Introduction

Hello everyone, in this article I’m going to explain how I expatriated to Dubai. I’ll explain how I went about getting the license, visa, taxes, banks and health insurance. Let’s get started!

I. The freelance license

For this, I used https://gofreelance.ae. This is the official site for 4 freezones in Dubai. The license costs 7500 AED or ~1800 euros and is obtained in less than 2 weeks. You have to pay 7500 each year to renew the license.

II. The establishment card

It’s needed to obtain a visa … and that’s all. It costs 2,000 AED a year (~500 euros) and can be obtained very quickly.

III. The visa

It is obtained after a medical examination. It costs AED 4380 for one year or AED 4750 for 2 years, i.e. ~1200 euros. I strongly recommend the 2-year visa.

IV. The mobile phone

I use https://virginmobile.ae. It costs me ~10 euros a month for ~2 GB of data, which is probably one of the cheapest possible.

V. The taxes

No taxes, unless you exceed the VAT ceiling, which is AED 375,000 or ~90,000 euros.

VI. Professional banks

Impossible to open a business account with this license. You can use fintechs like Payoneer (https://payoneer.com) or stripe (https://stripe.com) to receive payments.

But there will be fees, minimum 1%.

VII. Personal banks

We can receive payments on personal accounts if the customer allows it. I recommend opening an account with ADCB Hayyak. It’s free and allows you to have checks, for example to pay the rent.

I also recommend opening an account with ADCB Nomo. This is a multi-currency account with an English bank.

VIII. Health insurance

I use ADNIC, I pay about 5000 AED per year or ~1200 euros. It covers medical expenses worldwide except North America.

Conclusion

It’s very easy to set up in Dubai as an IT freelancer. If you want to be able to hire staff or have a professional bank account, you’ll have to set up a freezone business, like in DMCC, but this will cost more, around AED 40,000 a year or ~€10,000.