-
Services
POPULAR
BUSINESS SERVICES
VISA & RESIDENCY
DOCUMENT SERVICES
LEGAL SERVICES
EMIRATES ID
FINANCE SERVICES
- Who We Are
- Resources
- Request Services
When you see “freelance permit from AED 5,500” in a Google ad, that price is usually for the permit alone. It does not include the establishment card you need to apply for any visa. It does not include the 2-year residence visa stamping. It does not include the medical fitness test, the Emirates ID, or the mandatory health insurance every UAE resident is legally required to hold.
Add those six items together and your real cheapest freelance visa UAE total lands somewhere between AED 12,000 and AED 26,000 for the full 2-year package. That is the honest range. Anyone quoting you below AED 11,000 for a permit with residency is either selling something incomplete or planning to back-charge you later.
Before the comparison table, here are the six cost components every package needs. Skip any one of them and your file will be rejected at the immigration counter.
The actual permission to operate as a freelancer in your chosen activity.
Issued by the free zone authority; required before any visa application.
The entry permit, status change, and visa stamp processed through GDRFA or ICA.
Mandatory blood test and chest X-ray; tier varies per Dubai Administrative Resolution No. 66 of 2021 — Standard AED 270, Smart Salem 30-min AED 700, VIP 2-hr/6-hr AED 1,020.
Issued by the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs & Port Security (ICP); fee tied to visa term per ICP’s published tariff.
Minimum coverage required by federal law for residence visa holders in all seven emirates (extended UAE-wide effective 1 January 2025).
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.
Here are the five zones most freelancers compare, with realistic 2026 ranges based on each authority’s published packages and fee schedules. Treat these as approximate — final totals depend on activity, package tier, and how many add-ons you bundle.
| Cost component | GoFreelance (TECOM/DDA) | SHAMS (Sharjah) | Fujairah Creative City | Ajman Free Zone | RAKEZ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freelance permit (annual) | ~AED 7,500 | ~AED 5,750 | ~AED 6,500 | ~AED 6,000 | ~AED 6,500 |
| Establishment card | ~AED 2,000 | ~AED 1,500 | ~AED 1,500 | ~AED 1,200 | ~AED 1,500 |
| 2-year residence visa | ~AED 4,500 | ~AED 4,000 | ~AED 4,000 | ~AED 3,500 | ~AED 3,800 |
| Medical fitness (standard) | ~AED 270 | ~AED 270 | ~AED 270 | ~AED 270 | ~AED 270 |
| Emirates ID (2-year) | ~AED 370 | ~AED 370 | ~AED 370 | ~AED 370 | ~AED 370 |
| Health insurance (basic, 1 yr) | ~AED 1,200 | ~AED 1,000 | ~AED 1,000 | ~AED 1,000 | ~AED 1,200 |
| All-in 2-year total | ~AED 15,500–21,500 | ~AED 12,500–16,500 | ~AED 13,500–17,000 | ~AED 12,000–16,000 | ~AED 13,500–17,500 |
The ranges reflect the realistic spread: the lower end is a single-activity freelancer with a basic insurance plan; the higher end accounts for premium package tiers, additional activities, or upgraded medical and insurance coverage. None of these numbers are guesses — they trace back to each free zone’s published cost calculator or current package brochure. Verify the live figure for your specific activity at gofreelance.ae, shams.ae, creativecity.gov.ae, afz.gov.ae, and rakez.com.
GoFreelance is the official freelance permit programme operated by Dubai Development Authority across the TECOM cluster. It currently covers Dubai Media City, Dubai Internet City, Dubai Knowledge Park, Dubai Design District, and Dubai Studio City — the supported activity list and processing flow are kept on the official GoFreelance portal, so check the live activity catalogue before you commit.
The GoFreelance proposition is prestige and address. A Dubai mainland-adjacent free zone permit reads better on invoices to local Dubai clients than a Sharjah or Ajman permit, particularly for media, marketing, education, and tech freelancers. The trade-off is price: the all-in 2-year total typically sits at AED 15,500–21,500, the highest in the comparison.
If your clients are large Dubai-based agencies, government contractors, or DIFC firms, GoFreelance pays for itself in credibility. If your clients are international or remote, the cheaper zones do the same job.
SHAMS is consistently among the lowest-cost freelance permits in the UAE for media and creative activities. The freelance permit itself starts around AED 5,750 annually, and the 2-year all-in total typically lands at AED 12,500–16,500.
The catch is that you are now a Sharjah resident on paper. That affects nothing for invoicing or working with Dubai clients — you can live in Dubai, bank in Dubai, and serve Dubai clients on a SHAMS permit. But your Emirates ID address will be Sharjah, and any Sharjah-specific paperwork (Tasheel-equivalent labour processes, RTA Sharjah, certain Sharjah Police clearances) routes through Sharjah authorities rather than Dubai’s.
For content creators, designers, photographers, videographers, and writers who care more about the bottom line than the address on their EID, SHAMS is the strongest value play of the five.
Fujairah Creative City sits in the same price band as SHAMS, with a 2-year all-in total of approximately AED 13,500–17,000. Its appeal is breadth of permitted activities — Creative City supports a long list of media, consulting, education, and tech freelance categories, and processing tends to be predictable.
The east-coast distance is largely irrelevant for a freelancer who never needs to physically visit the free zone. You handle the application by document submission, and your residence visa is stamped through ICA the same way it would be from any other emirate. You only need to enter Fujairah if your activity requires a physical office, which freelance permits typically do not.
Pick Fujairah Creative City if SHAMS does not list your specific activity, or if you want a slightly broader activity list at a similar price.
Ajman Free Zone routinely lands at the lowest all-in total of the five — typically AED 12,000–16,000 for the full 2-year package. The freelance permit itself is competitively priced, and AFZ publishes a public cost calculator at afz.gov.ae so you can model your exact total before applying.
Ajman is the right call if you are a price-only solo freelancer with an established remote client base. It is the wrong call if you need a Dubai mainland address to win business, or if your activity requires the prestige of a TECOM cluster permit.
If you have not yet decided how a freelance visa fits into your wider business plan, our deeper breakdown in the Sarmat freelance visa pillar guide walks through eligibility, alternative visa categories, and how the freelance route compares to a full company licence.
RAKEZ (Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone) is the option to pick when you need flexibility. RAKEZ freelance permits typically cover a broader cluster of activities under a single licence, with all-in 2-year totals around AED 13,500–17,500.
That flexibility matters if you actually do two things — say, photography plus marketing consulting, or coding plus training. On the cheaper Sharjah/Ajman/Fujairah permits, multi-activity often means a permit upgrade or a second permit. RAKEZ tends to absorb that within its standard package.
The trade-off is that RAKEZ is slightly more expensive than Ajman or SHAMS for a pure single-activity freelancer.
Once your initial 2-year package expires, renewal is cheaper than the first year because you skip the establishment card, status change, and several one-off fees. Realistic renewal costs for the next 2-year cycle:
Across the five-year horizon, your true cost-per-year for a freelance setup with residency typically lands at AED 6,500–9,000, depending on zone and package — useful when you are comparing the freelance route against an employee package or a full mainland licence.
| Your situation | Best zone |
|---|---|
| Price-only solo freelancer with remote clients | Ajman Free Zone or SHAMS |
| Creative pro (designer, content creator, photographer) | SHAMS |
| E-commerce or import-export freelancer | RAKEZ — multi-activity flexibility matters here |
| Consultant working with Dubai mainland firms | GoFreelance for the address premium |
| Multi-permit freelancer doing two unrelated activities | RAKEZ |
| Activity not listed by SHAMS or Ajman | Fujairah Creative City |
If you are still weighing whether a freelance permit is even the right route — versus the new Green Visa for self-sponsored professionals — read our companion guide on Green Visa vs freelance permit before you commit dirhams to a permit.
Realistically, AED 12,000–22,000 all-in for a 2-year package depending on the free zone, package tier, and insurance plan. Anything quoted below AED 11,000 with residency included is incomplete.
Ajman Free Zone typically lands at the lowest all-in total — approximately AED 12,000–16,000 for the full 2-year package with residency. SHAMS is a close second for media and creative activities.
A complete package includes the freelance permit, establishment card, 2-year residence visa, medical fitness test, Emirates ID, and one year of mandatory health insurance. Common exclusions you may need to budget separately: insurance year-2, document attestation if you are sponsoring a family member, and translation fees for non-English documents.
Renewal is cheaper than the first year because the establishment card and status-change fees do not repeat. Expect AED 8,500–15,000 for a 2-year renewal depending on zone.
On a per-year basis, yes. The 2-year package amortises the establishment card and one-off application fees across two years, which typically saves AED 2,000–4,000 versus renewing annually. Most freelancers should pick the 2-year option.
Yes. Health insurance is mandatory across all seven emirates of the UAE for any residence visa holder, following the federal Cabinet decision effective 1 January 2025. Basic compliant plans for healthy adults under 40 start around AED 800–1,500 per year. Without an active policy, your visa application or renewal is rejected.
There is no single best — it depends on your activity, client base, and budget. SHAMS for creatives, Ajman for pure price, RAKEZ for multi-activity, GoFreelance for Dubai mainland prestige, Fujairah Creative City for breadth.
You can spend three weeks reading consultancy blogs, calling every free zone, and still end up paying for a package you didn’t need. Or you can hand the whole file to a team that has processed 500+ visas and completed 100+ company setups, with 12+ years of UAE government services experience and 5,000+ clients served across Dubai. Sarmat’s Business Setup Service handles the zone selection, paperwork, MOHRE-adjacent approvals, ICA application, and Emirates ID booking end-to-end.
If you want to handle the visa paperwork yourself — or you are planning to run visas for clients as a service — our KHDA-certified Visa Course walks you through the actual GDRFA workflow on real cases. Both routes get you to a stamped visa; one saves you time, the other gives you a transferable skill.
Need a straight answer on your specific case? Message Sarmat on WhatsApp with your activity and target zone, and we will quote the real all-in number — no “from AED 5,500” games.
Helping individuals and businesses navigate UAE government procedures with precision and ease.Based in Dubai. Local experts. Government-compliant.
Proudly based in Dubai