HomeCompany formationRAK ICC vs RAKEZ
RAK ICC vs RAKEZ: Different Company Routes
RAK ICC and RAKEZ are not two packages from the same company type. RAK ICC registers an international company. RAKEZ licenses an operating company in Ras Al Khaimah. A visa need and a holding need can point at different structures.
Two authorities in one emirate
The shared geography is Ras Al Khaimah. The legal job is different. Read each row as a different company, not as an upgrade inside one company.
Identity comparison. Fees on one side are not fees on the other.
Purpose
RAK ICC
An international vehicle for holding assets, relocating an international company, or a new entity that will not operate as a Ras Al Khaimah trade licence.
RAKEZ
An operating company: trading, services, industry, media, education or freelance work, under a RAKEZ licence.
Authority
RAK ICC
Ras Al Khaimah International Corporate Centre. Company types include limited by shares, limited by guarantee, unlimited, restricted purposes, and segregated portfolio.
RAKEZ
Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone. It licenses operating companies. Some of its own licences, RAKEZ says, can be used in free-zone and non-free-zone areas of the emirate. That is still a RAKEZ licence.
Operating activity
RAK ICC
At least one activity is registered. More than three activities at activity-group level adds a registry charge. This is not permission to run a local shop or service.
RAKEZ
The licence category has to match the work. Industrial use needs a facility. A coworking desk does not stand in for a factory.
Licence
RAK ICC
Not a free-zone operating licence.
RAKEZ
A RAKEZ trade licence for the activities named on it.
Visas
RAK ICC
Not a residence-visa product.
RAKEZ
Promotion
Promotion packages can include one residence visa. Further visas on the AED 14,000 page are AED 4,000 each, up to three. Immigration still approves the person.
Premises
RAK ICC
A registry relationship, not a warehouse or a trading office.
RAKEZ
Coworking is inside the published promotions. Industrial stories on RAKEZ’s own pages use ready facilities, including in Al Hamra. Facility rent is not the promotion headline.
Registered agent
RAK ICC
Incorporation only through a RAK ICC registered agent. The agent’s professional fee is separate from the registry schedule.
RAKEZ
RAKEZ does not use RAK ICC’s registered-agent rule. The application is with the zone. RAKEZ says a physical visit is not required for that application.
Employees
RAK ICC
Local employment is an operating-company question.
RAKEZ
A residence visa on a RAKEZ package can be for the people the package allows. A quota still depends on the licence and the premises.
Holding structure
RAK ICC
One to 50 shareholders. Built for holding and international arrangements the registry allows.
RAKEZ
Shareholder counts on the promotions run from one, to five, to fifty, depending on the package. Holding shares is not what those packages are priced for.
Fee evidence
RAK ICC
Current official price published
2026 registry schedule: incorporation AED 3,250, AED 6,700 or AED 9,600 for one, two or three years. VAT is not stated.
RAKEZ
Promotion
Promotions reviewed 1 October 2026, not a permanent tariff: AED 6,000 Lite, AED 12,000 on the same page, AED 14,000 a year described as the licence plus one visa, and a designated-zone package from AED 16,550 a year.
Renewal
RAK ICC
Current official price published
2026 schedule: AED 3,950, AED 7,250 or AED 10,650. Late percentages apply after a one-calendar-month grace.
RAKEZ
Promotion
The AED 14,000 page says that package keeps the same renewal price. Outside a package that says so, the renewal fee varies by entity and the amount is not printed.
Banking
RAK ICC
The centre does not open the account. It provides incorporation documents for a bank application.
RAKEZ
An optional AED 2,500 upgrade includes banking assistance. That is RAKEZ’s service. The bank still decides.
RAK ICC may fit when
The job is holding overseas shares or another international arrangement, nobody needs a RAKEZ operating licence, and a registered agent will file the company. The residence visa is not part of this company.
RAKEZ may fit when
The company will operate, the activity is one RAKEZ licenses, and a promotion’s shareholder count, activity count and visa match the first year. A residence visa belongs on this side, as an immigration file attached to the operating company.
Check carefully if you need both
Holding overseas shares and sponsoring a UAE residence visa are different jobs. One prompt can need two structures, or it can turn out that the operating company is the only one required. Vi should ask which job is real before naming either authority as the company to form.
The pages are RAK ICC and RAKEZ. The formation overview is company formation.