Dubai Mainland Licence Types 2026: Commercial, Professional, Industrial and Tourism Licences, Activity Codes and External Approvals Explained

Dubai mainland licence types are the categories under which the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) licenses businesses outside the free zones: commercial licences for trading, professional licences for services and skills, and industrial licences for manufacturing, plus tourism permits issued by DET’s tourism side and special licences such as the e-Trader, Intelaq, Instant, SME and dual licences. You do not choose a licence type directly. You choose one or more business activities from DET’s activity list, each with its own code, and the activity decides the licence type, the legal forms open to you, any outside approval and some of the fees.

This guide explains each Dubai mainland licence type in plain terms, how DET’s activity directory and activity codes work, how to choose and combine activities without creating problems for later, and which government body must approve which activities before DET will issue a licence. It is part of our mainland series. The whole formation route, from trade name to bank account, is in our mainland company formation guide, and the special licences each have their own guide, linked below.

Everything here is taken from official pages read on 25 September 2026: u.ae, DET’s own site and its Invest in Dubai platform (including the public activity search tool), the Dubai Legislation Portal, and the regulators’ service pages. Where a rule is practice rather than a published rule, we say so.

Dubai mainland licence types at a glance

The table sets out every licence type a founder is likely to meet on the Dubai mainland. The first three rows are the core types an activity code belongs to. The rest are special routes, each with its own eligibility, and tourism permits that sit on top of a licence.

Two points save most founders time. First, the licence type is printed on your licence because of the activities you chose, so the real decision is the activity. Second, the special licences are shortcuts with limits: they are cheaper or faster, but each restricts who can hold it, where you can work from or which activities you can add.

Dubai mainland licence types: how MIRDXB PRO helps

Choosing activities is the step founders most often rush and most often regret. We check your activities before anything is paid, so the licence you receive fits the business you will run, the premises you can afford and the visas you will need.

What we do

• Translate your business plan into DET activity names and codes, and tell you which licence type they produce.
• Check each activity for foreign ownership limits, outside approvals, premises conditions and activity-specific fees before you commit.
• Advise which activities to combine now and which to leave for a later amendment, so you are not paying for approvals you do not need yet.
• Prepare and follow the outside approval where one applies, for example DHA, KHDA, Dubai Municipality or the Dubai Land Department, in the order the authorities accept it.
• Run the licence itself through Invest in Dubai or a service centre, then the Dubai Chambers membership, establishment cards and first visas, through our company formation support.

How it works

1. Message us on WhatsApp with what you will sell, to whom, from where and how many people you plan to hire.
2. We send a written activity plan: activity names and codes, licence type, approvals, premises needs, government fees and our fee.
3. Once you agree, we reserve the trade name and apply for initial approval with the activities we agreed, then handle any outside approval.
4. We check the payment voucher line by line before you pay, and hand over the licence with a list of the next deadlines.

What it costs

Government fees are passed on at cost, on the authority’s receipt. Our own fee is quoted in writing before we start and depends on the work: a single professional activity with no outside approval is simpler than a restaurant needing Dubai Municipality or a clinic needing DHA. Our published service fees are on our fees page, and every government line of a mainland set-up is in our mainland business setup cost guide.

Why founders use us

• We work from the official activity list and name the source for every rule we apply, as this guide does.
• We tell you when you do not need us, for example when a single e-Trader or Instant Licence activity is a five-minute online application you can make yourself.
• We handle the government files that follow the licence (GDRFA, MOHRE, Dubai Chambers), so the activity choice is checked against visas and hiring from the start.
• Our office is in Al Barsha 1, Dubai, open Monday to Thursday and Saturday 09:00 to 18:00 and Friday 09:00 to 12:00. Founders abroad can instruct us under a power of attorney.

How DET classifies activities: the directory behind Dubai mainland licence types

The legal starting point is Dubai Law No. 13 of 2011 Regulating the Conduct of Economic Activities in the Emirate of Dubai. Article 2 defines an economic activity as “any commercial, industrial, artisan, occupational, agricultural, service, or other for-profit activity authorised in the Emirate”. Article 5 then says licences in commerce, industry, agriculture, fishing, mining, services “or any other fields” are granted “in accordance with the relevant Economic Activities classification directory of the Emirate of Dubai issued by the DED” (now DET).

That directory is the list you search when you choose activities. Article 6 lets DET set the conditions, documents and approvals for each licence, and Article 7 requires DET to coordinate with other government entities before it decides. In practice this means every business activity in the directory carries its own rules, and the licence type is simply the category those rules belong to.

What an activity code looks like

Each activity has a seven-digit code, a name in English and Arabic, a description and a licence type. Management consultancy, for example, appears as “Management Consultancies”, activity code 7020003, professional. General trading appears as activity code 4690018, commercial. DET’s own hospitality page refers to holders of “Timeshare – Renting by Timeshare Scheme – code 6820002”, which shows that the code is the reference authorities use when they decide who may apply for a permit.

The first four digits follow the United Nations International Standard Industrial Classification, revision 4 (ISIC4). The data behind Invest in Dubai’s search tool labels each seven-digit activity code as “activityCodeIsic4” and keeps an older six-digit ISIC3 code alongside it. At federal level, the Ministry of Economy and Tourism says its National Economic Register adheres to “the International Standard Classification System (ISIC4) for the classification of economic activities” (1 October 2024). So 7020 is the ISIC4 class for management consultancy and 6201 for computer programming, and DET’s last three digits identify the specific Dubai activity within that class.

The activity list in numbers

We queried Invest in Dubai’s public “Search Business Activities” tool on 25 September 2026. It returned 2,331 activities across 17 categories. Each activity sits in one category and carries one of three licence types: professional (1,167 activities), commercial (658) and industrial (506). The tool marks 2,181 of them with a “foreign ownership” tag; the 150 without it are mostly military goods and services, banking, insurance, exchange and finance, commercial agencies and broadcasting. Our 100% foreign ownership in Dubai guide explains those limits.

Three things stand out about Dubai mainland licence types in the data. Most services are professional, including restaurants and cafeterias, travel agencies, car rental and real estate brokerage. Trading is almost entirely commercial. And some manufacturing-style activities are professional rather than industrial, typically workshops, repairs and small-scale making. The tool’s figures change as DET adds activities; u.ae and the Ministry both speak of “more than 2,000”.

The three core Dubai mainland licence types

u.ae describes six licence types at federal level (commercial, industrial, professional, tourism, agricultural and crafts) and lists eight varieties for Dubai. On the Dubai mainland, every activity code belongs to one of three core types. Agricultural and craft activities sit inside them: the search tool labels 34 of the 35 agriculture activities professional, and handicraft workshops are professional too.

Commercial licence: trading goods and trading services

A commercial licence covers activities where you buy and sell. Invest in Dubai lists import and export, logistics, retail, software trading, construction and real estate as examples. DET’s own business licensing page describes the commercial licence as covering “trading activities such as general trading, import/export, wholesale and retail”.

Typical commercial activity codes include General Trading (4690018), Computers and Requisites Trading (4741003), Perfumes and Cosmetics Trading (4772007), Home Furniture Trading (4759001), Foodstuff Supply Services (4630211), Building Contracting (4100002), Buying and Selling of Real Estate (6810001) and Investment in Commercial Enterprises and Management (6499001). Trading activities are grouped (electronics, foodstuff, garments, furniture and so on), and a commercial licence usually carries several related trading lines from one or a few groups.

What to know before choosing a commercial licence:

• General trading costs more. Under Dubai Executive Council Resolution No. 13 of 2011 (Schedule 1), general trading and investment activities carry an activity fee of AED 15,000 on issue and AED 3,000 on renewal; contracting carries AED 10,000 on issue and AED 3,000 on renewal. A specific trading licence for one product group avoids that fee. Our general trading licence guide covers the choice.
• Premises follow the goods. Law 13/2011, Article 17 requires premises “suitable” for the activity and says they may not be used for other purposes. Physical goods need storage; retail needs a shop. Our office space for a trade licence guide explains what DET accepts.
• Some commercial activities are restricted. In the search tool, 87 commercial activities carry no foreign ownership tag, including Commercial Agencies (4610002), money exchangers and insurance.
• Imports need a customs code. Trading companies that import or export register with Dubai Customs after the licence; our general trading guide covers it.

Professional licence: selling skills and services

A professional licence covers service businesses whose revenue comes from expertise. Invest in Dubai names consulting firms, administrative services and educational institutions; DET’s licensing page says “consultancies, legal firms and artisans”. It is the largest category by number of activities.

Typical professional activity codes include Management Consultancies (7020003), Computer Systems and Communication Equipment Software Design (6201001), Web-Design (6201005), Accounting and Bookkeeping (6920003), Legal Consultants (6910002), Legal Translation (7490005), Documents Clearing Services (8299003), Advertising Services via Websites (7310026), Travel Agency (7911004), Restaurant (5610001), Car Rental (7710001) and Real Estate Buying and Selling Brokerage (6820004).

What to know before choosing a professional licence:

• Legal forms. Professional activities can be held by a sole establishment (one owner, personally liable), a civil company (two or more partners “practising a professional activity such as consultancy, accounting, training, tailors, beauty salons”, Invest in Dubai) or an LLC. The legal form changes liability and paperwork, not the licence type. See our types of companies in Dubai guide.
• Local service agent. A foreign owner of a professional sole establishment or civil company usually appoints a UAE national as local service agent, who has no ownership. Invest in Dubai lists a “service agent contract (if required for your business type)” at licence stage. Our local service agent guide explains when it applies.
• Qualifications and approvals. Many regulated professions (medicine, law, engineering, education, auditing) need the regulator’s approval or the owner’s qualifications. The approvals table below lists who decides.
• Detail: our professional licence Dubai guide covers eligible activities, costs and visas.

Industrial licence: making, processing and packaging

An industrial licence is for “manufacturing, production, packaging, segregation, or collection of goods, including industries such as food production, textiles, paper, petroleum products and equipment manufacturing” (Invest in Dubai). DET’s page adds “factories and assembly plants”. Invest in Dubai is explicit that “external approvals from relevant regulatory authorities are required before commencing operations”.

Typical industrial activity codes include Bakery Products Manufacturing (1071001), Perfumes Manufacturing (2023008), Home Furniture Manufacturing (3100001), Men’s Garments Manufacturing (1410102) and Computer Assembling (2620101).

Industrial activities have two regulatory layers. DET issues the trade licence. The Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT) issues an industrial production licence to facilities “subject to industrial licensing requirements”, under Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2022 Regarding the Regulation and Development of the Industry. MoIAT’s service page lists its requirements as a memorandum of association, “no fewer than 10 employees”, capital “no less than AED 250,000” and an “industrial license from a local licensing department”. Its fees are AED 100 for inspection and AED 0 for the application, and it publishes five working days. The MoIAT licence lets a factory apply for customs duty exemptions on machinery, equipment and materials used directly in manufacturing.

What to know before choosing an industrial licence:

• Premises are the real constraint. Factories need industrial land or a unit in an industrial area; Invest in Dubai notes that mainland companies “may be based in specialised industrial parks”. Dubai Municipality and Civil Defence approvals usually follow the building.
• Small-scale making may be professional. Tailoring, workshops and handicrafts are professional activities in the tool. Check the licence type of your exact activity before assuming you need a factory.
• Visa quota follows space. MOHRE and GDRFA look at your premises when approving visas; see our company visa quota guide.

Tourism licensing in Dubai: DET licenses and regulates

Tourism is the one area where DET is both the licensing authority and the sector regulator. Its tourism businesses page says DET “licenses and regulates tourism businesses in the emirate”, and its hospitality page says hotels are “licensed, inspected and classified” by DET. Dubai’s statistics centre still classifies licence records by purpose as “commercial, industrial, tourist or professional”. For a founder, tourism works as an ordinary trade licence (with a professional or commercial activity code) plus a DET tourism permit, registration or classification.

The practical lesson: for tourism, the trade licence is the smaller job. Vehicles, classification, inspections and staff certification take the time, and the order matters. Plan the DET tourism permit alongside the licence application, not after it.

The special licences: e-Trader, Intelaq, Instant, SME and dual

u.ae lists eight licence varieties for Dubai: industrial, commercial, professional, eTrader, dual, instant, SME and Intelaq. The last five are special routes. Each has its own guide or section; here is what each one is as a licence type, from Invest in Dubai’s descriptions, and what it does not do.

Two more names cause confusion. The Dubai Unified Licence (DUL) is not a licence type; DET describes it as “a single identity for companies to use for accessing government services”. And a commercial permit is not a licence either: it is a short-term DET permission for an existing licensee to run promotions, sales, exhibitions, kiosks, commercial tents, signs and similar extras, with fees published by Invest in Dubai (for example AED 2,500 for special offers and liquidation, AED 500 to 1,000 for exhibitions).

How to choose your business activity: a seven-step method

u.ae puts it simply: the business activity “is the basis for selecting the legal form and type of licence”. Invest in Dubai’s first set-up step is its business set-up recommendation tool, which suggests structures and licences and estimates licence costs. We use the method below with every founder, and it works equally well on your own.

1. Write down what you will invoice for. One line per revenue stream: “IT consultancy to companies”, “selling phone accessories online”, “running a cafe”. Ignore plans for year three.
2. Search the directory. Use Invest in Dubai’s “Search Business Activities” tool with plain keywords, and by category. Note every activity code that could fit.
3. Read the full description. Each activity has a description of what it includes and excludes. Ready-made Meals and Dishes Preparation (1075004), for example, “does not include the preparation of meals for immediate consumption as in restaurants”. The description is what you will be held to.
4. Note the licence type and group. The tool shows whether each activity is commercial, professional or industrial, and the activity group it belongs to. Activities in the same group combine most easily.
5. Check foreign ownership. If the “foreign ownership” tag is missing, the activity keeps restrictions; see our foreign ownership guide before going further.
6. Check for an outside approval. Use the approvals table below. An approval decides your timeline and sometimes your premises and staff.
7. Check premises and fees. Some activities need a shop, a warehouse or industrial land; a few carry large activity fees (general trading, investment, contracting). Price them in our mainland business setup cost guide.

Then choose the fewest activities that honestly cover your revenue. A business activity you do not use still costs you in approvals, fees and documents. The trade name, the initial approval and the memorandum of association all repeat the activities, so a late change means reworking several documents. Our trade name registration guide explains how the name must also fit the activity, and our initial approval guide covers the stage where DET first checks your activities.

Combining business activities on one licence

u.ae confirms that “an investment/business can have more than one business activity”. What no official page we could read publishes is a single cap on the number of activities, or a complete rule on which combinations DET accepts. Here is what is official, followed by what we see in practice.

What is official

• More than one activity is allowed (u.ae), and activities can be added or removed later through the “Modify your business activities” amendment (Invest in Dubai, service completed within 10 minutes once approved).
• Each activity brings its own conditions. DET sets conditions, documents and approvals per activity (Law 13/2011, Art. 6), so adding one regulated activity puts the whole licence on the approval route.
• The Instant Licence only takes activities with no outside approval. One regulated activity moves you to a normal licence.
• Approvals can be priced by activity count. KHDA’s training institute permit costs AED 15,000 for one or two activities, AED 18,000 for three or four, AED 20,000 for five or six and AED 25,000 for more than seven.
• Activity fees stack. Adding general trading or contracting to an otherwise plain licence adds that activity’s fee under Resolution 13/2011.

What we see in practice

• Activities in the same group (for example several electronics trading lines, or several IT services) are routinely combined.
• Commercial and professional activities can often sit on one company licence, subject to DET’s review, but DET may ask for separate premises or refuse combinations that do not make sense together.
• A sole establishment held by a foreign professional stays professional; adding trading usually means changing the legal form to an LLC.
• Many advisers quote a working limit of around ten activities per licence. We have not found it on an official page, so treat it as practice and let DET’s review at initial approval be the test.

Adding an activity later is a trade licence amendment, with its own fees and knock-on updates to the Chamber, establishment cards and bank. Our trade licence amendment guide walks through it.

External approvals by business activity: who must say yes before DET

Invest in Dubai’s “Additional approvals” page says that for sectors “including food and beverages, healthcare, aviation, education, communication, transportation and insurance, additional No-objection Certificates and documents are required”, and that some activities “require external approvals”. The table combines its list with u.ae’s federal list and the regulators’ own service pages. Law 13/2011, Article 7 is what makes DET coordinate with these bodies before issuing the licence.

The order differs by regulator, which is why approvals trip founders up. Three examples from the regulators’ own pages:

• KHDA requires a trade name reservation and DET initial approval first, then issues the educational services permit in eight working days, and gives you “6 months from the date of the Initial Approval” to finish.
• DHA says “obtaining a trade license before applying to this service is optional”. It issues new facility licences as inactive, to be activated later, with an average of five working days; fees vary by facility type.
• Dubai Land Department real estate licences are applied for through DET and carry their own annual fee: AED 10,000 for exhibitions, owners’ association supervision and valuation, AED 15,000 for leasing and management for others, AED 25,000 for development, AED 100,000 for a registration trustee and AED 5,000 for other activities, plus AED 20 Knowledge and Innovation fees. Staff then need a practice card.

What the licence type changes after you are licensed

The activity and licence type are printed on the licence, and several later files read them:

• Dubai Chambers. Membership is mandatory for DET licensees (Dubai Law No. 1 of 2022, Art. 16), and the annual category fee depends on the type of business, from AED 50 for handicrafts and AED 300 for e-traders to AED 2,200 for banks, insurers and contractors. Our Dubai Chamber membership guide has the categories.
• Visas and quota. MOHRE and GDRFA look at the activity and premises when approving the establishment card and visa quota. See our establishment card guide and MOHRE labour card guide.
• Banking. Banks assess risk by activity; general trading, virtual assets and cash-heavy activities draw more questions. See our corporate bank account guide.
• Tax. Corporate tax registration is due within three months of the licence, as DET’s own licensing page reminds new licensees; VAT depends on turnover. See our corporate tax registration guide.
• Renewal. Activity fees such as general trading (AED 3,000 on renewal) recur every year. See how to renew a trade licence in Dubai.

Dubai mainland licence types in practice: five cases

These cases are built from the situations we see most often. Names and identifying details are left out, and the figures are the published ones.

1. An IT consultant who nearly chose general trading

A software developer wanted to “sell software and IT services” and was told to take general trading “to be safe”. Her revenue was development and consultancy fees. We mapped it to Computer Systems and Communication Equipment Software Design (6201001) and Web-Design (6201005), both professional, in one group. Choosing a professional licence rather than a commercial licence for general trading avoided the AED 15,000 activity fee on issue and AED 3,000 on every renewal. When she later resold licences for a software brand, a single Software Trading activity (4741004) was added by amendment.

2. A cafe owner who needed Dubai Municipality first

A founder signed a lease for a small cafe and assumed the licence would follow in days. Cafeteria (5610003) is a professional activity, and restaurants and food establishments need Dubai Municipality approval (Invest in Dubai). The municipality’s food establishment approval had to come before the licence, and the unit had to meet its requirements, so the licence date moved with the municipality, not with DET. Checking the approval before the lease would have shaped both the unit choice and the fit-out budget.

3. A training company that bundled too many courses

A trainer applied with nine course activities “for flexibility”. KHDA prices its training institute permit by the number of activities: AED 15,000 for one or two, rising to AED 25,000 above seven. She started with the two courses she had trainers and approvals for, and added others once there was demand. KHDA’s six-month window from initial approval also set the pace of the file.

4. A holiday home operator who confused registration with licensing

An investor with three apartments wanted to rent them to tourists through a company. The company needed a trade licence with a holiday home activity (the search tool lists Vacation Homes Rental, 5510008, commercial), and each unit had to be registered and approved on DET’s Holiday Homes portal before it could be listed. The licence alone did not permit a single booking.

5. A free zone company whose mainland clients wanted a local presence

A consultancy licensed in a Dubai free zone won contracts with mainland clients. Rather than forming a new mainland company, it compared the dual (free zone branch) licence, valid for a year, with the six-month permit for specific activities. It chose the permit to test demand, knowing a branch or a mainland company would follow if the work continued. Our free zone vs mainland guide sets out the full comparison.

Dubai mainland licence types: where the official sources are silent or disagree

Licence type myths: what circulates online that is not true

How to verify every licence type figure in this guide

What we will and will not do

We will map your business to DET activity codes and a licence type before you pay anything; check each activity for ownership limits, outside approvals, premises rules and activity fees; run the trade name, initial approval, any outside approval and the licence; and tell you when a single e-Trader or Instant Licence is something you can do yourself online.

We will not choose an activity that misdescribes your business to avoid an approval; promise an approval, which the regulator decides; act as your local service agent or nominee; or give legal or tax advice on your structure.

Related guides

• Mainland company formation: the complete step-by-step guide
• Mainland business setup cost in Dubai, line by line
• Types of companies in Dubai mainland
• Professional licence in Dubai
• General trading licence in Dubai
• Home business licence in Dubai
• Instant licence in Dubai
• Local service agent in Dubai
• Trade licence amendment in Dubai
• Free zone vs mainland Dubai
• UAE government fees list 2026

Keeping your licence, activities, Chamber membership and establishment cards aligned after you are licensed is what our PRO services in Dubai team handles.