Moving Your HQ to Dubai: A Guide to Corporate Redomiciliation

How established international companies can move legal domicile to the UAE without simply starting from zero.

For mature businesses, continuity matters just as much as tax efficiency. The question is not only where to move, but how to preserve legal and operating substance while doing it.

Why Redomiciliation Matters for Established Companies

If your company already has a trading history, signed contracts, lender records, and a recognised track record, dissolving one entity and forming another can create avoidable disruption. In many cases, boards instead explore redomiciliation, also called continuance or transfer of incorporation.

The commercial objective is straightforward: move the company’s legal home to the UAE while preserving corporate continuity as far as the law, registrar process, banking, and counterparties allow.

What Redomiciliation Means in Practice

The company continues. It is not treated as a brand-new entity under every system.

DIFC company law expressly allows a foreign company, where authorised by its home jurisdiction, to apply to the registrar for continuation into the DIFC. The law also states that once continued, the company keeps its property, rights, privileges, liabilities, restrictions, and debts, and remains party to existing legal proceedings.

That legal continuity is the core reason redomiciliation appeals to mature businesses. It can reduce the need to rebuild corporate history from scratch and can simplify continuity with contracts and governance records.

Important practical point: continuity in law does not automatically guarantee that every bank account, vendor profile, or compliance file remains untouched. Banks and counterparties may still require fresh KYC, updated board documents, or revised onboarding paperwork.

Which UAE Registrars Are Commonly Used

Your best fit depends on the legal environment, operating purpose, and target counterparties

ADGM

ADGM publishes formal continuance guidance through its Registration Authority and confirms that a body corporate incorporated outside ADGM may apply for continuance if authorised by the laws of its original jurisdiction. ADGM is commonly chosen by groups that value a highly structured international legal framework.

DIFC

DIFC law contains an express transfer-of-incorporation regime. This makes it a relevant option for companies that want a well-known UAE financial-centre jurisdiction with a clear statutory continuation pathway.

RAK ICC

RAK ICC publicly offers a transfer-of-domicile service and is often considered by international holding structures and companies familiar with offshore-style corporate vehicles. It is typically evaluated where cost-efficiency and cross-border holding use cases are priorities.

Typical Redomiciliation Workflow

The sequence is cross-border and must be managed carefully

  • Step 1: Home-jurisdiction approval. The company confirms that its current jurisdiction permits outward continuance and obtains the required shareholder, board, registrar, and good-standing documents.
  • Step 2: UAE continuance application. The target UAE registrar reviews incorporation documents, solvency support, home-jurisdiction consents, and continuation filings.
  • Step 3: Certificate issuance. Once approved, the UAE registrar issues the relevant continuation or transfer certificate.
  • Step 4: Final home-jurisdiction completion. The company then completes the exit or strike-off formalities in the original jurisdiction according to its registrar’s requirements.

The documentation package is technical. For example, ADGM’s published checklist asks for home-jurisdiction authorisation evidence, good-standing support, and evidence that the company will cease to be incorporated in the original jurisdiction if continuance is granted.

Why Businesses Consider UAE HQ Migration

The decision is usually legal, strategic, banking, and tax-driven at the same time

For many international groups, the UAE is attractive because it offers a politically stable operating base, internationally recognised free-zone registrars, and a generally efficient tax environment.

  • Free Zone structures may access 0% Corporate Tax on qualifying income where conditions are met.
  • The UAE does not impose personal income tax in the ordinary way many founders are used to in other jurisdictions.
  • The country has a broad treaty network and a globally recognised banking and corporate-services ecosystem.

The exact benefit depends on your activity, tax residence position, substance profile, and whether the new UAE entity will be an operating business, a holding vehicle, or a group headquarters platform.

Execution Quality Matters

This is not a standard company setup. It is a multi-jurisdiction legal migration.

Redomiciliation can fail if the document sequence is wrong, if the home-jurisdiction consents are incomplete, or if the receiving registrar is given filings that do not match the legal form of the original company. Timing mistakes can also create avoidable tax and compliance issues in the jurisdiction you are leaving.

At Sarmat, we coordinate with foreign registrars, advisors, and UAE service providers to structure corporate continuance projects properly. If you are assessing whether a UAE move should be handled through continuance, branch registration, or a different restructuring route, we can map the practical path before filings begin.

Schedule a Confidential Consultation Business Structuring Support

Official References

SARMAT PROFESSIONAL & MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT TRAINING L.L.C | SARMAT GOVERNMENT SERVICES L.L.C

Helping individuals and businesses navigate UAE government procedures with precision and ease.Based in Dubai. Local experts. Government-compliant.

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