Guides on offices, visas and setup

Six guides on the questions that decide where a UAE company puts its office: how much space a visa needs, what a bank will accept, what a free zone package really costs, and where the published rules contradict each other.

Every guide here exists because a client asked the same question twice and the answers online disagreed. That pattern turns out to be the norm in UAE office and licensing questions: official pages publish the rule but not the price, consultancies publish the price but not the source, and comparison articles average the two into a figure nobody can stand behind.

So these guides follow one discipline. An official figure is labelled official. A market range is labelled a market range and names where it came from. Where sources genuinely contradict each other — the mainland minimum office size, the Ras Al Khaimah registration fee base, the free zone tax de minimis — the contradiction is shown rather than resolved, because resolving it would mean inventing a number.

Where to start

If you are early and the question is which structure, start with mainland versus free zone — it sets out what each route requires of the office itself and gives a decision sequence that holds up.

If the structure is settled and the question is how big, go to office space per visa. The 9 m²-per-visa ratio is the single number most downstream decisions depend on.

If you already know the shape and the question is how much, read Dubai versus Ras Al Khaimah for the floor-area gap and what a RAKEZ flexi desk costs for the packaged end of the market.

And if a bank or a landlord has already said no, the two operational guides are office requirements for a UAE bank account and tenancy registration in Ras Al Khaimah — the second of which starts by correcting the question, because Ejari is a Dubai system and does not exist here.

All guides

RAKEZ free zone business facilities in Ras Al Khaimah where flexi desk and coworking licences are issued
RAK company setup

RAKEZ Flexi Desk Cost 2026: What Is Published and What Is Not

RAKEZ publishes four coworking packages and the visa count attached to each — but no price. That single gap explains why every quote you collect is different. Here is what is official, what is market range, and what never appears in the headline figure.

16 October 2026 · 9 min read
Furnished private office in Ras Al Khaimah of the kind a mainland licence requires, with desks and meeting space
UAE company setup

Mainland or Free Zone Office in the UAE: How to Decide (2026)

The licence names your activity. The address decides how many people you can hire, what a bank will accept, and in some cases how you are taxed. Here is what each route requires of the office itself — and where the published guidance genuinely disagrees.

16 October 2026 · 10 min read
Commercial office buildings along the Corniche in Ras Al Khaimah with waterfront views
UAE office costs

Office Cost: Dubai vs Ras Al Khaimah 2026 (Real Asking Rents)

A UAE residence visa is federal and identical wherever it is issued. The office behind it is not. Here is what asking rents actually look like in both emirates in 2026, what the per-square-foot figure hides, and where the gap stops mattering.

16 October 2026 · 10 min read
Tenancy contract and company formation documents on a desk in a Ras Al Khaimah office
RAK tenancy and licensing

Ejari in Ras Al Khaimah: What You Actually Register (2026)

Ejari is a Dubai Land Department system. It does not operate in Ras Al Khaimah. A tenancy here is registered with RAK Municipality instead, through a different portal, on a different fee basis — and the published fee figures do not all agree.

16 October 2026 · 8 min read
Virtual office, flexi desk and leased office compared for UAE bank account approval
Banking & Address

UAE Bank Account Office Requirements: What Banks Accept

Banks decline company accounts registered at a virtual office because they cannot verify presence. What each address type proves, what a site visit checks, and what the fix actually costs.

9 September 2026 · 9 min read
Dubai office floor area mapped to employee visa quota
Visa & Office

Dubai Office Space & Visa Quota: How Much Space Per Visa? (2026)

Roughly 9 m² of Ejari-registered office space per employee visa. Here is the full calculation — area, Ejari fees, real Dubai rents, and what the same quota costs in Ras Al Khaimah.

8 September 2026 · 10 min read

How we handle numbers

We place businesses into offices in Ras Al Khaimah, so these guides are not neutral about where we think many companies should end up. What they are neutral about is the arithmetic. Rents are asking prices from listing portals with the month stated, not transaction data. Official fees are quoted as published. Worked examples name their inputs and are labelled as calculations.

Where we could not verify something — a seven-day registration deadline, a specific penalty figure — we say that we could not verify it instead of repeating it. If you find a figure here that has moved, tell us on WhatsApp and we will correct the page.