Trade license in Dubai. Set up from the Netherlands.

Yes — that is what the 30 minutes is for, and it is where most calls from the Netherlands start. You do not need to have chosen between commercial, general trading or a specialised activity, and you do not need a company name. What the call gives you is the honest version of 4 answers: what you intend to sell, who you intend to sell it to, how many residence visas you need, and whether you need to be in the UAE to run it. Those decide the licence type, the authority and the cost. If a Dubai trade license does not do what you are hoping it will do, you will hear that on the call rather than after you have paid for one. Free, no obligation, at a time that works in your timezone.

A free zone trade license starts from €4,130, and that is a starting point rather than a package price. What you actually pay depends on the activities you licence, the authority you file with, how many residence visas you need and whether you take physical space. Mainland is quoted individually because premises and approvals vary too much for a published figure to be honest. Whoever quotes you, ask three things in writing: whether government and authority fees sit inside the figure, how many visas it includes, and what renews annually and at what price.

The cheapest licence is rarely the cheapest outcome. Entry-level packages tend to limit the activities you can hold, cap your visa allocation at zero or one, or sit in a zone your bank is less comfortable with — and the cost of re-licensing in year two is far higher than the saving in year one. If budget is the constraint, say so on the call and we will tell you which genuinely low-cost options fit what you are building, including zones outside Dubai where the saving is real and the downside is none.

In everyday use people mean the same thing, which is why the terms get mixed up. Formally, the trade licence is the document the authority issues; commercial is one category of it, alongside professional, industrial and tourism. A business license in Dubai is the generic phrase rather than a specific document. What actually matters is not the label but the activity list printed on it, because that is what decides what you may legally sell.

Usually yes, within limits that vary by authority. Most allow a number of related activities on one licence, with additional ones available for a fee, but they generally need to sit within the same group — combining consultancy with general trading is not always possible on a single licence. We check what you intend to do now and what you expect to add later, because adding an activity after the fact costs more than including it at the start.

Almost all of it. Activity selection, name reservation, initial approval, the licence application and your corporate documents complete remotely while you are in the Netherlands, and for most free zone licences the licence is issued before you book a flight. What cannot be done from home is the residence visa — the medical fitness test and Emirates ID biometrics require you to be in the UAE in person, and some banks want to meet you. We tell you which stages need you here before you start.

It follows from who your customers are. If you need to sell directly to businesses and consumers inside the UAE, that points to a mainland licence, which generally requires physical premises and a registered tenancy. If your customers are European, Dutch or international, or you are selling services and digital products, a free zone trade licence is usually better economics and far simpler to arrange remotely. You do not need to decide before the call.

Be careful. Buying an existing licence means inheriting whatever sits behind it — unpaid fees, immigration quota history, outstanding fines, and activities that may not match what you intend to do. The saving is usually smaller than it looks once the transfer and amendment costs are counted, and the due diligence needed to do it safely is not trivial. For most people starting out, a new licence is cheaper and cleaner. We will say so even though it is the smaller job.

Visas are quoted per person rather than bundled, because the number you need is the single biggest variable and quoting an average would mislead you. Your licence supports a renewable residence visa for you as the investor or partner, and you can sponsor family on it. How many visas you can hold depends on your authority, your package and in mainland cases your premises. We itemise each one in the written proposal.

Not by itself, and it is worth being clear before you start. Dutch law looks at where a company is effectively managed rather than where it is licensed, so a UAE company whose decisions are taken from the Netherlands can still be treated as a Dutch tax resident. The Netherlands applies no statutory day-count test either — residence turns on whether you keep a durable personal tie, assessed on the whole picture. Note too that while the Netherlands–UAE treaty has been in force since 2010, it defines a UAE-resident individual as a national of the UAE, so it may not cover you personally. We are UAE corporate service providers, not Dutch tax advisers; settle your own position with a Dutch-qualified adviser.

Bank onboarding depends on your activity, your structure, your residency status and how the file is presented — and some activities are harder than others regardless of how clean the licence is. We prepare the application to the standard UAE banks expect and introduce you to banks that accept your profile. Holding a UAE residence visa materially improves your position, which is why we sequence the visa before the account. No consultant can guarantee a bank’s decision.

Passport copies for every shareholder, a clear description of what the business will actually do, and three proposed company names. Some activities need extra approvals from a sector regulator, and some banks ask for a CV or proof of address. We confirm exactly what applies to your case on the first call, so you are not assembling paperwork you do not need.