A degree earned outside the UAE has to be attested before it can be used for UAE employment, and the chain always runs in the same order: the competent authority in the country of issue, then that country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then the UAE embassy or consulate there, and finally the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs inside the UAE. An apostille alone is not enough — the UAE is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention.

The order matters more than anything else in this process. Each authority only certifies the signature and seal of the one before it, so a step taken out of sequence has to be redone.

What attestation actually certifies

UAE MOFA defines it precisely: attestation “certifies the authenticity of the signatures and seals on documents issued within or outside the United Arab Emirates”. It is not a judgement on whether your degree is any good, or whether the university is recognised. That is a separate question, handled by the Ministry of Education, and covered further down.

Why you need it

The officially stated reason is employment and residency. The UAE government portal is direct: “Degree certificates obtained from outside the UAE need to be attested”, and certain jobs require attested academic certificates to complete residency and employment procedures. Some professions additionally require the degree to be attested by the UAE Ministry of Education.

You will see attestation described elsewhere as a requirement for family sponsorship and university admission. We have left those claims out: the official family-sponsorship pages set out salary and medical requirements and say nothing about attestation, and the Ministry of Education frames degree recognition around continuing study or entering the labour market rather than admission as such.

The four steps, in order

1. Certification in the country of issue. MOFA requires that “the original document must be certified or attested by the relevant competent authorities” before it reaches them. Who that is varies by country — a university registrar, an education department, a notary or a solicitor. India’s Ministry of External Affairs, for example, legalises on the basis of the signatures of designated signing authorities of the state government, union territory or chambers of commerce.
2. The issuing country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. UAE MOFA’s own FAQ states that original documents must be attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the issuing country.
3. The UAE embassy or consulate in that country. Applied for through MOFA’s online channels. Note that missions apply their own scope limits — the UAE Embassy in London requires prior FCDO attestation and will not legalise academic certificates that were not issued in the UK, Ireland or Iceland.
4. UAE MOFA, inside the UAE. Through mofa.gov.ae or the UAEMOFA smart app, signing in with UAE PASS. Applications for foreign-issued documents are submitted under “Attestation through UAE Missions Abroad”.

Fees and timing

From UAE MOFA’s published FAQ:

• AED 150 per individual-affairs document — which is the category educational documents fall into.
• AED 2,000 per commercial document. Commercial invoices are charged on a scale based on the invoice amount.
• Courier inside the UAE is separate: AED 40 for three working days, AED 150 for one working day, excluding VAT.

Budget for two documents, not one. MOFA treats a certificate and its transcript as two different documents, each attracting its own fee. In the parallel route operated with Emirates Schools Establishment, MOFA attestation is AED 150 and UAE embassy attestation in the destination country is a further AED 150 — so AED 150 per step is the rate to plan around.

Costs abroad are separate again and set by each mission. The UAE Embassy in Washington DC, for instance, charges USD 82 per certificate and requires prior attestation by the US State Department’s Office of Authentication.

On timing, UAE-issued documents now have a digital attestation route completed within two hours. The courier route takes one to three business days inside the UAE, and up to fifteen business days outside it.

Apostille does not replace attestation

This catches people out constantly. The UAE is not a member of the Hague Apostille Convention — it appears on India’s Ministry of External Affairs list of non-member countries. Documents for the UAE therefore take the normal attestation route, not the apostille route.

The UK government describes the same chain from the other direction for non-Hague destinations: get the FCDO apostille, then the destination country’s embassy stamp, then approval by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the country where the legalisation was requested. British embassies cannot legalise documents themselves, and cannot translate them.

So in the UK case the FCDO apostille is the first stamp in a longer chain, not a substitute for it.

Translation

MOFA requires the original document to be in Arabic or English, or “accompanied by a legally certified translation”. For school certificates used in equalisation, the government portal adds that documents in other languages “must be legally translated and duly attested” — the translation itself is attested, not just the original.

One practical rule from MOFA’s FAQ that costs people a trip: laminated documents are rejected. Do not laminate anything you intend to attest.

Degree recognition is a separate process

Attestation and recognition are different things. The Ministry of Education’s University Certificates Recognition system has replaced the former “University Qualification Equivalency” system. It runs in two stages — verification of the degree with an MoE trusted partner, then application to the Ministry — and requirements ease as the awarding institution’s global ranking rises. The Ministry describes its purpose as helping graduates “complete their academic studies or enter the labour market easily”, and the process is fully digital.

If your profession requires MoE attestation of the degree, treat that as a second track running alongside the MOFA chain, not as part of it.

Frequently asked questions

Is an apostille enough for the UAE?

No. The UAE is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so documents still need UAE embassy attestation in the issuing country and UAE MOFA attestation inside the UAE.

How much does UAE MOFA attestation cost?

AED 150 per individual-affairs document, which includes educational documents, and AED 2,000 per commercial document. Courier inside the UAE is AED 40 for three working days or AED 150 for one, excluding VAT.

Are my degree and my transcript charged separately?

Yes. MOFA treats a certificate and its transcript as two different documents, each with its own fee.

Can I start the process from inside the UAE?

The first stamps must happen in the country that issued the document. You can apply for the UAE mission’s attestation through MOFA’s online channels, and complete the final UAE-side attestation on mofa.gov.ae or the UAEMOFA app.

How long does attestation take?

UAE-side digital attestation completes within two hours. The courier route is one to three business days inside the UAE and up to fifteen business days outside it. The steps abroad are governed by each authority’s own timelines.

Does my document need translating?

If it is not in Arabic or English, yes — it needs a legally certified translation, and for education certificates used in equalisation the translation itself must be attested.

Is attestation the same as degree equivalency?

No. Attestation verifies signatures and seals. Recognition of a foreign degree is a separate Ministry of Education process, now called University Certificates Recognition.

A PRO — Public Relations Officer — is the person who handles a company’s government paperwork in the UAE: work permits, entry permits and residence visas, Emirates ID, establishment cards, licence renewals and attestation. No UAE law requires a company to appoint one. What the law does require is that the transactions get done, on time, through official channels — and those channels expressly allow approved service centres and authorised typing offices to act for you.

That distinction is the whole point of this guide. The question is not “must I hire a PRO” but “who is going to keep track of a dozen recurring deadlines across four different federal and local authorities”.

What a PRO actually handles

The work splits across several authorities, each with its own portal, its own clock and its own fines.

Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE)

It is illegal to work in the UAE without a valid work permit issued by MOHRE. Most permits run for two years, and MOHRE lists thirteen types covering everything from recruitment abroad and transfers between establishments to part-time, freelance and national trainee permits. The cost of issuing and renewing varies with the company’s MOHRE classification.

ICP and GDRFA — permits, visas and Emirates ID

The establishment card is issued by the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security. It is an electronic card carrying the registered establishment’s data, and a private company applies with its trade licence, a signature authorisation letter and the memorandum of association where there is a partnership. ICP states a two-day processing time, and lists fees of AED 100 application, AED 100 issuance per year, AED 100 smart services and AED 2,000 system subscription. Separately, an employer on the mainland must request a firm card from the relevant General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs.

Then comes the tightest deadline in the whole cycle. For someone being brought in to work, the employment entry permit is valid for two months from the date of issue, and within one month of the person entering the UAE the residence visa procedures must be completed. Residence visas for Dubai private-sector workers are handled by GDRFA Dubai; ICP issues residency permits in other cases.

A different 30-day rule is often quoted alongside this one, and it is worth keeping them apart. The requirement to enter the country within 30 days of approval applies to the entry permit issued to a returning resident whose residence visa lapsed because they were outside the UAE for more than six months. It is not the rule for a new employment entry permit.

Other dates that sit on the same file: a residence visa is nullified automatically if the resident stays outside the UAE for more than 180 continuous days, and Emirates ID expires when the residence visa does. Emirates ID renewal attracts AED 20 per day of delay up to a maximum of AED 1,000, starting 30 days after expiry.

Insurance, wages and Emiratisation

Wages must be paid on the due date, and private-sector employers should pay through the Wages Protection System to avoid penalties.

Emiratisation is now the largest financial exposure on this list. Establishments with 50 or more employees must raise Emiratisation by 2% annually for skilled jobs, and a company that misses the target pays a monthly contribution for every citizen not employed against it.

That monthly contribution rises every year. The UAE government portal gives the figure it started at — AED 6,000 per month per unfilled position — and states that the contributions “increase by AED 1,000 annually until 2026”. It does not publish the amount currently in force, and we could not find a MOHRE page that does, so we are not going to guess at this year’s number. Treat AED 6,000 as the floor, not the bill, and confirm the current rate with MOHRE before you budget.

For companies with 20 to 49 workers, the portal does give dated figures: AED 96,000 in January 2025 for failing to hire one Emirati during 2024, and AED 108,000 in January 2026 for failing to hire two during 2025.

Licensing, tenancy and documents

Alongside all of the above sit the annual trade licence renewal with DET, Ejari registration with Dubai Land Department — AED 177.75 via the app or website, AED 220 at a trustee centre — and document attestation through MOFA. Our guides on trade licence renewal and document attestation go into each.

Is a PRO legally required?

No official UAE source states that a company must appoint a PRO, and we looked hard for one. What the official record shows is the opposite: the system is built to let someone else transact for you.

• MOHRE’s TASHEEL system offers establishments an “Add/Modify PRO” service — so a PRO is a role you may register on your company file, not one you must fill.
• ICP accepts visa applications through its smart app, its website, and authorised typing and tourism offices.
• GDRFA Dubai runs Amer Centers alongside its own customer service and partner centres.

For Ejari at a trustee office, Dubai Land Department requires the applicant to be “the tenant or a legal representative with an official power of attorney” — a reminder that where a third party acts for you, the authority to do so needs to be documented properly.

When a business genuinely needs help

In our experience the tipping point is rarely headcount alone. It is usually one of these:

• Your first hire from outside the UAE, where the entry-permit-to-residence-visa window is one month and unfamiliar.
• Crossing 20 or 50 employees, where Emiratisation contributions start and the numbers get large.
• Any month where the trade licence, the establishment card, several residence visas and an Ejari all fall due together.
• Documents issued abroad, where the attestation chain has to run in the right order across two countries.

Those are our observations from doing this work, not published rules — but they are where the deadlines cluster.

What it costs when a date slips

None of these deadlines is individually difficult. The problem is that they belong to different authorities, arrive at different intervals, and none of them warns the others. Using only the figures cited above:

• An Emirates ID left more than 30 days past expiry accrues AED 20 a day, to a ceiling of AED 1,000 per card. Across a team, that compounds quickly.
• A residence visa lapses automatically after 180 continuous days outside the country — no notice, no renewal path, and the Emirates ID goes with it.
• An approved entry permit that is not used within 30 days has to be applied for again.
• For a company of 50 or more, every unfilled Emiratisation position costs a monthly contribution that started at AED 6,000 and has risen annually since. For companies of 20 to 49, the published figures are AED 96,000 charged in January 2025 and AED 108,000 in January 2026.

The last one dwarfs the rest, and it is the one most often discovered late.

Frequently asked questions

Is a company legally required to have a PRO in the UAE?

We found no official source stating that. MOHRE treats the PRO as a role you can add to your establishment file, and both MOHRE and ICP allow approved service centres and authorised typing offices to submit on an employer’s behalf.

What is an establishment card?

An electronic card issued by ICP carrying the registered establishment’s data — trade name, licence number, partners and type of activity. A private company applies with its trade licence, a signature authorisation letter and, for partnerships, the memorandum of association. ICP states two days’ processing.

How long do we have to convert an entry permit into a residence visa?

The entry permit is valid for two months from issue, and the residence visa procedures must be completed within one month of the person entering the UAE.

What happens if an Emirates ID is renewed late?

A fine of AED 20 per day applies, capped at AED 1,000, starting 30 days after the card’s expiry date.

What are the Emiratisation fines?

For establishments with 50 or more employees, a monthly contribution applies for each citizen not employed against the target. The UAE government portal gives AED 6,000 as the figure it started at and says contributions increase by AED 1,000 annually until 2026; it does not publish the amount in force today, so confirm the current rate with MOHRE. For companies with 20 to 49 workers the portal gives dated amounts: AED 96,000 in January 2025 and AED 108,000 in January 2026.

Can someone else handle our government paperwork?

Yes. ICP accepts applications via authorised typing offices, GDRFA Dubai operates Amer Centers, and MOHRE’s TASHEEL system lets an establishment register a PRO on its file. Where a representative acts for you, make sure the authorisation is documented — Ejari at a trustee office, for instance, requires an official power of attorney.

Every juridical person subject to UAE Corporate Tax must register with the Federal Tax Authority and obtain a Corporate Tax Registration Number — including free zone companies, and including businesses that will pay nothing. Natural persons only register once their business turnover passes AED 1 million in a calendar year. Missing the registration deadline carries an administrative penalty of AED 10,000.

Registration is separate from paying tax. A company with taxable income below AED 375,000 pays 0%, but it still has to be registered and still has to file. This guide sets out who must register, by when, what happens if you were late, and how the waiver initiative works.

Who must register

The Federal Tax Authority states that all juridical persons subject to Corporate Tax are required to register. The Ministry of Finance defines that scope as:

• UAE companies and other juridical persons incorporated, or effectively managed and controlled, in the UAE;
• natural persons conducting a business or business activity in the UAE;
• non-resident juridical persons with a permanent establishment in the UAE.

Free zone entities are not outside the regime. The Ministry is explicit that juridical persons established in a UAE free zone are within the scope of Corporate Tax. A free zone company that meets the conditions to be a Qualifying Free Zone Person benefits from a 0% rate on its qualifying income — but it registers like everyone else, and profits attributable to a permanent establishment outside the free zone are taxed at 9%.

Natural persons and the AED 1 million test

A natural person becomes a taxable person only where they conduct a business in the UAE and total turnover from it exceeds AED 1 million within a Gregorian calendar year, applying from calendar year 2024 onwards. Below that threshold, the FTA’s position is that you should not register.

Three income types are expressly excluded from the calculation: wages, personal investment income and real estate investment income. Salary and personal property income do not push a person over the line.

The registration deadlines

Timelines are fixed by FTA Decision No. 3 of 2024. For a resident juridical person incorporated before 1 March 2024, the deadline depended on the month its licence was issued — irrespective of the year of issuance:

• January or February — 31 May 2024
• March or April — 30 June 2024
• May — 31 July 2024
• June — 31 August 2024
• July — 30 September 2024
• August or September — 31 October 2024
• October or November — 30 November 2024
• December — 31 December 2024

Where a business holds more than one licence, the deadline follows the licence with the earliest issuance date. A company incorporated before 1 March 2024 holding no licence had to register by 31 May 2024.

For everything created since, the rules are ongoing rather than one-off:

• Resident juridical persons incorporated on or after 1 March 2024 — within three months of incorporation, establishment or recognition.
• Non-resident with a permanent establishment existing before 1 March 2024 — within nine months of the date the PE came into existence.
• Non-resident with a permanent establishment arising on or after 1 March 2024 — within six months.
• Non-resident establishing a nexus on or after 1 March 2024 — within three months.
• Natural persons — by 31 March of the calendar year following the year turnover exceeded AED 1 million.

If you hold a Dubai trade licence issued this year, the three-month clock is the one that applies to you — DET’s own licensing pages now carry that reminder. Our guide to trade licence renewal in Dubai covers the licensing side.

The AED 10,000 penalty — and the waiver

Failure to submit a registration application within the FTA’s timeframe carries an administrative penalty of AED 10,000, set by Cabinet Decision No. (75) of 2023 as amended by Cabinet Decision No. (10) of 2024.

There is a genuine way out. Under an official FTA initiative, the late-registration penalty is waived where the person submits their first tax return or annual declaration within seven months from the end of their first tax period — rather than the usual nine. If the penalty has already been paid and the conditions are met, the amount is credited back to the FTA account. The FTA publishes an eligibility check for this.

If you registered late, that seven-month filing date is the most important date in your calendar.

Rates, and Small Business Relief

Corporate Tax applies to financial years beginning on or after 1 June 2023. The rate is 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above it.

Small Business Relief is available to resident persons — natural and juridical — whose revenue is AED 3,000,000 or less in the current and all previous tax periods. It must be elected for each tax period, and it is not available to Qualifying Free Zone Persons, nor to members of a multinational group with consolidated revenues above AED 3.15 billion.

It has an end date. The relief is governed by Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023, and the Ministry of Finance states that it applies to “tax periods starting on or after 1 June 2023 and will only continue to apply to subsequent tax periods that end before or on 31 December 2026”. For most businesses on a calendar year, that makes the year ending 31 December 2026 the last one in which the relief can be claimed.

No official source we could find states what replaces it, or whether it will be extended. If you have been relying on the relief, the tax period beginning 1 January 2027 is the one to plan for.

How to register

Registration is done on the FTA’s EmaraTax platform, available 24/7, and no registration fee applies. The flow is:

1. Register and activate an EmaraTax account.
2. Open the dashboard and create a Taxable Person profile.
3. Open that profile and choose the Corporate Tax “Action” menu.
4. Click Register, complete the application and submit it.

The FTA estimates about 25 minutes to submit, and processes a completed application within 20 business days. A Corporate Tax Registration Number is issued on success.

After registration: filing and payment

Tax returns — or annual declarations — must be submitted within nine months from the end of the tax period, and the tax payable must be settled by the same deadline. For a tax period ending 31 December 2024, that meant the end of September 2025.

Businesses that elected Small Business Relief still file, using simplified returns, within the same legal deadline. Payment is treated as made when it reaches the FTA, so late transfers attract an overdue payment penalty even if initiated on time.

Frequently asked questions

Do free zone companies have to register for corporate tax?

Yes. The Ministry of Finance states that juridical persons established in a UAE free zone are within the scope of Corporate Tax. Qualifying Free Zone Person status affects the rate on qualifying income, not the obligation to register.

My company has no profit. Do I still register?

Yes. Registration follows from being a taxable person, not from having taxable income. The 0% band up to AED 375,000 applies after you are registered and filing.

I am a freelancer. When do I have to register?

Only once your turnover from business activity in the UAE exceeds AED 1 million in a calendar year, and then by 31 March of the following year. Wages, personal investment income and real estate investment income do not count towards the threshold.

What is the penalty for registering late?

AED 10,000, under Cabinet Decision No. (75) of 2023 as amended. It can be waived if you file your first return or annual declaration within seven months of the end of your first tax period, and refunded if already paid.

How long does the FTA take to process registration?

Twenty business days from receipt of a completed application, per the FTA’s service page. Submission itself takes roughly 25 minutes on EmaraTax and is free.

Does Small Business Relief expire?

Yes. The Ministry of Finance states it applies to tax periods starting on or after 1 June 2023 and continues only for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2026. Nothing official has been published about what applies after that date.

When is the corporate tax return due?

Within nine months from the end of your tax period. The payment is due by the same date.

A Dubai mainland trade licence is valid for one year, and the law requires you to renew it in the final month before it expires. Renewal itself is quick — the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) completes the transaction instantly through the Invest in Dubai portal — but the preparation around it, chiefly a valid Ejari tenancy registration, is what decides whether that month is calm or frantic.

This guide sets out what the law actually says, what the official channels are, and where published rules run out and day-to-day practice takes over. Where something is not published by a government body, we say so rather than presenting it as a rule.

Who issues a Dubai mainland trade licence

Under Dubai Law No. (13) of 2011, a person may conduct an economic activity in Dubai only through a business licensed by the licensing authority, and that authority sets the conditions, documents and approvals required. The authority named in the law has since become the Department of Economy and Tourism, and registration and licensing now sit with the Dubai Business Registration and Licensing Corporation, established by Law No. (6) of 2023 and affiliated to DET.

DET issues mainland licences in four categories — industrial, commercial, professional and e-trader. Free zone licences are issued by each free zone authority under its own rules, and nothing in this guide applies to them.

How long a licence lasts, and when renewal is due

The law is specific on both points:

• A licence is valid for one year and renewable for the same period. On request, and with DET approval in coordination with the competent entity, it may be issued for up to four years.
• A business must renew its licence within the last month prior to its expiry.

That second point is worth reading twice. The renewal window in the law opens one month before expiry — it is not a grace period afterwards. We discuss the grace-period question below, because it is the single most misreported part of this topic.

What renewal costs

DET does not publish a single renewal price. The official Invest in Dubai service page states plainly that “the licence renewal fee depends on the business activity”.

The published fee schedule that sits behind this is Executive Council Resolution No. (13) of 2011, which sets the licence issuance or renewal fee at AED 600, rising to AED 3,000 for contracting, general trading and investment activities. Treat those as the department’s service fee only: a real renewal invoice also carries activity-specific, market, chamber, knowledge and innovation components, and we could not find a later resolution on the Dubai legislation portal confirming the 2011 figures are still the amounts charged today. Ask DET or your service provider for a current quotation rather than budgeting from the 2011 schedule.

Fines for renewing late

These figures come from the same 2011 resolution, and they are the only officially published late-renewal penalties we could locate:

• AED 250 — failure to renew the licence within the prescribed period.
• AED 200 per month of delay, with part of a month counted as a full month.
• AED 5,000 — conducting an economic activity without a licence, which is what trading on a lapsed licence amounts to.

Beyond money, Law No. (13) of 2011 allows the authority to revoke a licence for failure to renew combined with cessation of activity, after a notice is published in a local newspaper and no objection is raised within two weeks. The general penalty range in the law runs from AED 100 to AED 100,000 per violation.

One relief is written into the law: a business whose licence expires and which genuinely ceases trading is not liable for the licensing fees or the non-renewal fines. Stopping properly and stopping by accident are treated very differently.

The renewal steps

1. Wait for the reminder, but do not rely on it. DET operates renewal as a proactive service and sends an SMS near expiry. Diarise the date yourself.
2. Check your tenancy registration first. Premises are a licensing condition under the law — an applicant must specify premises in Dubai suitable for the licensed activity — and in Dubai a business tenancy must be registered with Ejari. Registering or renewing Ejari is a Dubai Land Department service costing AED 177.75 through the DLD website or Dubai REST app, or AED 220 at a Real Estate Service Trustee centre.
3. Clear any external approvals. Certain activities need sign-off from the ministry or authority that governs them — telecoms, environment, aviation, banking and insurance, auditing, recruitment, securities, land transport, industry and media all have named regulators.
4. Submit the renewal. Official channels are the Invest in Dubai portal, any DET service centre, or an SMS to 6969.
5. Pay. Direct debit is available at Dubai Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank of Dubai and Emirates Islamic; cash or cheque at Aafaq Islamic Finance, Commercial Bank of Dubai and Emirates Islamic.

DET states the renewal service itself “will be completed instantly”. The elapsed time you actually experience is set by the preparation in steps 2 and 3, not by the transaction.

Where the official record runs out

Three things are asserted confidently across the internet that we could not find on any UAE government page, so we will not present them as rules:

• A renewal document checklist. The official renewal service page lists fees and where to apply, and no documents at all. In practice renewals are prepared with the existing licence, a valid Ejari certificate, partner passport and Emirates ID copies, and the memorandum of association where one exists — but that is our working practice, not a published requirement.
• An Ejari validity rule. Guides often state that the tenancy must have a minimum period left to run at renewal. No Dubai Land Department or DET page we fetched links Ejari validity to licence renewal at all. In practice, renewing Ejari before the licence is the order that avoids trouble.
• A post-expiry grace period. The law sets a window before expiry and grants nothing after it. The AED 200-per-month delay fine implies late renewal is possible; it does not make it free or lawful to keep trading.

If a supplier or a website quotes you a hard rule on any of these three, ask which government page it comes from.

One thing renewal now triggers

DET’s own licensing page carries a reminder that new licence holders must register for corporate tax within three months of obtaining a trade licence. Licensing and tax registration are no longer separate worlds — our guide to UAE corporate tax registration deadlines covers who must register and what the penalty for missing it is.

Frequently asked questions

How long is a Dubai trade licence valid?

One year, renewable for the same period. Dubai Law No. (13) of 2011 allows a longer term of up to four years on request and with DET approval in coordination with the competent entity.

When exactly should I renew?

Within the last month before the expiry date. That is the window the law sets.

Is there a grace period after my licence expires?

No official grace period is published. The law sets a pre-expiry renewal window only. A delay fine of AED 200 per month applies, and trading without a valid licence carries a separate AED 5,000 fine.

What is the fine for not renewing on time?

Executive Council Resolution No. (13) of 2011 sets AED 250 for failing to renew within the prescribed period, plus AED 200 for each month of delay, with a part month counted as whole.

How much does renewal cost?

There is no single figure. Invest in Dubai states the fee depends on the business activity. The 2011 resolution puts the department’s own issuance or renewal fee at AED 600, and AED 3,000 for contracting, general trading and investment activities, but the total payable includes other government components.

Do I need a valid Ejari to renew?

Premises are a licensing condition under Dubai law, and a Dubai business tenancy must be registered with Ejari. No official page states a specific Ejari validity period tied to renewal, so the safe order is to settle the tenancy registration first and renew the licence after.

Does this apply to free zone licences?

No. Each free zone authority issues and renews its own licences under its own rules and fee schedule.