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Visa quotas are a day-one decision, not something to “deal with later”. AFZA’s Offices and Executive Offices pages each list two resident visas. If your plan needs five visas in year one, the wrong starting facility forces an expensive reshuffle before you’ve even hit revenue.
One more thing to settle early: in Ajman, visas and residence permits are issued by ICP, the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security, not by GDRFA. GDRFA handles Dubai only. An AFZA company files each step through the AFZA customer portal.
AFZA ties visa eligibility to the facility and package you sign up for, not the licence category. Its product pages list these base quotas:
AFZA’s FAQ adds that the quota follows the location and that additional visas are processed with immigration approval. AFZA’s all-inclusive package list (obtained from AFZA, September 2026, not published online) goes further than the product pages: virtual-office packages with a co-working lease carry 0 to 10 visas, and office packages at the Al-Jurf location carry 1 to 10. The AFZA cost calculator emails you a quote rather than showing prices on the page, so ask AFZA to confirm the quota and the price for your exact facility. The licence side is covered in our Ajman Free Zone licence types breakdown.
Don’t want to figure this out alone? Sarmat is a KHDA-certified training provider and registered typing centre in Deira, Dubai. Message us on WhatsApp — we answer questions like this every day.
ICP and Emirates Health Services (EHS) publish their fees; AFZA doesn’t publish its own per-visa charges. For an employee visa, the published lines are:
Add up the published lines and a two-year employee visa comes to about AED 1,270 in ICP and EHS fees if the person enters on the new entry permit, or about AED 1,770 with an in-country status change. The EHS printing fee, insurance and AFZA’s own charges come on top. We couldn’t find an official source for the “all-in” per-visa figures that circulate online, so get AFZA’s quote before you budget. ICP’s card doesn’t list investor or partner visas separately, so ask AFZA which category and validity applies to yours.
Your company also holds an establishment card: ICP’s electronic card holding its registered data, such as the trade name, licence number, partners and activity. ICP says a free zone company applies through its free zone authority, and AFZA lists issuing, renewing and cancelling the card among its client services. ICP’s card for private-sector and free zone companies lists AED 100 application, AED 100 per year and AED 100 smart service fees, plus a AED 2,000 subscription to its electronic system for establishments, a AED 1,000 system subscription guarantee and a AED 20 deposit fee (ICP establishment card service). AFZA’s own charge for the card isn’t published.
You’re launching a one-person consultancy and you need to bring your spouse onto your sponsorship.
AFZA facility that fits: the Sole Professional Licence (one visa) if your activity qualifies, or the Freelancer & Pioneers Hub (two visas). AFZA lists family sponsorship on both.
Visas used: 1 residence visa for you; your spouse on your family sponsorship. Ask AFZA whether a dependent visa uses one of your company’s slots on the facility you pick.
Your visa: the published per-visa lines above. Your spouse’s residence runs through ICP’s family category, which has its own fee lines, plus the medical test (18 and over) and an Emirates ID.
Family sponsorship requirement: ICP’s terms require a monthly income of at least AED 3,000 plus employer-provided housing, or AED 4,000 if housing is not provided, and adequate housing for the family, owned or rented. AFZA’s own FAQ still quotes AED 4,500 for employees, so confirm with AFZA which figure it applies to your file (ICP residence permit service).
Documents you’ll need for the spouse visa: an attested marriage certificate, proof of housing, proof of income, and health insurance — AFZA’s FAQ says insurance is compulsory for family visas in Ajman.
ICP’s card lets a resident sponsor a spouse, unmarried daughters, sons under 25 and children with special needs. Parents aren’t on that list (the card lets Green Residence holders sponsor first-degree relatives), so check with ICP before you plan around sponsoring a parent.
Want help running the salary-threshold and document-attestation logic for your specific profile? Sarmat’s Business Setup advisors do this every day for founders setting up in AFZA — book a free consultation before you commit to a package.
You’re launching a small agency — you, a designer, and an account manager.
Visas needed: 1 for you, 2 employment visas for your staff — three in total.
The catch: AFZA’s Offices and Executive Offices pages both list two resident visas. A third visa means asking for an additional visa, which AFZA’s FAQ says depends on immigration approval, choosing a facility with a bigger quota, or one of the larger office packages on AFZA’s package list, which run up to 10 visas.
Per employee: about AED 1,270 in published ICP and EHS fees for a two-year visa, or about AED 1,770 with an in-country status change, plus AFZA’s own charges and insurance.
Establishment card: ICP’s lines above, plus AFZA’s own charge.
Ask AFZA, before you sign, which route it will approve for a three-person headcount. Each employee visa then follows the same sequence: AFZA files the entry permit with ICP, the employee enters (or changes status inside the UAE), takes the EHS medical test and gives Emirates ID biometrics, and ICP issues the residence permit. There is no single published end-to-end turnaround: the entry permit, the medical test and Emirates ID biometrics each depend on the authority and its queues. We give you a timeline for your case after reviewing your documents, and confirm each step’s date as we submit it.
The detail that catches most agency founders out: each employee visa requires you to register them in the AFZA labour system and issue a proper offer letter and contract, similar in spirit to the employment visa processing flow used by Dubai mainland employers. AFZA handles the labour contract and labour card for its free zone staff, but the operational rhythm — offer, contract, entry permit, medical, Emirates ID, residence permit — mirrors what MOHRE runs on the mainland.
You need a trading licence, a facility that fits five people, and a team of a founder, two sales, one logistics, and one admin.
AFZA facility that fits: a warehouse, if you need storage — AFZA lists a minimum of 14 resident visas and units from 100 sq.m. Without storage, AFZA’s Offices pages list two visas, but its all-inclusive package list (obtained from AFZA, September 2026) has Al-Jurf office and virtual-office packages with up to 10 visas, so ask AFZA which package covers five.
Visas used: 1 for you, 4 employment visas.
Published visa fees: about AED 1,270 per two-year visa entered on a new entry permit, or about AED 1,770 with an in-country status change — roughly AED 6,350–8,850 for five visas before AFZA’s own charges, insurance and the establishment card.
If your trading volume justifies inventory storage, the warehouse is usually the cleaner decision — you get the storage and the visa headroom in one step, and you avoid an upgrade conversation in year two. If you don’t need storage yet, get AFZA’s written answer on a five-visa office package or on additional visas before you sign.
Here’s the part the consultant pages skip. If you start on a two-visa facility and find yourself one visa short — say you started solo, hired a key person three months in, and now need a third visa — you have two routes: move to a facility with a bigger quota, or ask for an additional visa, which AFZA’s FAQ says is processed with immigration approval. Either way you keep the same licence.
AFZA doesn’t publish upgrade pricing, so ask for the cost of the new facility and of any documents that need re-issuing before you request the change. The new visa itself carries the same per-visa fees as above.
This is exactly the kind of nuance the Sarmat business-setup team walks you through before you commit. The facility-change request looks simple in the portal, but the sequencing — when the new quota actually unlocks, which documents need re-issue, how the establishment card is treated on your specific package — is where founders lose time if they guess.
You can spend three weeks reading consultant pages, ringing AFZA’s hotline, and still pick the wrong tier — or you can sit with a Sarmat advisor for 90 minutes and walk out with a quota plan that fits your year-one and year-two headcount.
Sarmat has been delivering UAE government services and KHDA-certified training for 12+ years, with 5,000+ clients served and a mentor team that has processed 500+ visas and completed 100+ company setups. If you’d rather build the muscle yourself — handle visa applications for your own staff in-house instead of paying a PRO every time — the Visa Course walks you through the entire sequence from entry permit to residence permit with current 2026 fees and forms, and the broader Certified PRO Programme gives you the KHDA certificate that turns the skill into a hireable credential.
It depends on the facility and the package, not the licence category. AFZA's product pages list one residence visa for the Sole Professional Licence, two for the Freelancer & Pioneers Hub, two for Offices, two for Executive Offices and a minimum of 14 for warehouses. AFZA's FAQ says visas beyond the facility's quota need immigration approval. AFZA's all-inclusive package list (obtained from AFZA, September 2026) also sells virtual-office packages with a co-working lease and 0 to 10 visas, and office packages at its Al-Jurf location with 1 to 10 visas, so ask how many visas your package carries.
ICP and Emirates Health Services publish their fees: AED 300 for the work entry permit, AED 250 for the standard medical test plus the centre's printing fee, AED 420 for a two-year residence permit and AED 300 for a two-year Emirates ID. That is about AED 1,270, or about AED 1,770 with the AED 500 in-country status change. AFZA's own service charges, health insurance and typing fees come on top, and AFZA gives its figures in a quote rather than publishing them.
ICP, the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security. GDRFA handles visas for Dubai only. Your company files the entry permit, the status change and the residence through the AFZA customer portal, and ICP issues the residence permit, linked to your Emirates ID.
Yes. ICP's terms require a monthly income of at least AED 3,000 plus employer-provided housing, or AED 4,000 if housing is not provided, and adequate housing for the family. AFZA’s own FAQ still quotes AED 4,500 for employees, so confirm with AFZA which figure it applies to your file. You can sponsor your spouse, unmarried daughters, sons under 25 and children with special needs. AFZA's FAQ says health insurance is compulsory for family visas in Ajman.
There is no single published turnaround: the entry permit, the medical test and Emirates ID biometrics each depend on the authority and its queues, and documents that need attestation add their own time. We give you a timeline for your case after reviewing your documents.
It is ICP’s electronic card holding your company’s registered data, such as the trade name, licence number, partners and activity. AFZA handles the issue, renewal and cancellation requests for you as one of its client services, and ICP issues the card. ICP's card lists AED 100 for the application, AED 100 per year and AED 100 in smart service fees, plus a AED 2,000 subscription to its electronic system for establishments, a AED 1,000 system subscription guarantee and a AED 20 deposit fee. AFZA's own charge for the card is not published.
Usually, either by moving to a facility with a bigger quota or by asking for additional visas, which AFZA's FAQ says depend on immigration approval. AFZA does not publish upgrade pricing, so confirm the route and the cost with AFZA before you rely on it.
The visa-quota mistake costs more than the licence itself. A founder who starts on the wrong AFZA tier loses time re-doing paperwork in month four — and that’s exactly the moment the business needs the founder doing anything else.
If you’re sizing an AFZA package for the first time, start with Sarmat’s Business Setup service — we’ll map your visa needs to the right facility tier in one consultation and quote the full year-one cash requirement upfront. If you’d rather own the visa workflow yourself for every future hire, enrol in the Visa Course or talk to us on WhatsApp and we’ll send you the next cohort dates.
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