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Documents Needed to Set Up a UAE Company
Every authority asks who owns the company and who will manage it. The exact copies, attestations and translations change with the authority, the legal form and whether a shareholder is a person or another company.
By role
A working list. The licensing authority can add to it.
Individual shareholder
A current passport is the usual identity document. A person who already lives in the UAE is often also asked for an Emirates ID. A non-resident is not. If the passport details change, the file has to be updated.
Corporate shareholder
Expect constitutional documents of the parent, a register or incumbency showing who can sign, and a resolution approving the UAE company. Where the papers are signed outside the UAE, notarisation and a certified translation are commonly required. RAK ICC’s incorporation checklist says foreign-language documents need a certified English or Arabic translation, and that the registrar can ask for more.
Manager or director
The manager is not always a shareholder. Their passport, and a residence document if they have one, sit beside the shareholder file. Appointment wording belongs in the constitutional documents or a separate resolution, depending on the legal form.
UBO and ownership
Authorities ask who ultimately owns or controls the company. RAK ICC’s beneficial-ownership regulations require particulars of beneficial owners to be kept and filed at incorporation. Other authorities use their own forms. A shareholder chart is not a substitute for the form they issue.
Company papers, after the people
- Trade name approval and initial approval, once the authority has issued them.
- A memorandum of association for legal forms that require one, attested as that authority expects.
- Premises evidence. In Dubai, the published mainland checklist includes a lease attested by RERA.
- External approvals where the activity needs another regulator.
The UAE government’s mainland steps page still lists an attested local service agent agreement for some companies owned entirely by non-GCC nationals. The foreign-ownership page describes that requirement as removed for most commercial activities. Bring the question to the authority with the activity. Do not prepare an agent agreement, or skip one, on a general article.
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