Establishment card renewal: the two cards nobody separates

CHECKED 28 SEP 2026

Almost everything written about the UAE establishment card describes two different documents as though they were one. They come from different authorities, cost different amounts, and one is a prerequisite for the other. Getting the distinction right is the whole of this guide.

There are two cards

The first is the immigration establishment card. Federally it is issued by ICP, which calls the service exactly that and describes the card as holding the registered establishment data — trade name, licence number, partners, type of activity. In Dubai it comes from GDRFA, which issues separate versions for the private sector and free zones, the government sector, and national SMEs. The Government portal also calls it a "firm card".

What it does is open the company's immigration file. That file is what entitles the company to apply for entry permits and residence visas for its staff. Without it there is no route to sponsoring anybody.

The second is the MOHRE establishment card, which registers the company with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation: owner information, authorised signatories, signature samples, activity and location. It is the labour-side registration, and the establishment file it creates is what the work permit quota hangs off.

The term "computer card" appears on no official page for either of them. It is trade shorthand, not a name.

The order they go in

This is the part worth knowing, and it is stated plainly in MOHRE's own document list. To obtain the MOHRE establishment card you must supply a clear copy of the establishment card issued by ICP — along with a valid trade licence and a valid rental contract.

So the sequence is: trade licence, then tenancy, then the immigration establishment card from ICP or GDRFA, then the MOHRE card, then quota, then work permits, then visas. A company that starts in the middle of that queue waits at the front of it.

Validity, and the renewal nobody publishes a window for

GDRFA Dubai states that the immigration establishment card is valid for one year and requires annual renewal. ICP prices it per year, consistent with the same term.

No authority publishes a "renew this many days before expiry" figure. What ICP publishes instead is the price of being late: AED 100 monthly, capped at AED 1,000, for delays beyond 30 days. GDRFA Dubai separately warns of AED 100 a month for not renewing an establishment card.

MOHRE does not publish a validity period for its own card, and has no renewal service in its directory — only a service for updating the establishment file. Anybody quoting a MOHRE establishment card expiry period is going beyond what the Ministry states.

What ICP charges

To issue: AED 100 application, AED 100 per year of issuance, AED 100 smart services, and AED 2,000 to subscribe to the Authority's electronic system. Two days to process.
To renew: AED 100 application, AED 100 per year, AED 1,000 to renew the system subscription, AED 100 smart service. Two days.
Late renewal: AED 100 a month, capped at AED 1,000, once the delay passes 30 days.
Two conditions on renewal: the trade licence must be valid, and all fines owed by the establishment must be paid.
Some sectors carry more. A tourism establishment, for instance, adds a AED 75,000 financial guarantee and a AED 1,000 system subscription guarantee.

What GDRFA Dubai charges

GDRFA lists the private sector and free zone card, and the renewal covering all categories, as a set of components rather than one price: AED 200 plus 5 per cent VAT, AED 10 Knowledge Dirham, AED 10 Innovation Dirham, a AED 50 service fee, AED 100 if you want it urgently, AED 100 more if it is submitted through an Amer centre, and AED 100 per year for the issuance or renewal itself.

Completion is stated at 48 hours, through digital channels around the clock or at Amer centres in working hours.

The components are quoted here rather than a total on purpose — two of them are optional, so any single headline figure would be wrong for somebody.

What MOHRE charges

The Ta'qeem fee is AED 406, business centre commission is capped at AED 72 per transaction, and MOHRE states two working days. Through government channels the service itself is free.

What an expired card actually blocks

Here the honest answer is narrower than the confident one you will read elsewhere. No official page states that an expired establishment card blocks new employment visas, work permits or quota.

What is documented: ICP will not renew the card unless the trade licence is valid and the establishment's fines are cleared. MOHRE registration cannot be obtained without a copy of the ICP card. And the immigration file the card opens is what entitles a company to apply for permits and visas at all.

MOHRE's own published conditions for a work permit name a valid trade licence without registered violations, an available electronic quota, and a valid Ta'qeem report — they do not name the establishment card. So the dependency is real and documented at the level of the file, not as a published rule about the card itself.

Free zones

A free-zone company does not get a different card from its free zone. It gets the same immigration establishment card, submitted through the free-zone authority as the channel — ICP states that free zone companies must submit through their respective authority, and GDRFA Dubai issues one combined product covering the private sector and free zones.

The labour side is where free zones genuinely differ: they are regulated by their own authority rather than MOHRE, so the MOHRE establishment card is a mainland matter.

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.