Changing free zone in Dubai and the UAE: can your company continue?

Publications · 25 October 2026 · Marsel Shadmanov · Updated: 25 October 2026

Author: Marsel Shadmanov

Your company has outgrown its free zone: the licence does not cover what you now do, the premises are wrong, or you need to work somewhere else. Closing it and opening a new one is not the only way out. You can change the terms of the current licence, open a branch where you need to work, move the same company to another registrar, or transfer the business into a new company. Which one is right depends on two things: what has to change, and what you want to keep.

Key points

Changing your address, getting a new licence and moving the same company to another registrar are three different things, with different consequences.

You can keep the company as the same legal entity only where both sides — the registrar you are leaving and the one you are joining — allow it. One free zone accepting such transfers does not mean yours qualifies.

Contracts, bank, employees and tax registrations are four separate questions. Settle them before you give up the current licence.

First, name what is actually in the way

The reasons vary: you need a warehouse your package does not include, an activity your licence does not list, an office in another emirate, or a structure a large customer insists on. Before you compare offers from other zones, write down the one thing that is blocking you.

Say a consultancy decides to start supplying goods. It has four questions to answer: is the activity allowed, how will the goods physically move, which sector approvals are needed, and where will the work happen. A cheaper licence in another zone answers none of them. The example is made up; the questions are real.

Then list what you want to keep: the company itself, current contracts, financial history, employees, the bank account, any special permissions. That list decides which options are worth looking at.

Discuss your company structure with Garant

Can the company you already have do the job?

Ask your registrar whether you can add an activity, change the premises terms or switch to another package. If the problem is reaching another market, see whether you can open a branch or another permitted presence where you need to work.

Dubai has a specific mechanism for this. Executive Council Resolution No. (11) of 2025 lets free zone companies operate in mainland Dubai under a DET branch licence or a DET permit for specified activities. You need your free zone's consent and, where required, sector approvals, and you keep separate books for the mainland activity. The resolution does not turn a free zone licence into a pass for the whole mainland, and it does not cover financial firms licensed in DIFC.

What is open to you depends on your registrar, your activity and the approvals. A free zone licence on its own does not let you work outside the zone — but you do not have to close the company to expand either.

Compare the practical result: who will sign contracts, where staff will sit, which company will invoice customers and what the set-up costs every year. Another licence only helps if it allows exactly what you intend to do.

Moving the same company to another registrar

Continuation — some regimes call it redomiciliation — means the same company moves to another registrar and stays the same legal entity. That is not the same as opening a new company with the same name.

Since 2025 the federal law recognises such transfers explicitly. Article 15 bis of the Commercial Companies Law (Federal Decree-Law No. (32) of 2021), added by Federal Decree-Law No. (20) of 2025, sets two main conditions: the registration systems must be compatible, and both authorities — old and new — must agree. The article also covers moves between a free zone and the mainland. A provision in the law does not mean every registrar already has a working procedure, though, and the financial free zones (DIFC, ADGM) have their own rules.

Start with the receiving registrar's rules, but do not stop there. Check three things: does your current registrar let you leave this way, does the new one accept your legal form, and what decisions, documents and confirmations does each side want.

Some registrars have written procedures. DMCC's Transfer of Incorporation guideline describes moving a company into DMCC without liquidation or a fresh incorporation, with checks by the old authority and by DMCC. ADGM's checklist requires permission under the law of the company's current jurisdiction and documents that satisfy ADGM's Registrar. Those are two different procedures, not a UAE-wide list; conditions change, so confirm them with the registrar.

Do not assume a mainland company, an operating free zone company and an offshore holding company can all move the same way. A path open to one may be closed to another.

Even when the company stays the same entity, check your contracts for notification clauses, your permits, your bank records and who is authorised to sign. Keeping the legal entity is not the same as keeping every permission without further steps.

If you are moving a foreign company into the UAE, read our article on re-domiciliation to the UAE.

A new company: move the business on purpose

If a transfer is not possible or does not suit you, the answer is a new company. It is a different legal entity: the same owners, brand and name do not make it the old company's successor.

Make a transfer plan: customer and supplier contracts, assets, leases, rights to the brand and software, employees, open balances. Which consents and formalities you need depends on the assets, the contracts and the rules. The old company does not disappear while it still has business, debts or filings to deal with.

Think through the order. When will the new company have its permits and be able to take payments? Who invoices customers in the meantime? How do you tell clients? When can the old company stop, and — if that is the plan — start closing?

Bank, employees and tax: three separate plans

Bank. Decide first which company will hold the account and find out what the bank wants to review. If the company is moving, the bank needs updated registration details and a current business profile. A new company opens an account from scratch: the account does not travel with the name. The bank sets the timing.

Employees. Check who the employer is, which permits you need, who sponsors the visas and what happens to the employment contracts. Changing the office address and changing the employer are different things. Do not promise the team that nothing needs re-doing until you have the procedure from the authority.

Tax. The distinction that matters is between updating an existing registration and registering or deregistering a legal person. If the same company moves, its Corporate Tax and VAT registrations move with it: the tax registration number stays and only the details change. The tax position can still shift. Moving from a free zone to the mainland ends Qualifying Free Zone Person status; moving to another free zone means the QFZP conditions are tested again under Article 18 of the Corporate Tax Law.

If the business goes into a new company, that is a transaction with its own tax consequences. The Corporate Tax Law has reliefs for transfers within a qualifying group (Article 26) and for restructuring in exchange for shares (Article 27), each with its own conditions. For VAT, transferring a whole business, or a self-contained part of it, to a company that will carry it on is not treated as a supply (Article 7(2) of the VAT Law). Tax losses do not move to the new company by themselves; that is possible only in the cases the restructuring rules spell out. Work all of this out before the transfer, not after, and do not take a relief for granted. See the structuring options and our Corporate Tax guide when comparing the routes.

Deregistering for tax is not the first step of a move. Decide how you are moving and what will actually happen, and the filings, updates and returns follow from that.

Review the accounting and tax side of the transition

Assess the whole move, then decide

Count the registrar fees and the licence, the office commitments, the period when two companies run side by side, the advisers, the staff re-registration, the bank's requirements and the yearly administration. The cheapest incorporation quote usually covers a small part of that total.

Before you commit, get the registrars to confirm that the path is open to you and find out which approvals are still ahead. Build the timeline around what depends on what, not around one finish date for everything.

The decision is clear once you can answer three questions: does this path allow the work you want to do, what stays exactly as it is, and what has to be re-done or transferred?

Garant Business Consultancy can help you weigh the corporate and administrative options, separate out the bank and accounting tasks, and see where you need a specialist lawyer or a registrar's answer. Start from the company you have and the way you want to work, not from a licence package.

Tell Garant Business Consultancy about your project in a free first consultation. Any further work is scoped and priced separately.

Discuss your project

FAQ

Can any UAE company move to another free zone?

No, there is no general rule. Check the rules of the zone you are in and the one you are going to, your legal form and the procedure itself. A registrar that accepts other companies will not necessarily accept yours.

Will the company keep the same bank account?

That depends on how you move and on the bank. If the company stays the same entity, the account usually stays, but you will update the details and go through a review. A new company is a new customer and needs its own account.

Do existing contracts transfer to a new company automatically?

No. A new company is a separate entity, even with the same owners. For each contract, check whether you need an assignment, a new agreement or the other party's consent. If the company moves as the same entity, the contracts stay, but you may still have to notify counterparties.

Does moving free zone mean I must deregister for VAT or Corporate Tax?

No. If the company stays the same, the registrations stay and you update the details. You deregister or register afresh only when the law requires it — for example, when the business is transferred to a new company. Check Corporate Tax and VAT separately, together with any transfer of assets.

Should I cancel the current licence before I start?

No. Cancelling the licence is not step one. First find out which path is open to you, which approvals you need and in what order to do things. Cancelling too early can break the move itself.

This is general information, not advice on your company. What works for you depends on the registrars, your legal form and your circumstances — check before you act.