dubai. Line them up side by side in our free-zone comparison.
Setting up in IFZA
01
Activity & name
Pick licensed activities and reserve a trade name. Activity choice drives approvals, banking and whether your income can be QFZP-qualifying.
02
Documents & KYC
Passports, application forms and a clean source-of-funds story. No local sponsor is needed — free zone companies are 100% foreign-owned.
03
Licence & establishment card
The zone issues your licence (typically 3–5 business days), then the immigration establishment card that unlocks visa processing.
04
Visas & bank account
Entry permit, medical, Emirates ID for each visa holder; corporate account opening runs in parallel — this is usually the slowest step.
Straight answers
Does an IFZA company need a physical office?
No. At entry tiers IFZA issues the licence and its three-visa quota against its own facility in Dubai Silicon Oasis, so no leased office or lease contract is required to start. You add a flexi-desk or move up a tier only when you outgrow the package visa quota.
Why do IFZA prices vary so much between agents?
IFZA is sold through registered channel partners rather than a single public tariff, so agents bundle the same licence differently and mark it up differently. Always compare the all-in total — licence, establishment card and each visa — for the number of visas you need, not the headline figure.
Can an IFZA company get more than three visas?
Yes. Three is the default entry allocation; higher package tiers or a flexi-desk raise the quota. Each visa still runs through its own immigration flow — establishment card, entry permit, medical and Emirates ID — priced per person on top of the licence.
Can an IFZA company trade on the UAE mainland?
Not directly. Like any free-zone entity, an IFZA company sells to the mainland through a licensed distributor or a mainland branch. Within the free zone and internationally it trades freely, which is why IFZA suits services, consulting and holding structures over local retail.
Why do IFZA quotes differ so much between agents?
IFZA distributes heavily through partners, and each partner sets its own margin on top of the same official tariff. Two quotes AED 4,000 apart are usually the same licence with different commissions — ask any quote to be split into official fee vs service fee and the fog clears instantly.
Does IFZA suit holding companies?
Yes — holding activities are on the list, formation is fast, and no office is needed at entry tiers. For pure asset-holding with no UAE operations also compare a RAK ICC offshore: roughly half the annual cost, but without visa eligibility.
Is the “from AED 12,900” price real?
It is the official entry-tier licence figure — without visas, establishment card or add-ons. Our estimate above shows a realistic first-year floor; anything quoted below it usually hides a fee.
Can this company do business on the UAE mainland?
A free zone licence covers business inside the zone and abroad. Selling onshore generally needs a mainland distributor, a branch, or a dual-licence arrangement where offered — we flag which applies before you commit.
Does 0% corporate tax apply here?
Free zone companies pay 0% only on qualifying income under the QFZP regime — substance, audited accounts and de-minimis limits included. Otherwise the standard 9% above AED 375k applies. We model this in the corporate tax calculator.
Tell us what you're building.
We reply with numbers — a line-by-line setup estimate for your case. Not a call script, not a brochure.