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The advisory desk

Insights

Working notes from the people who file the applications — what the rules actually say, what they cost, and where founders lose time. Written against the authorities, not against a brochure.

The archive

Briefings on Startups & expansion

6 pieces Clear filter
  1. Startups & expansion Storm light over the Burj Khalifa and Downtown Dubai

    Almost Everything Offered to a UAE Small Business Is Support, Not Money

    There is a genuine support ecosystem here. Incubators, accelerators, licence concessions, procurement programmes, sector clusters, business-development funds. 11 min read
  2. Startups & expansion Woman watches light trails arc from flag markers across a map desk toward a model tower

    Four foreign charges reach a UAE company, and most companies are reached by none of them

    The gap between the UAE's rate and everyone else's is narrower than the sales pitch implies and has stopped narrowing. 16 min read
  3. Startups & expansion Adviser presents three scale models across a desk: a tower, a villa and a bare plot

    A foreign buyer in Dubai owns one of three different things, and the paperwork rarely says which

    Dubai law closes property ownership to non-nationals and then opens three exceptions to it: freehold without time limit, or a usufruct or lease of up to ninety-nine years, in areas the Ruler has designated. 19 min read
  4. Startups & expansion Man in kandura studies scale tower models laid out as a branching chart on a marble table

    Four ways of expanding a UAE company leave you with one company. The fifth hands you a related party you then have to trade with at arm’s length.

    The question is almost never which structure. 11 min read
  5. Startups & expansion Woman points at a lit city map on a desk while a seated man studies the route

    Find your route before you form your company — an entrepreneur qualifies on evidence somebody else issues

    Long-term residence is decided on documents produced by third parties, so the useful first question is which of those documents you already hold or could obtain, not which licence to buy. 11 min read
  6. Startups & expansion Man in a suit reads a sheet beside a gold city model and four ledgers with gold icons

    A foreign national can own a UAE company outright. That reform changed the shareholding line and almost nothing else on the file.

    The 51% Emirati shareholder requirement was removed by Federal Decree-Law No. 26 of 2020 and took effect in 2021, and the consolidated companies law now in force is Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021. 11 min read

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