IFZA — International Free Zone Authority
IFZA — International Free Zone Authority is a free zone in Dubai. We are still verifying its fee schedule, visa quotas and banking reality — the sections below carry what is true of any UAE free zone until we have confirmed the specifics here.
YEAR ONE, ALL IN
Year-one cost moves with your activity, how many visas you take and which facility tier you sit on — the advertised “from” price usually covers the licence alone, not the establishment card, visa allocation or desk you cannot trade without. Ranges also shift with whatever promotion is running.
SHARE WHAT YOUR FIRST YEAR COST →HOW MANY PEOPLE YOU CAN HIRE
Visa quota is tied to the facility you take rather than the licence itself, so the ceiling moves with the package — and the tier you start on is usually the cheapest one, not the one that survives your first hire.
SHARE YOUR VISA QUOTA →OPENING A BANK ACCOUNT
Time to open an account varies by bank, by your declared activity and by your shareholder profile. Two companies in the same free zone can be weeks apart, which is why no fee table mentions this step at all.
TELL US HOW LONG YOUR ACCOUNT TOOK →WHAT FOUNDERS SAY
What actually catches founders out is specific to the zone and to the year they did it — which is exactly why it is worth collecting rather than generalising.
TELL US WHAT SURPRISED YOU →We list every UAE jurisdiction we know of, including the ones we have not finished checking. This one is still being verified, so the sections below carry what applies to any free zone rather than figures specific to here. The official site is linked above and is the right place for current pricing until we have confirmed it ourselves.
WHAT CATCHES PEOPLE OUT
A free-zone licence does not by itself let you invoice mainland clients
Selling to customers on the UAE mainland normally needs a distributor, a mainland branch, or a dual-licence arrangement where the emirate offers one. This is the constraint that catches most free-zone founders, and it is rarely mentioned at the point of sale.
0% corporate tax applies to qualifying income, not all income
The free-zone rate applies to qualifying income of a Qualifying Free Zone Person. Revenue from mainland UAE customers generally does not qualify and is taxed at 9%. Separately, the first AED 375,000 of taxable income is taxed at 0% for everyone.
Your visa ceiling follows the facility, not the licence
The quota is tied to the desk or office you take. The cheapest tier is sized for a founder alone, and the first hires are what break it — upgrading mid-year costs more than starting one tier up.
The advertised licence price is one line of several
Establishment card, visa allocation, medical and Emirates ID, and the workspace the licence is tied to are usually priced separately. Compare first-year totals, and check what recurs annually against what is genuinely one-off.
Figures last checked September 2026. Fees and rules change without notice, and packages differ by activity and visa count — we date everything so you can judge how stale it is. Something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we will correct it in public. No free zone or setup agent pays for placement on this page, and none ever will — the ranking and the wording here are not for sale.