Top Financial Hub in the Middle East | DIFC Dubai Free Trade Zone Company Registration Practice Guide

As the core international financial hub in the Middle East, Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) has become the preferred carrier for Chinese financial institutions, cross-border trading enterprises and technology unicorns to deploy in the Middle East market, relying on its core advantages of zero corporate tax, 100 foreign ownership and no foreign exchange control. Many first-time Chinese companies are often unfamiliar with DIFC's exclusive regulatory rules, resulting in repeated rework of the registration process and lengthening the landing cycle. This article sorts out the main points of the whole process, which can compress the overall registration cycle and quickly obtain the business qualification suitable for high-end business scenarios in the Middle East.

Registration basis access conditions and necessary materials

1. Basic requirements for personnel

shareholders and directors have no nationality restrictions, and Chinese natural persons and mainland limited companies can contribute to hold shares;

no minimum registered capital hard threshold, enterprises can independently set the share capital, without a one-time capital verification paid;

each company must rent a physical office space in the DIFC park, and cannot use a virtual mailbox address. The office space is also a hard prerequisite for bank account opening and annual qualification examination.

2. Full set of application materials for Chinese clients

information on natural person shareholders: scanned copy of passport, water and electricity bill/bank address certificate for the past 3 months, and white background identification photo; Documents must be notarized in China and signed by the consul of the UAE embassy in China.

Domestic enterprise holding information: parent company business license, articles of association, board of directors overseas investment resolution, nearly one year's financial statements, a full set of commercial documents for double certification; at the same time, comb the complete equity penetration structure diagram, declare the ultimate beneficiary UBO information, in line with global anti-money laundering regulatory requirements.

Enterprise declaration documents: 3-5 alternative English company names, detailed business plan, proposed business scope, articles of association MOA & AOA (only approved English version), registered address lease agreement.

Five-step standardized registration process

under the premise of complete overall information, non-financial ordinary enterprises can complete a full set of registration approval in 5-10 working days, and the audit cycle of financial license business is longer.

1. Name approval and filing

log in to DIFC's official online system to submit a business name application, avoid repeated names, infringement and sensitive words, issue a name reservation receipt within 1-2 working days, and reserve a validity period of 30 days.

2. Proposed business scope and enterprise type

mainstream private limited liability companies can choose holding companies, investment management, business consulting three basic business types; finance, funds, payment and other special business, need to apply for a special license from the DFSA Financial Supervision Bureau.

3. Submit a full set of registration materials for review

upload the certified shareholder documents, equity structure, business plan and address lease contract, and DIFC Administration will verify the qualification information and issue a preliminary approval.

4, pay the fees, apply for a business license.

Pay official fees such as registration fee, first year license fee, data protection registration fee, etc., and issue a full set of documents such as business license, registration certificate and statutory articles of association after examination and approval.

5, follow-up supporting landing matters.

In turn: tax number TRN registration, enterprise immigration quota application (Dubai work visa for employees), offshore bank account opening, the whole landing process closed-loop completion.

Chinese enterprise registration common matters needing attention

1, the domestic parent company to invest in the establishment of DIFC subsidiaries, need to go through the ODI overseas investment record in advance, with the filing materials in order to comply with the purchase of foreign exchange remittance of registered capital, to put an end to the split exchange, underground banks and other violations, to avoid the risk of domestic foreign exchange penalties;

2. In principle, DIFC can not directly carry out offline retail business in Dubai, UAE, and there is no restriction on global overseas trade and holding investment. If you need to open up the local market, you can cooperate with local agents to operate;

3, idle enterprises can not be left alone, long-term zero declaration, address loss will be included in the list of regulatory anomalies, directors of individual entry into the United Arab Emirates, apply for visas from countries in the Middle East will be restricted, the termination of business need to go through the official liquidation cancellation process.

Disclaimer

the content of this article is for general information only and does not constitute formal legal, tax or investment advice. Dubai's regulatory and business environment continues to change, and companies should consult professional consultants when formulating specific policies. Zhuoxin Enterprises is not responsible for any decisions made as a result of reliance on the information herein.

Zhuoxin Enterprise provides agency services such as domestic and foreign company registration, bank account opening, annual tax return, agency bookkeeping, trademark registration, ODI Overseas Investment Filing, etc. If you have any business needs in this area, please feel free to consult our online customer service!