Key takeaways
- This page is organised by the authority that collects the money, not by service — because that is the structure that explains why costs vary.
- Government fees are published and checkable. Any quote that cannot separate them from a service fee is not a quote, it is a price.
- Several services are free through the authority’s own channels and charged by intermediaries. MoHRE publishes work permit quota as free via its website and app.
- Where an authority publishes no figure, none is given here. That is deliberate, and the gaps are marked.
- The three charges that move most: your MoHRE company classification, the market fee calculated from your rent, and medical insurance.
Every provider in this market quotes a single bundled number. That number contains two very different things: money that goes to a government authority at a published rate, and money that goes to the provider. Conflating them is how the industry works, and it is why identical transactions get quoted at wildly different prices.
This page separates them, indexed by collecting authority. Each section gives the published components, notes what the authority does not publish, and links to the guide that covers that transaction in full.
It is a reference index, not a walkthrough. Find the authority, take the component figures, then follow the link to the guide that covers the process, conditions and timing for that specific transaction.
Use it to check a quote: the government portion should match what is below. Anything above it is service, and you are entitled to see the split.
MoHRE — labour, permits and quota
Work permit quota
| Item | Published position |
|---|---|
| Quota service via MoHRE website and app | Free — government fees only |
| Taq’eem report | AED 406 |
| Business centre commission | Maximum AED 72 |
| Service completion | 2 working days on the service specification; MoHRE reported instant issuance from February 2026 |
| Note | Published fees exclude tax and collection charges |
MoHRE publishes four conditions: a valid trade licence, private status without restrictions, a valid Taq’eem report, and a profession compatible with the establishment’s activities. Full detail in our company visa quota guide.
MoHRE publishes this service as free through its own website and application. The government cost is Taq’eem at AED 406, and a business centre may add commission capped at AED 72.
Those two figures let you price any quota quote you are given. A charge presented as “the quota fee” substantially above them is service, not government.
Emiratisation
| Item | Published position |
|---|---|
| Target, 50+ employees | 2% annual growth in skilled positions — 1% by 30 June, 1% by 31 December |
| Target, 20–49 employees in specified sectors | At least one UAE national, and retain those already employed |
| Contribution for a missed target | AED 42,000 per Emirati not appointed, per semi-annual period — as published May 2023; escalates annually |
| Circumvention, first offence | AED 100,000 |
| Circumvention, second | AED 300,000 |
| Circumvention, third and subsequent | AED 500,000 |
| Compliant companies | Emiratisation Partners Club — up to 80% discount on MoHRE service fees |
The contribution figure carries a date because it escalates. Confirm the amount for your period with MoHRE on 600590000 rather than computing it — see our Emiratisation guide.
The variable that moves most
Your MoHRE establishment classification determines your work permit fees for an identical component. A downgrade — commonly following WPS violations or unresolved complaints — raises the cost of every permit you issue for as long as it stands.
If your per-visa costs have risen and nobody can explain why, check your classification before you change provider. See our WPS guide and work permit types.
GDRFA Dubai — residency and establishment services
Immigration establishment card
| Component | Issuance | Renewal |
|---|---|---|
| Card fee | AED 200 | AED 200 |
| VAT | 5% | 5% |
| Knowledge Dirham | AED 10 | AED 10 |
| Innovation Dirham | AED 10 | AED 10 |
| Service fee | AED 50 | AED 50 |
| Urgent fee | AED 100 | AED 100 |
| Amer centre submission | + AED 100 (published on issuance) | Not stated on the renewal card |
| Standard total, digital | AED 280 | |
| Expected completion | 48 hours | |
GDRFA states, in a note on both service cards, that the issuance or renewal fee is AED 100 per year. It does not state a validity period on those pages — the expiry printed on your own card governs. Full detail in our establishment card guide.
Status amendment — changing status in country
| Component | Fee |
|---|---|
| Registering status amendment | AED 500 |
| Knowledge Dirham | AED 10 |
| Innovation Dirham | AED 10 |
| Individual fee | AED 15 |
| Establishment fee | AED 50 |
| Expected completion | 48 hours |
The individual-versus-establishment distinction is published by GDRFA and almost never reproduced: it reflects whether a person is applying for themselves or a company is applying for an employee. Two published conditions apply — a new visa must exist, and the previous residence permit must be cancelled. See visa change status fees.
Residence permit data amendment
| Component | Fee |
|---|---|
| Urgent service fee | AED 100 |
| Innovation fee | AED 10 |
| Printing fee, via ZAJEL Courier Center | AED 100 |
GDRFA lists an urgent fee, an innovation fee and a channel-specific printing fee on this service — but no standard base fee.
We are not going to supply one. What it means practically is that the total quoted at an Amer centre will not equal the sum above, because it includes the centre’s charge and any government fee not itemised on that page.
Ask for the breakdown. See our guide to transferring a UAE visa to a new passport.
GDRFA contact
Toll free 8005111, international +971 4 313 9999, amer@gdrfad.gov.ae. Digital channels run 24/7; Amer centres during normal operating hours.
ICP — federal identity and residence
| Service | Fee | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Amendment of residency permit data | AED 150 + AED 100 = AED 250 | The AED 150 is published as the fee for replacing the Emirates ID card to update displayed information; AED 100 is smart services. Completion 2 days |
| Data Update | AED 50 | Smart service fee. Covers non-essential data only — phone, email, address |
| Status adjustment | AED 500 | Published on the Issuing Residency Permit service card |
ICP’s Data Update at AED 50 looks like the cheap option and covers only phone number, email and address. It will not update passport data.
People complete it after renewing a passport, believe they are compliant, and discover months later that the residence record still points at the old document. The service you need for a passport change is Amendment of Residency Permit Data.
ICP services require UAE Pass login. Call centre 600522222. Note the legal obligation behind these: under Federal Law No. 9 of 2006, an ID card holder must report any change in card details within one month from the date of change.
DED / DET — commercial licensing
| Item | Fee |
|---|---|
| Licence register fee | AED 600 |
| Trade name advertisements | AED 350 |
| Service request form | AED 50 |
| Knowledge Dirham | AED 10 |
| Innovation Dirham | AED 10 |
| Foreign trade name fee | AED 1,000 – 3,000 |
| General trading activity | AED 3,000 |
| Investment activity | AED 3,000 |
| Construction contracting activities | AED 3,000 |
| Business centre activity | AED 5,000 |
| Market fee | Calculated from registered rent, retrieved from RERA |
| Accommodation fee | Applied per owners and partners on the licence |
| General cleaning fees | Calculated at renewal |
Three of the lines above are calculated from your own circumstances rather than published as fixed amounts: the market fee from your registered rent, the accommodation fee from your registered owners and partners, and cleaning fees at renewal.
That is why nobody can quote your exact licence renewal without your licence in front of them — and why a rent increase at your last lease renewal raises your licence cost the following year.
Full process, conditions and the RERA dependency in our trade licence renewal guide.
Which authority do you actually need?
Most wasted time in this process comes from approaching the wrong body. This router covers the transactions people most often get wrong.
| What you need | Authority | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Work permit, quota, labour contract, Emiratisation | MoHRE | mohre.gov.ae, app, 600590000 |
| Residence visa, entry permit, status change — Dubai | GDRFA Dubai | gdrfad.gov.ae, Amer centres, 8005111 |
| Residence visa — other emirates | ICP | icp.gov.ae, app, 600522222 |
| Emirates ID — anywhere in the UAE | ICP | Always ICP |
| Establishment card — Dubai | GDRFA Dubai | Digital 24/7, or Amer |
| Trade licence, activities, trade name | DED / DET | Business Dashboard, app, SMS 6969 |
| Tenancy registration for the licence | RERA / DLD | Required before licence renewal |
| Attestation of foreign documents | MOFA plus the issuing country | Largely incurred abroad first |
| Degree equivalency | MoHRE | Separate from attestation |
| Medical fitness | DHA in Dubai | Tiered by speed |
Emirates ID is always ICP, wherever you live and whoever issued your residence visa. Dubai residents deal with GDRFA for residency and ICP for the card, and assume one body handles both.
Attestation is mostly not a UAE process. The bulk of it happens in the country that issued the document, before MOFA ever sees it. People budget for the UAE end and are surprised by the rest — and by the timeline, which is usually the longest item in a family file.
MOFA and attestation
Attestation is the line most likely to exceed the visa it supports, and the one least controllable from inside the UAE.
| Stage | Who charges | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Notarisation and home-country attestation | Authorities in the issuing country | Varies entirely by country; often the largest share |
| UAE embassy or consulate in that country | UAE mission abroad | Set per mission |
| MOFA attestation in the UAE | MOFA | Per document |
| Legal translation, where required | Approved translator | Not a government fee |
Because the foreign portion is set by authorities we do not control and changes independently of anything the UAE publishes. A single “attestation costs X” figure would be accurate for one country, one document type, one month.
Price it as two separate budgets: the foreign stages, quoted for your specific country and document, and the UAE stage. Our attestation cost guide sets out the UAE side and the country-specific routes we handle most.
Degree equivalency is a separate transaction
Frequently confused with attestation and budgeted as though it were included. It is a distinct MoHRE application that happens after attestation, required for many regulated professions, with its own fee and its own timeline.
A candidate whose degree is attested but not equivalency-assessed is not ready for a permit in those professions. Establish early whether the role requires it, because discovering it late adds weeks to a hire.
DHA — medical fitness
Required for residence, priced by how fast you need the result.
| Tier | Note |
|---|---|
| Standard | The default; adequate where the timeline has slack |
| Urgent | Compresses the result |
| Same-day / VIP | Highest tier, used against a hard deadline |
The tier decision is worth making deliberately rather than defaulting to urgent. Paying for speed at the medical stage saves nothing if the file is waiting on attestation or a cancellation elsewhere — a point covered in our medical fitness test guide.
DLD and RERA — tenancy registration
Small in fee terms and disproportionately important, because it gates something much larger.
| Item | Note |
|---|---|
| Tenancy registration | Registered through the DLD/RERA channels |
| Why it matters | DED retrieves your rent from RERA to calculate the market fee. Without registration you cannot renew your trade licence |
| Common failure | Lease renewed, new contract issued, nobody registers it — discovered months later at licence renewal |
An unregistered tenancy does not fail loudly. It fails at the moment you try to renew your trade licence — and by then the fix depends on a landlord or agent producing documents to your deadline.
Register the tenancy in the week you sign it, not the week you need it. See our Ejari registration service.
What a real transaction assembles to
Individual fees mean little until they are combined. These are the three most common assemblies, with the government portion separated. All figures assume no outstanding fines against the file.
Assembly one: an establishment getting hiring-ready
| Component | Authority | Published position |
|---|---|---|
| Trade licence in order | DED | Register AED 600 + activity fees + calculated lines |
| Tenancy registered | RERA | Prerequisite for the above |
| Establishment card current | GDRFA | AED 280 digital, 48 hours |
| Taq’eem report valid | MoHRE | AED 406 |
| Quota | MoHRE | Free via website/app |
The instructive part is how little of that is expensive. The costly failures are not the fees but the sequence — an unregistered tenancy blocking a licence, which blocks quota, which blocks every hire.
Assembly two: an employee already in the UAE
| Component | Authority | Published position |
|---|---|---|
| Work permit | MoHRE | Varies by company classification |
| Status change in country | GDRFA | AED 500 + 10 + 10, plus 15 or 50 by applicant type; 48 hours |
| Medical fitness | DHA | By tier |
| Emirates ID | ICP | By validity period |
| Residence stamping | GDRFA / ICP | — |
| Medical insurance | Insurer | Mandatory; age-driven |
Assembly three: annual company compliance
| Item | Cadence |
|---|---|
| Trade licence renewal | Annual — components plus calculated lines |
| Establishment card renewal | AED 280 digital |
| Tenancy registration current | On each lease renewal |
| Taq’eem validity | Check quarterly |
| Emiratisation position | Two deadlines: 30 June, 31 December |
| WPS submissions | Monthly |
The government fees are modest and knowable. What costs real money is a file falling out of order — a lapsed card, a restriction, an unregistered tenancy — because each one stops transactions rather than charging for them.
Which is why the useful discipline is a monthly pass over the whole file rather than expertise in any single fee. That maintenance is most of what our Dubai PRO services actually consist of, and it is why our clients rarely meet the expensive version of this page.
A last practical note on the router above. Where a transaction touches two authorities, the order is almost always labour first and immigration second: MoHRE approves the permit, then GDRFA or ICP issues the residency that follows from it. Approaching them in the reverse order produces a refusal rather than a queue, because the second body is waiting on a document the first has not issued yet.
The 2026 incentive measures
Two packages approved in 2026 changed what some establishments pay, and the distinction between the two mechanisms matters more than the headline totals.
| First package | Second package | |
|---|---|---|
| Value | AED 1 billion | AED 1.5 billion |
| Approved | 30 March 2026 | 21 May 2026 |
| From | 1 April 2026, three to six months | 33 initiatives over three to 12 months |
| Mechanism | Largely deferrals | Deferrals and targeted exemptions |
The first package deferred, for three months from 1 April 2026 and applying to both new licences and renewals: premium business names, licence amendment fees, newspaper announcement fees, local service fees, accommodation fees, waste management fees and service improvement fees.
The second granted a one-time full exemption from market fees, accommodation allowance fees, general cleaning service fees and foreign trade name fees to named categories — desert safari and camping operators, marina-related businesses, aviation-related activities, drone and fireworks companies, and event management companies. Early childhood facilities registered with KHDA were exempted from licence renewal fees, fines and Dubai Municipality market fees; other KHDA-registered private institutions received deferral and instalment of renewal fees plus deferral of fines.
A deferred fee is postponed and still owed. The first package’s announcement stated businesses would be given an update at the end of the three-month period — not that the fees would be written off.
If your payment letter was lighter during that window, hold the cash against the liability rather than treating it as a saving.
Implementation timeframes were set by each responsible government entity. Confirm the current position with the relevant authority before budgeting on any line above.
Penalties
The charges that turn a manageable situation into an expensive one, because they accrue while you decide what to do.
| Penalty | Authority | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Emiratisation circumvention | MoHRE | AED 100,000 / 300,000 / 500,000 by occurrence |
| Emiratisation shortfall | MoHRE | Per Emirati not appointed, per half-year; escalating |
| Establishment card lapse | GDRFA | No late fine published. The cost is the freeze on all visa transactions |
| Emirates ID late renewal | ICP | See our Emirates ID fine guide |
| Overstay | GDRFA / ICP | See our grace period guide for which tier applies |
| Trade licence late renewal | DED | See DED late renewal fines |
Note the establishment card row. GDRFA publishes no late renewal fine on its service specifications — and letting the card lapse is nonetheless one of the costliest failures on this page.
It stops work permits, entry permits, residence issuance and renewal, cancellations and dependant sponsorship. A single hire delayed three weeks costs multiples of the AED 280 renewal that would have prevented it.
The same logic applies across this section: the fines are visible and mostly modest. The freezes are invisible and expensive.
The costs nobody quotes you
None of these are hidden by the authorities. They are left out of quotes because they are variable, or because the party quoting your visa is not the party charging them.
| Cost | Why it is omitted |
|---|---|
| Medical insurance | Mandatory, priced on the individual; age drives it far more than anything else. For an older parent it can exceed the visa cost |
| Attestation | Varies by issuing country, largely incurred abroad, and frequently exceeds the visa it supports |
| Degree equivalency | A separate MoHRE application after attestation, for regulated professions |
| Urgent processing | Published where it exists — AED 100 on the establishment card, AED 100 on residence data amendment |
| Typing centre charges | Not government fees; vary by centre |
| Outstanding fines | Anything against your file must clear before the transaction moves |
| Tax and collection charges | MoHRE states its published fees exclude these |
How to read any quote you receive
| Ask | What you are testing |
|---|---|
| Split the government fee from the service fee, in writing | Whether you are being quoted a price or sold a bundle |
| What is excluded? | Insurance, attestation, urgent handling and existing fines are the four most common omissions |
| What could change this figure? | MoHRE classification for employment; registered rent for a licence; attestation status for family |
| What happens if it is refused? | Application fees are generally not refunded |
| Which authority collects each line? | Lets you check it against the sections above |
Publishing the government side makes our own pricing checkable, which is the point. We pass these fees through at published cost and state our charge separately, so you can see which is which.
If you would rather not assemble the comparison yourself, send us the relevant document — trade licence, passport page, labour contract or tenancy — and we will come back with the government fees at cost, our fee stated separately, and anything already outstanding against your file. That is how our PRO services in Dubai are quoted, every time.
Why identical transactions get quoted so differently
This is the question behind most visits to a page like this, and it has four concrete answers rather than one vague one about markups.
One: the government portion genuinely varies
Several lines are not fixed prices at all. Work permit fees move with your MoHRE company classification. The market fee is calculated from your registered rent. The accommodation fee reflects your registered owners and partners. Emirates ID is priced by validity period. Medical fitness is priced by tier.
Two companies quoted differently for “the same” transaction may both be quoted correctly, because the transactions are not the same.
Two: the service fee is unregulated
Nothing caps what a provider charges for its own time, and there is no reason it should. What matters is whether you can see it. A quote that separates government from service lets you judge the service fee on its merits; a bundled number does not.
MoHRE publishes a maximum business centre commission of AED 72 on the quota service. GDRFA publishes an AED 100 Amer surcharge on establishment card issuance.
Those are the exceptions rather than the rule, which is precisely why they are worth knowing: where an authority has capped or published an intermediary charge, you can check it exactly.
Three: the scope quoted is different
One provider quotes the transaction; another quotes the transaction plus the medical, the Emirates ID, the insurance and the typing. Both numbers are honest and they are not comparable.
Before comparing two quotes, establish that they cover the same list. The four most common omissions are medical insurance, attestation, urgent handling and outstanding fines.
Four: something is already wrong with the file
A provider who has looked at your file may be pricing a restriction, an expired card or a classification issue that the other has not noticed yet. The higher quote is sometimes the accurate one.
If two quotes differ sharply, ask the higher one what they found. It is occasionally the most useful question in the whole exercise.
A checking routine you can run yourself
Everything on this page is verifiable without a provider. If you want to establish your own position before asking anyone for a price, this is the order.
| Step | Check | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Available work permit quota — not approved, available | MoHRE inquiry service, app, 600590000 |
| 2 | Establishment file status — any restriction | MoHRE |
| 3 | Your establishment classification | MoHRE — it sets your permit fees |
| 4 | Establishment card expiry | GDRFA |
| 5 | Trade licence expiry and activity list | DED |
| 6 | Tenancy registered and current | RERA |
| 7 | Taq’eem validity | MoHRE |
| 8 | Any outstanding fines against the file | Relevant authority |
Run these before you ask anyone for a quote and two things happen. You find out whether the transaction you want is even possible right now — and you can tell immediately whether a provider has actually looked at your file or is quoting from a price list.
It is also the exact sequence we run before quoting, which is why we sometimes come back saying the thing you asked for is not the thing you need yet.
Approved is not available
Worth isolating because it causes more avoidable disappointment than any other misreading on this page.
Your approved quota is the total headcount you are permitted. Your available quota is what remains after the permits already issued. A company approved for twenty with eighteen active permits has two available, not twenty.
Check the available figure, and check it before extending an offer rather than after. It is free, it takes minutes, and it prevents the most expensive sequence in this entire guide — an accepted offer that cannot be processed.
Planning around the fees rather than reacting to them
A short calendar turns nearly everything on this page from an event into a routine.
| Frequency | Check | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | Available quota; file restrictions; WPS submitted | The three that block hiring silently |
| Quarterly | Establishment classification; Taq’eem; activity list against planned roles | Each changes what you pay or what you may do |
| Twice a year | Emiratisation position | 30 June and 31 December deadlines |
| 90 days before expiry | Trade licence; establishment card | Both block everything downstream |
| On every lease renewal | Register the tenancy immediately | Blocks licence renewal otherwise |
| Before every offer | Available quota for that specific profession | Prevents the worst outcome |
Every check above is free and takes minutes. Every one of them, left unchecked, can stop a transaction at the point where stopping it is most expensive.
Trivial and constant cost against occasional and severe cost is exactly the profile of a task people skip — and exactly the profile of a task worth systematising.
If you would rather not hold that calendar yourself, it is what a retained arrangement buys: not the transactions, but the file being in a state where the transactions go through. Our guide to why companies use PRO services covers where that pays and where it does not.
What we will and will not publish here
Worth stating plainly, because it explains the shape of this page.
We will publish any fee the collecting authority publishes, with the authority named, the components itemised, and the date noted where a figure escalates over time.
We will not publish a computed current-year figure for a fee that escalates, an all-in total that bundles foreign authorities’ charges, an averaged free zone cost, or a penalty an authority does not publish. In each of those cases the honest output is a marked gap and a phone number.
That makes this page less satisfying than a list where every cell contains a number. It also makes the numbers that are here worth relying on, which is the trade we would rather make.
One more reason quotes diverge: timing
A quote prepared in March and a quote prepared in July may both be right and still differ, because the 2026 incentive packages moved several lines through deferrals and exemptions with defined windows.
If you are comparing a quote against an older one, or against a figure a colleague was given last quarter, establish when each was prepared before concluding that somebody has raised their prices. Deferred fees in particular can make an earlier quote look lighter than a later one for identical work, without anything having changed except the calendar.
Fees that are free, and fees people pay twice
Two categories worth isolating, because between them they account for a large share of avoidable spend.
Services that are free through the authority’s own channel
| Service | Position |
|---|---|
| Work permit quota | MoHRE publishes it as free via website and app — government fees only |
| Quota and file status checks | Free through the MoHRE inquiry service, app, chatbot and 600590000 |
| Establishment card status | Checkable through GDRFA’s channels |
| Licence status and expiry | Checkable through DED’s channels |
| Proactive quota | MoHRE: awarded without an application or any documentation |
MoHRE states that a proactive quota is awarded without submitting an application or any documentation to the Ministry, as a subsidiary procedure attached to opening and updating the establishment file.
Businesses routinely start an application — and sometimes pay for one — for quota already sitting against their file.
Check what you hold before you apply for anything. It is free, it takes minutes, and it occasionally makes the whole transaction unnecessary.
Charges people pay twice
| Situation | Why it happens |
|---|---|
| Using the wrong ICP service after a new passport | Data Update at AED 50 does not cover passport data; the correct amendment is then still owed |
| Urgent processing on a file blocked elsewhere | Paying for speed at one stage while another stage holds the file |
| Applying for quota that already exists | The proactive award was never checked |
| Re-submitting a refused application unchanged | Application fees are generally not refunded, and the failed condition still fails |
| Renewing against an old registered address | The licence must be amended; the renewal cannot proceed as lodged |
| Paying a centre for a service open digitally | Convenience is legitimate — but it should be a choice, not a default |
Every row above is a sequencing error rather than a pricing error. Nobody was overcharged; the transaction was simply attempted in the wrong order, or before a prerequisite existed.
That is the argument for the eight free checks in the previous section. Most money wasted on government transactions is not lost to markups — it is lost to paying for something that could not have worked yet.
Budgeting: fixed, variable and conditional
A useful way to structure any estimate, because it tells you which lines you can rely on and which will move.
| Type | Examples | How to treat it |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed and published | DED register fee AED 600; establishment card AED 280 digital; Taq’eem AED 406; ICP amendment AED 250; GDRFA status amendment AED 500 base | Budget exactly |
| Variable by your circumstances | Market fee from rent; accommodation fee from partners; work permit by classification; Emirates ID by validity | Budget from last year’s actuals, adjusted |
| Conditional | Urgent fees; Amer surcharge; foreign trade name fee; degree equivalency | Include only if the condition applies to you |
| Outside government control | Medical insurance; foreign attestation stages; legal translation | Quote separately, per case |
| Escalating | Emiratisation contribution | Confirm the current-period figure before budgeting |
| Not published | Establishment card late fine; GDRFA residence amendment base fee; free zone schedules | Call the authority |
For anything recurring — licence renewal, establishment card, the annual compliance cycle — your own previous payment letter is a better predictor than any published range, because it was calculated against your actual establishment.
Then adjust for the two things that genuinely move: whether your rent changed, and whether your classification changed. Those two explain most year-on-year variance.
Keep the payment letters. Most companies discard them once paid, and then have no way to explain an increase twelve months later.
If a figure here does not match what you have been told
It happens, and the resolution order is worth knowing.
The authority is right. If MoHRE, GDRFA, ICP or DED tells you something different today, take their figure. Fees are revised, sometimes without wide announcement, and this page is maintained rather than live.
Check you are comparing the same thing. A great many apparent discrepancies are a government fee being compared against a bundled total, a Dubai figure against a federal one, or a standard tier against an urgent one.
Then tell us. If a published figure on this page has moved, we would rather correct it than have it quietly go stale. That is the whole basis on which a reference page like this is worth publishing at all.
Keep the receipts
One habit that makes every future comparison easier: keep the itemised breakdown for every government transaction you pay for, alongside the document it produced.
A year later, when a renewal comes in higher or a provider quotes a figure you want to test, your own prior breakdown is the most reliable benchmark available — better than any published range, because it was calculated against your actual establishment rather than an average one.
Individuals and companies are charged differently
A distinction the authorities publish and almost nobody reproduces, and it explains a category of quote discrepancy that otherwise looks arbitrary.
| Service | Individual | Establishment |
|---|---|---|
| GDRFA status amendment | Individual fee AED 15 | Establishment fee AED 50 |
| Who applies | A person acting for themselves | A company acting for an employee |
The amounts are small; the principle is not. It tells you that the authority prices by who is applying, not only by what is being done — so a quote prepared for a company file and a quote prepared for an individual are not directly comparable, even for the identical transaction.
The same logic runs through several services in different forms: an employer-sponsored file carries obligations and documents that a self-applying individual does not, which is why the document lists diverge even where the headline fee matches.
Before comparing any quote, be clear whether the transaction is being lodged by you personally or by your employer or company. Several document requirements — establishment card for investors and partners, labour contract or Employment ID for private-sector sponsored staff, a letter for government-sector sponsored staff — follow from that single fact.
Quotes that look wildly different frequently turn out to be answering the two different versions of the same question.
Free zone entities and this page
A short but necessary caveat, since a large share of Dubai companies sit in a free zone.
The federal and Dubai-wide lines on this page still apply to you: Emirates ID through ICP, medical fitness through DHA, attestation through MOFA and the issuing country, degree equivalency through MoHRE, and the residence process itself through GDRFA or ICP.
What does not apply is the licensing and labour layer. Your licence fees, facility charges, visa allocation and establishment card handling are set by your zone, published by your zone, and differ between zones. None of the DED figures above describe your position.
Get that schedule from your zone in writing, and set it against the federal lines here. Our free zone vs mainland guide sets out exactly which layers differ and which are identical.
Keeping this page useful to you
A closing note on how to get value from a reference like this over time rather than once.
The figures here are components, and components are stable in a way that totals are not. A published card fee of AED 200 or a Taq’eem fee of AED 406 changes rarely; the total of your particular transaction changes constantly, because it depends on your rent, your classification, your tier choices and what is currently outstanding against your file.
So use the components to check quotes and the free checks to establish your own position, and treat any all-in figure — including one we give you — as valid for the file it was calculated against, on the day it was calculated.
Ask for the split, every time, from everyone. Government fee on one line, service fee on another, exclusions listed.
It is a reasonable request, it takes a provider two minutes, and the response tells you more about who you are dealing with than any amount of comparison shopping. Providers who work this way find it unremarkable. Providers who do not will explain why it is complicated.
A note on why the totals move so much
If you take one structural idea from this page, make it this one: the UAE publishes components, and providers quote totals. Almost every confusion about government fees lives in the gap between those two things.
A component is stable, attributable and checkable. The GDRFA establishment card fee is AED 200. Taq’eem is AED 406. The DED licence register fee is AED 600. None of those has moved in a way that would surprise anyone who checked last year.
A total is none of those things. It depends on how many components your particular transaction triggers, which calculated lines apply to your establishment, what tier you chose, which channel you lodged through, whether anything was already outstanding, and what the provider charges for assembling it. Two totals can differ by thousands while every underlying component is identical and correct.
This is why a page of components is more useful than a page of totals, even though a page of totals is what everybody wants. Totals answer one transaction on one day for one company. Components let you check any quote you are ever given, including ours.
Where each figure comes from, and where the gaps are
A reference page is only as good as its provenance, so here is the honest accounting of what is published, what is dated, and what is simply not available.
| Figure | Status |
|---|---|
| MoHRE quota: free via website/app, Taq’eem AED 406, centre cap AED 72 | Published on the service specification |
| GDRFA establishment card: AED 200 + VAT + 10 + 10 + 50, 48 hours | Published on both issuance and renewal cards |
| GDRFA status amendment: AED 500 + 10 + 10, individual 15 / establishment 50 | Published, 48-hour completion stated |
| ICP residency data amendment: AED 150 + AED 100 | Published, 2-day completion stated |
| ICP Data Update: AED 50 | Published |
| DED licence components | Published; three lines are calculated per establishment |
| Emiratisation contribution AED 42,000 | Dated — published May 2023, escalates annually |
| GDRFA residence data amendment base fee | Not published on the service page — gap marked, not filled |
| Establishment card late renewal fine | Not published — no penalty appears on either service card |
| Free zone fees of any kind | Not centrally published — set by each zone |
| Market, accommodation and cleaning fees | Calculated per establishment, not fixed |
It would be easy to fill every empty cell with a number found somewhere online. Most pages covering UAE fees do exactly that, which is why their figures disagree with each other and with the authorities.
A reference that marks its gaps is more useful than one that hides them, because it tells you precisely where you need to make a phone call — and it means the figures that are here can be relied on.
Where a cell says not published, the answer is a call to the authority: MoHRE 600590000, GDRFA 8005111, ICP 600522222.
Fees change, sometimes quietly
Everything on this page was verified against the publishing authority, and every figure has a shelf life. UAE government fees are revised periodically and not always with wide announcement, and several vary by activity, emirate and company classification.
Treat this page as a checking tool rather than a contract. If a figure here disagrees with what an authority tells you today, the authority is right and we would be glad to know about it.
Government fee questions
Are UAE government fees fixed?
Most are published at set rates, but several are genuinely variable: work permit fees by MoHRE company classification, the market fee as a function of your registered rent, the accommodation fee by registered owners and partners, and medical fitness by processing tier.
Ranges on this page reflect real variation rather than uncertainty, and lines that are calculated per establishment are marked as such.
Why do two providers quote such different prices for the same transaction?
Because the government portion is fixed and the service fee is not. Ask both to separate the two and the difference becomes visible immediately.
A refusal to itemise usually means the margin is the larger part of the number.
Which services are free through the authority?
MoHRE publishes work permit quota as free through its website and application, with only government fees applying — Taq’eem at AED 406 — and business centre commission capped at AED 72.
Digital channels at GDRFA and ICP are open 24/7, so several transactions can be lodged directly without a centre’s charge.
What does it cost to update my residence record after a new passport?
Through ICP: AED 150 for replacing the Emirates ID card to update displayed information, plus AED 100 smart services — AED 250, with a published completion of 2 days.
Through GDRFA Dubai the service page lists an urgent fee of AED 100, an innovation fee of AED 10 and a AED 100 printing fee via ZAJEL, but no standard base fee.
How much is an establishment card in Dubai?
AED 200 plus 5% VAT, plus AED 10 Knowledge Dirham, AED 10 Innovation Dirham and a AED 50 service fee — AED 280 lodged digitally, with a published completion of 48 hours.
The urgent fee adds AED 100, and GDRFA publishes an additional AED 100 on the issuance service where the application is submitted through an Amer centre.
What is the market fee?
A charge calculated from the rent on your registered premises, which DED retrieves from RERA using your contract number. It is why mainland licence renewal totals vary so widely between otherwise identical companies, and why a rent increase raises your licence cost the following year.
Which fees are most often left out of quotes?
Medical insurance, document attestation, MoHRE degree equivalency, urgent processing charges, typing centre charges, and any fines already recorded against your file.
MoHRE also states that its published fees exclude tax and collection charges.
Do government fees change often?
They are revised periodically, sometimes without wide announcement, and 2026 saw two Dubai incentive packages altering several lines through deferrals and targeted exemptions with defined windows.
Confirm before budgeting from any published figure, including this page.
Are application fees refunded if I am refused?
Generally no. That is the practical argument for having eligibility assessed before submitting rather than after — particularly where a refusal is also recorded.
Why does this page not list free zone fees?
Because there is no central publication of them. Each free zone sets and publishes its own licence, facility and visa costs, and they differ substantially.
A single averaged “free zone cost” describes no actual zone. Get the schedule from the specific zone in writing — see our free zone vs mainland comparison.
Individual fees mean little until they are assembled into a real transaction. For what a complete file costs, line by line with the order of payment, see our PRO services cost reference and our employment visa cost breakdown. You can also estimate common cases with the visa cost estimator.
Official sources
- Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation — Work Permit Quotas For Establishments; Emiratisation Targets; news releases of 4 May 2023 and 7 May 2026. mohre.gov.ae
- General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs – Dubai — Issuance and Renewal of Establishment Card; Status Amendment; Amendment of all types of residence permit data; Contact Information. gdrfad.gov.ae
- Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security — Amendment of Residency Permit Data; Data Update; ID Card Holder’s Duties under Federal Law No. 9 of 2006. icp.gov.ae
- Dubai Economy / Department of Economy and Tourism — trade licence fee components and the market fee calculated from RERA-registered rent
- Government of Dubai Media Office, 30 March and 2 April 2026; Government of Dubai, 21 May 2026 — the AED 1 billion and AED 1.5 billion economic incentive packages
- The Official Platform of the UAE Government, u.ae
Figures are reproduced as published by the collecting authority, with the publication date stated where a figure escalates. Gaps are marked rather than filled.
Please note. General information, not legal or financial advice. UAE government fees are revised periodically, sometimes with little notice, and several vary by activity, emirate, legal form and company classification. Free zone costs are set by each zone individually and are not covered here. Confirm the current position for your specific transaction with the collecting authority before committing funds.
