How to renew a trade licence in Dubai

CHECKED 28 SEP 2026

A Dubai mainland licence renewal is mostly a few minutes online. What makes it expensive is the tenancy contract behind it, and what makes it urgent is that an expired licence quietly stops the company filing anything for its staff.

The window is the last month before expiry

Dubai Law No. 13 of 2011 makes a licence valid for one year, renewable for the same period, and requires a business to renew within the last month before it expires. Terms of up to four years are possible with the Department of Economy and Tourism's approval.

DET sends an SMS reminder as expiry approaches. That reminder is the only prompt most companies get, and it goes to whichever number was on the file when the licence was issued.

The late fine is AED 200 a month — not AED 250

Executive Council Resolution No. 13 of 2011 sets the penalty for delay in renewing a licence at AED 200 for each month, with part of a month rounded up to a full month. DET's own renewal page carries the same figure.

The AED 250 a month that appears across advisory and business-setup sites is not in Dubai legislation and is not on any DET page. Nor is the "AED 5,000 cap" those sites often add: the Resolution states no cap for this violation, though repeating the same violation within a year doubles the fine, and the law's absolute ceiling for economic-activity penalties is AED 100,000.

There is also no 30-day grace period. The fine runs from the first part-month after expiry.

What it costs to renew

DET does not publish a flat price: the renewal fee depends on the business activity. The licence issuance-or-renewal line item in the 2011 fee schedule is AED 600, but that is one component of a bill that also carries activity fees, market fees and service charges.

Treat any all-in figure you are quoted online as an estimate for somebody else's licence.

The Ejari, and what it costs

A registered tenancy contract is what most mainland renewals actually stall on. Register or renew the Ejari with the Dubai Land Department first: AED 177.75 in total through the DLD website or the Dubai REST app, or AED 220 at a Real Estate Trustee Centre, where processing takes about 25 minutes excluding waiting.

Free-zone practice differs. DMCC, for example, officially requires an Ejari number for leased office and retail units, while flexi-desk and business-centre members instead need workmen's compensation and third-party liability cover.

Advice about how much validity the Ejari must have left at renewal — one month, three months — is contradictory and unofficial. The reliable version is simpler: have a valid registered tenancy in place before you start.

Renewing, step by step

Renew the tenancy and register or renew the Ejari.
Check that any activity-specific approvals are still valid.
Renew through the Invest in Dubai portal, by SMS to 6969, or at a DET service centre. DET describes the portal and SMS routes as completing instantly.
Pay by direct debit, or by cash or cheque at Dubai Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Emirates Islamic or Aafaq Islamic Finance.
File the renewed licence where the next person can find it, and record the new expiry date the same day.

What an expired licence actually blocks

The claims that bank accounts freeze after 90 days or that staff visas are cancelled automatically are not published by any authority. The mechanism that is documented is narrower and more immediate: MOHRE requires a valid trade licence and a valid rental contract to issue or renew an establishment card, and the establishment card is what the company's work permits sit on.

So the effect is real but indirect. The licence lapses, the establishment card cannot be renewed, and every employee's permit work stops behind it.

Non-renewal does not cancel the licence by itself, either. Law 13 of 2011 allows closure or revocation for failure to renew together with cessation of the activity, and only after a notice in a widely circulated local newspaper and a two-week objection period.

Free zones set their own rules

Free-zone companies renew with their authority, not DET, and the differences are large.

DMCC: annual trading and service licence renewal is AED 20,265, with discounts for multi-year terms. Late penalties are nil for the first 30 days, AED 2,500 from 31 to 60 days, AED 5,000 from 61 to 90 days, and beyond 90 days the authority terminates the licence. In June 2026 DMCC announced a waiver of late renewal penalties of up to AED 5,000 alongside multi-year renewal discounts.

JAFZA: renewal opens three months before expiry, late renewal carries a flat AED 1,000, and the annual cost runs from about AED 5,000 to AED 30,000 depending on licence type.

DDA: renewal is online only, submitted by the General Manager, delivered immediately, with no lease document and no late fine published.

2026 relief measures, and what they do not cover

Dubai approved an AED 1 billion incentive package on 30 March 2026, effective from 1 April for three months, deferring a set of DET fees on new licences and renewals — premium business-name fees, amendment fees, newspaper announcement fees, local service fees and others. A second package of AED 1.5 billion followed on 21 May 2026.

Read "deferred" literally: the fees were postponed, not cancelled. And no general suspension of the trade-licence late fine was announced — the only late-renewal penalty suspension in the May package applies to Dubai Civil Aviation Authority permits.

SOURCES

UAE fees and fines change. This guide is general information checked on the date above, not legal advice — confirm current figures with the authority before acting on them.