Ajman Free Zone Setup 2026: Everyone Calls It Cheap, But AFZ Publishes No Package Prices At All

Ajman Free Zone is recommended everywhere as one of the cheapest ways into the UAE, and you can find a confident price for it on a hundred websites. AFZ itself publishes none of them. There is no package price list anywhere on afz.gov.ae. Pricing exists only behind a cost calculator that takes your details and emails you a personalised quote [5]. So the "AFZ from AED 5,555" figure that everyone compares against is not a discounted price, a lapsed price or an old price. It is a number the zone never issued.

That single fact changes how you should shop. When a zone publishes a schedule, you can budget before you speak to anyone and check whether your agent has added margin. When it does not, every figure in circulation is somebody's reconstruction of a quote given to somebody else, for a package you have not specified, in a year you cannot verify. The comparison table you built from those numbers is not a comparison of zones. It is a comparison of other people's guesses.

This guide gives you what is actually verifiable: the handful of fees AFZ does publish, the three licence categories it really issues rather than the seven that consultancies invent, the sister zone whose published price list is routinely mistaken for AFZ's, the VAT position, which activities can reach 0% corporate tax and which cannot, and what an Ajman address costs a Dubai-facing business. Since 2013, our team has registered companies in the northern emirates and across Dubai's free zones, so the warnings here come from client files rather than brochures. This is a guide, not legal or tax advice on your specific company.

If you are still choosing between zones rather than committed to Ajman, our free zone company setup page sets out how licence, facility, establishment card and visa allocation fit together before you compare anyone's headline. Talk to a setup expert→

What is Ajman Free Zone, and where does it sit?

Ajman Free Zone was founded in 1988 and is widely described as the second oldest free zone in the UAE. It operates under the Free Zones Authority of Ajman, which also runs Ajman Media City, and its official site is afz.gov.ae, with afz.ae redirecting there [1]. That shared parent authority matters more than it sounds, as the next section explains.

On location, AFZ's own description is that the zone offers "convenient accessibility to the adjacent Ajman port and Dubai and Sharjah airports" [1]. AFZ leadership has been quoted describing the zone as 30 minutes from Dubai [9]. The port adjacency is the genuinely distinctive part. Ajman Port is on the doorstep, and for a business whose cost base is containers and square metres rather than client meetings, that geography is the argument.

A single third-party source describes AFZ as having been granted autonomous status in 1996. We could not confirm that on afz.gov.ae, so treat it as indicative background rather than a verified fact.

On scale, a Gulf News feature quoting AFZ states over 20,000 companies from more than 145 countries [9]. Read that carefully. It appears in an AFZ-sponsored feature format and carries no as-of date, so it is a reported figure rather than a live verified count. An older third-party figure put the zone at 12,362 companies as of Q1 2018. Both are useful for a sense of order of magnitude and neither should go into a business plan as a current number.

What does an Ajman Free Zone licence cost, and why can nobody honestly quote you a package?

Because AFZ does not publish package prices. Not on a pricing page, not on the licence pages, not in a downloadable schedule. The only route to a number on afz.gov.ae is a cost calculator that collects your requirements and sends you a personalised quote by email [5]. That is the most useful thing in this article.

Here is everything we could confirm as a published AFZ fee. It is a short table, and the shortness is the point.

There is one promotional figure worth naming precisely. A Gulf News item covering an AFZ promotion mentions a 25% discount with pricing "starting from Dh4,166", with no stated expiry [9]. That is a campaign price reported in the press, not a standing published rate, and a campaign with no stated expiry is a campaign you cannot rely on being open when you apply.

Now the figures you will meet everywhere else, and their real status.

Real Talk: We are not printing any of the package figures above as AFZ prices, and you should be sceptical of any article that does. None of them appear on afz.gov.ae. Some may well reflect real quotes issued to real clients at some point, which is exactly why they are dangerous: a genuine quote from 2023 for a package you have not specified is worse than no number, because it feels precise. Run the calculator, get the emailed quote, and treat that email as your only AFZ price.

The practical consequence is that AFZ is difficult to shop against. You cannot line it up beside a zone with a published schedule and compare, because one side of the comparison does not exist until you have handed over your contact details. If pre-purchase price transparency matters to you, that is a real mark against AFZ and worth weighing honestly. Our ranking of the cheapest free zones in the UAE ranked covers which zones publish and which do not.

Common Mistake: Building a budget from a headline and discovering the visa allocation afterwards. Whatever number the calculator returns, ask for it itemised: licence, facility, establishment card, e-channel registration, each visa allocation and each visa issuance, medical and Emirates ID, all dated. A licence-only figure is not a setup cost anywhere in the UAE, and the gap between the two is usually larger than the difference between zones.

Ajman Free Zone or Ajman Media City: which price list are you actually looking at?

This is the trap, and almost nobody covers it. Ajman Media City is a separate zone under the same Free Zones Authority of Ajman, and unlike AFZ it publishes a complete, four-tier price table with renewal prices [6]. Search "Ajman free zone cost" and you will frequently be shown AMC's numbers. They are real, published and verifiable. They are also not AFZ's.

Here is what AMC actually publishes on amc.gov.ae/packages [6].

All four tiers include up to 10 activities, up to 10 shareholders and co-working access [6]. Note the renewal column, which is the part that gets lost when these numbers are copied into AFZ articles. On the Visionary tier the licence costs AED 12,999 in year one and AED 8,999 to renew, so quoting the year-one figure as an annual cost overstates the ongoing bill by AED 4,000, and quoting the renewal figure as an entry price understates the first year by the same amount.

The two zones are not interchangeable, and one difference is structural rather than cosmetic.

Pro Tip: Before you compare anything, confirm in writing which entity is issuing your licence. Ask for the authority name exactly as it will appear on the licence document. If the price list you were shown has renewal figures and four named tiers, you are almost certainly looking at Ajman Media City, not Ajman Free Zone. The VAT row in that table is the reason it matters: if you move physical goods and you end up licensed at AMC because a quote was labelled loosely, you have lost Designated Zone status without ever making a decision about it.

For a service business or a freelancer with no goods, AMC's transparency is a genuine advantage and the Designated Zone difference costs you nothing, because Designated Zone status does nothing for services anyway. For a goods business, that row is the whole decision.

Which Ajman Free Zone licence do you need?

AFZ's own licence taxonomy is simpler than the market pretends. Its pages set out three broad categories, not the seven licence products that consultancy articles usually list [2]. Commercial, trading, general trading and e-commerce all sit as activity bundles inside one of them rather than as separate legal licence types.

That third row is AFZ's own wording, not ours, and it is a marketing claim rather than a verified comparison. AFZ publishes no price for it, so there is no way to check the claim against any other emirate's freelance permit.

The e-commerce point deserves spelling out, because it is where most competitor articles go wrong. You will see "AFZ e-commerce licence" marketed as though it were a distinct legal product with its own rules and its own price. On AFZ's own taxonomy, it reads as a named package sitting inside the Business Licence category, with e-commerce as an activity rather than as a separate licence type [2]. If you are quoted an "e-commerce licence", ask which of the three categories your licence document will actually say, because that is what your bank, the FTA and your customs registration will read.

Based on our experience, the licence category rarely goes wrong on its own. What goes wrong is the mismatch between category and facility. An industrial licence held against a desk gives you nowhere to put a machine, and a business licence with a warehouse you do not need is money burned every month. Decide the physical footprint first, then pick the category that fits it, then check the activity wording against what you will actually invoice for.

Which entity type should you register?

AFZ publishes four entity types, and the choice is mostly mechanical once you know your shareholder structure [3].

Read the last row twice if a foreign branch is your plan. AFZ states that sales can be made through a UAE registered agent or distributor only, which sets a real constraint on how a foreign branch reaches customers here [3]. That is a route worth pricing against simply incorporating a subsidiary, because a branch that cannot sell directly is a different commercial animal from one that can.

On share capital, be careful. AFZ does not publish a share capital requirement on its own pages. The commonly repeated figure of USD 50,000, roughly AED 185,000, declared on paper rather than deposited, is third-party consensus only and we are labelling it indicative. If capital matters to your structure or your bank, get the requirement confirmed in writing with your quote rather than planning around a number nobody can point to a source for.

What facilities does AFZ offer, and how does visa quota really work?

Facilities follow the licence category, and visa quota follows the facility and the package rather than the licence type. AFZ's own FAQ is explicit: "every business package chosen has a different number of visas allocated" [4]. There is no published quota table anywhere on afz.gov.ae, which means nobody can tell you your allocation until you have a specific package quoted.

The freelancer figure is the only visa number AFZ commits to in public: a freelancer company can apply for two visas [4]. Everything else is package-specific. The flexi-desk visa ranges quoted on third-party sites, typically one to three visas, are not AFZ figures and should be treated as indicative only.

Common Mistake: Signing on price and asking about quota afterwards. Quota caps hiring. If your package supports two visas and your plan needs five, you are renegotiating a facility before your first hire, and the saving that made Ajman attractive evaporates in the upgrade. Get the allocation stated in writing as a number, not as a formula or a "depends on the office", before you pay anything. Our guide to how free zone visa quotas work explains how allocation, issuance and facility size interact and where the negotiating room usually sits.

Also remember what an allocation is not. It is the right to apply, not a visa. Each applicant still goes through medical fitness and security clearance, and refusals happen for reasons that have nothing to do with your quota.

Is Ajman Free Zone a VAT Designated Zone, and what does that change?

Yes. Ajman Free Zone appears on the Federal Tax Authority's List of Designated Zones, effective 1 January 2018, under Cabinet Decision 59 of 2017 as amended by 35 of 2018, 43 of 2019, 34 of 2021, 63 of 2021 and 81 of 2021, the last effective 12 September 2021 [7]. Ajman Media City is not listed. That is a real, checkable advantage for a goods business and it is worth having straight.

It is also worth being precise about what it does, because Designated Zone status is the single most oversold concept in UAE free zone marketing.

Two rows carry most of the misunderstanding. Services in a Designated Zone are standard-rated at 5%, so the majority of AFZ's licence base, which is services and small trading businesses, gets no VAT benefit at all from a status the zone is marketed on. And goods bought from a mainland supplier and moved into the zone are a local supply, so the supplier charges VAT normally. Founders who budgeted for a zero-rated purchase meet that rule the hard way, usually in month two.

Note the vintage of the list. The latest consolidated FTA list we could locate is dated September 2021, so confirm current status before building a supply chain on it, and we are deliberately not publishing a total count of Designated Zones because that number moves [7]. The full mechanics are in our guide to Designated Zones and VAT.

Can an Ajman Free Zone company reach the 0% corporate tax rate?

Some can, and it depends entirely on activity rather than on the zone brand. The 0% rate applies to Qualifying Income of a Qualifying Free Zone Person, and the Qualifying Activities list at Article 2(1) of Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025 is closed, with no services catch-all [8]. If your activity is not on it, no amount of substance, audit or paperwork gets you there.

For an AFZ tenant, the realistic fits map neatly onto the industrial licence and the warehouse and land offering.

The distribution route needs its conditions spelled out, because AFZ's Designated Zone status makes it genuinely available and it is the one place where the VAT status and the tax status connect. Distribution in or from a Designated Zone qualifies only where the goods enter the State through the Designated Zone, and only where they are supplied either to a customer who resells, processes or alters them for sale or resale, or to a public benefit entity [8]. Supply to an end consumer does not qualify. So a wholesaler importing through Ajman Port into an AFZ warehouse and selling to retailers has a real case. The same warehouse shipping direct to consumers does not.

Real Talk: Look at that table against AFZ's actual licence base. A large share of AFZ tenants are service providers, small consultancies, agencies and B2C traders, and none of them qualify. They are ordinary taxable persons: 0% up to AED 375,000 of taxable income and 9% above. Any adviser who tells you an Ajman licence delivers 0% because it is a free zone, or because AFZ is a Designated Zone, has confused two entirely separate pieces of legislation. Designated Zone status is VAT. Qualifying Activities is corporate tax. They are not the same list and they do not do the same job.

The full conditions, including substance, de minimis, transfer pricing and the audited financial statements requirement, are set out in our guide to the qualifying free zone person and the 0% rate.

What does a typical AFZ service or e-commerce tenant actually pay?

The ordinary regime, and for most small companies that is a perfectly good answer. A free zone company that is not a Qualifying Free Zone Person is taxed as an ordinary taxable person: 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above it. Separately, Small Business Relief is available where revenue is at or below AED 3,000,000, for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029, under Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023, as amended by Ministerial Decision 131 of 2026. That is a different instrument from Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025 and the two are routinely bundled together in error.

Quick Math: An AFZ marketing agency with AED 800,000 of taxable income pays nothing on the first AED 375,000 and 9% on the AED 425,000 above, so about AED 38,250, with no QFZP audit obligation and no transfer pricing file. Chasing a 0% claim its activity cannot support would cost more in professional fees than the tax, and a failed claim costs the status for the current tax period and the following four. The ordinary regime is not a consolation prize for a business this size.

Two things follow. Register for corporate tax either way, because registration and filing are obligations regardless of the rate you end up at, and Small Business Relief is an election you make on a return rather than a status you drift into. And if you are under the AED 3,000,000 revenue line today, the honest planning question is not "how do I get 0%" but "what happens the period after the relief window closes". Those recurring registrations, returns and elections are exactly what our post-setup services team handles so nothing lapses while you are selling.

What does an Ajman address really cost a Dubai-focused business?

This is businessdubai.ae, so here is the section AFZ's material does not write and most agents skip. AFZ leadership describes the zone as 30 minutes from Dubai [9]. That is a best-case off-peak drive measured from the Ajman side, and it is not the number your working week runs on. Ajman to Sheikh Zayed Road in the morning peak is a different journey entirely, and the return leg in the evening is worse.

Set against that, the industrial economics are genuinely different, and this is where AFZ earns its reputation properly rather than through invented price tables. Land and warehouse costs in the northern emirates run well below Dubai's industrial zones, Ajman Port is adjacent, and AFZ is a Designated Zone. For a business whose cost base is square metres and containers, the drive is a rounding error against the rent.

Real Talk: The clients who regret Ajman are almost never the manufacturers or the warehousing businesses. They are the Dubai-facing service firms who bought on a licence price they read online, then spent the difference on Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road twice a day. If your value proposition depends on being in front of Dubai clients, the saving has to clearly beat the cost of proximity, and for a consultancy it usually does not. If you want that comparison run properly against a Dubai zone, talk to a setup expert→

Worth comparing honestly: RAKEZ free zone setup offers similar northern-emirate industrial economics with a longer drive, and Meydan Free Zone setup offers a Dubai address at a published price that competes with what people believe AFZ costs. Those two make a useful bracket around the AFZ decision.

Does an Ajman Free Zone licence let you work in Dubai?

Not directly, and here we want to be precise where a lot of comparison content is sloppy. An AFZ licence carries the same general mainland restriction as any UAE free zone licence: it does not by itself authorise mainland commercial activity. Trading onshore in Dubai needs a branch, a dual licence arrangement or a mainland registration.

Say that clearly, because it is routinely presented as an Ajman-specific penalty. It is not. DMCC, IFZA, Meydan and AFZ companies all sit on the free zone side of the same line. What Ajman adds is distance, not a worse legal position.

There is one nuance that needs careful handling, because AFZ's own FAQ invites a misreading. Asked "As a freelancer company, can I use my license in the mainland?", AFZ answers "Yes, you can" [4]. Read plainly, that almost certainly means a freelancer can deliver services to mainland clients under the normal free zone framework, which free zone companies do every day. It does not read as AFZ holding a special exemption from mainland licensing that other free zones lack, and no zone authority could grant one unilaterally. We would not build a business model on that FAQ line without getting the specific permitted scope confirmed in writing by AFZ, and neither should you.

So the decision is the ordinary one, and it is worth pricing both sides. If you need to invoice UAE mainland customers directly, sell to government entities, or open a shop that walk-in customers enter, our mainland company setup route removes the restriction rather than working around it. If you sell internationally, into other free zones, or manufacture for export, the free zone side stays cleaner and our free zone company setup page covers the options. There is also a middle path, keeping an AFZ industrial or warehousing entity for the facility economics and adding a small Dubai entity for onshore sales, which means two licences and two sets of renewals, so we usually model it against a single mainland company setup before recommending it.

What has Ajman Free Zone been building recently?

AFZ has been visibly expanding, and the reporting here comes from Gulf News, one item of which is an AFZ-sponsored feature, so read the figures as reported by the zone rather than independently audited [9].

The representative-office push is the part with practical relevance. If you are applying from India, China, Turkey, Russia or Egypt, there may be a local AFZ contact point, which can shorten the document chase. The strategy language about AI-integrated services and smart logistics zones is directional. There are no published timelines, specifications or prices attached to it, so treat it as intent rather than as something you can plan a facility around.

Can an Ajman Free Zone company open a corporate bank account?

Yes, and AFZ companies are banked routinely. The friction you may encounter is not an Ajman problem. Banks apply enhanced anti-money-laundering scrutiny to lower-substance and virtual-office entities generally, wherever they are licensed, and no zone publishes anything about this concerning itself because no zone controls a bank's compliance decision.

What actually moves an application is unglamorous and entirely within your control: a specific business description that matches your licensed activity, evidence of real trade such as signed contracts, supplier agreements or a working website, clean and consistent shareholder documentation, a plausible account of expected turnover and counterparty countries, and residency progress. Industrial and warehousing tenants have an easier time than desk-based ones, because a leased unit and stock are visible substance a compliance officer can see.

There is one Ajman-specific question you should expect, and preparing for it is half the battle. If you are a Dubai-based founder holding an Ajman licence, a compliance officer will ask where the business is genuinely run from. Have a straight answer. Budget several weeks, an in-person meeting and a minimum balance, and treat a first refusal as a routing problem rather than a verdict.

What are the ongoing renewal and compliance obligations?

The licence and facility renew annually and the tax calendar runs alongside. AFZ publishes three of the recurring numbers and none of the big ones, so build the renewal budget from your quote rather than from the setup year.

Pro Tip: Ask for the renewal figure in writing before you sign year one, and ask what it includes. Because AFZ publishes no renewal schedule, you have no public benchmark to check it against later, which is precisely why it should be in the same email as your setup quote. That single sentence in a quote has saved clients more than the licence-price difference between zones. Keeping renewals, visa cycles, corporate tax filings and VAT returns on one tracked calendar is what our post-setup services team exists for, and it is where cheap setups quietly turn expensive.

Who is AFZ right for, and who should look elsewhere?

Once you separate the goods businesses from the Dubai-facing service businesses, the answer is quick.

Real Client Stories

These are real examples from businesses we have helped set up. Names and details changed for privacy.

The packaging manufacturer who got the facility right before the price

A family business making protective packaging for the electronics trade came to us with three quotes, one of which was an Ajman number sourced from a comparison article. We ran the AFZ calculator instead and got a written, itemised quote for an industrial licence with a warehouse and land option, with the visa allocation stated as a number and the renewal price in the same email. The manufacturing activity gave them a genuine route to 0% on Qualifying Income, the warehouse gave them substance a bank could see, and the port was fifteen minutes away. Their comment afterwards: "The article price was fiction. The emailed quote was higher and I could actually plan against it."

The distributor who nearly lost Designated Zone status to a name

An importer of industrial fittings was quoted what he believed was an Ajman Free Zone package, with a clean four-tier price table and renewal figures. It was Ajman Media City. His model was goods entering the State through the zone and going out to resellers, which needs a Designated Zone on both the VAT side and the corporate tax distribution route, and AMC is not on the FTA list. We caught it before the licence was issued and moved him to AFZ. He said what most people say: "They are both Ajman, both government, both the same authority. Nobody told me the tax status was different."

The Dubai brand consultancy for whom Ajman was the wrong answer

A brand consultant with a Dubai client list had been shown a very low Ajman figure and asked us to confirm it was smart. It was not. Consultancy is nowhere on the Qualifying Activities list, so the 0% route was never available, Designated Zone status does nothing for services, and every client meeting was a two-hour round trip in traffic. We set her up in a Dubai zone on the ordinary regime with Small Business Relief for the current window. The licence premium came to less than a quarter's worth of the travel she would have absorbed. The cheaper zone was the more expensive choice.

Set up in Ajman with the price question answered honestly

Ajman Free Zone is a serious industrial and trading zone with a real advantage: it is adjacent to a port, it is a VAT Designated Zone, and its land and warehouse economics beat Dubai's by a wide margin. For a manufacturer, a processor, a logistics provider or a distributor selling to resellers, those are the right reasons to be there and they survive scrutiny.

What it is not is a published bargain. AFZ prints no package prices, so every cheap figure attached to its name in a comparison article is somebody's reconstruction, and the transparent price table people quote at it usually belongs to Ajman Media City, a different zone with a different VAT status. Run the calculator, get the itemised emailed quote with the renewal figure and the visa allocation in writing, and compare that against a Dubai zone with the drive priced in.

Since 2013, BusinessDubai.ae has completed 700+ company registrations across the UAE, including northern-emirate industrial setups and every major Dubai free zone. We will tell you whether AFZ or Ajman Media City is the entity you are actually being quoted, whether your activity has a real route to 0% or belongs on the ordinary regime, what your visa allocation genuinely is, and what the Ajman-to-Dubai run will cost you every week. Talk to a setup expert→

Related guides:

• Cheapest free zones in the UAE ranked
• RAKEZ free zone setup
• Meydan Free Zone setup
• Qualifying free zone person and the 0% rate
• Designated Zones and VAT
• How free zone visa quotas work

Related guides: SHAMS Free Zone Setup 2026: The Marketing Says Unlimited Visas, SHAMS's Own Terms Say 50

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does an Ajman Free Zone licence cost?

Nobody can tell you honestly without a quote. AFZ publishes no package prices anywhere on afz.gov.ae. The only route to a figure is its cost calculator, which collects your requirements and emails a personalised quote [5]. Every price you have seen attributed to AFZ came from somewhere else.

Does Ajman Free Zone publish its prices?

No. There is no price list, no package schedule and no renewal schedule on afz.gov.ae. Pricing exists only through the cost calculator and the emailed quote it generates [5]. That is unusual among UAE free zones and it is a genuine drawback if you want to compare before enquiring.

Is Ajman Free Zone really from AED 5,555?

That figure is not published by AFZ anywhere and we will not repeat it as an AFZ price. It circulates widely on setup-agent sites. It may reflect a real quote issued to somebody at some point, which is exactly what makes it misleading when it is presented as a current package rate.

What fees does Ajman Free Zone actually publish?

Three, all in its own FAQ: E-Channel renewal at AED 1,100 a year, a company manager change at AED 2,500, and licence cancellation at AED 2,135 [4]. Those are first-party. Setup packages, facility rates and renewal prices are not published.

What is the AFZ cost calculator, and should I use it?

It is the tool on afz.gov.ae that takes your requirements and emails you a personalised quote [5]. Yes, use it, and treat the resulting email as your only AFZ price. Then ask for it itemised, with the visa allocation and the renewal figure stated in writing.

Is Ajman Free Zone the cheapest free zone in the UAE?

It is frequently described that way, but the claim cannot be checked because AFZ publishes no prices [5]. A zone with no published rate cannot be ranked against zones that publish theirs. Our cheapest free zones in the UAE ranked guide covers which zones publish and which do not.

What is the difference between Ajman Free Zone and Ajman Media City?

They are different zones under the same Free Zones Authority of Ajman. AFZ is at afz.gov.ae and publishes no prices; AMC is at amc.gov.ae and publishes a full four-tier table with renewals [1][6]. Critically, AFZ is a VAT Designated Zone and AMC is not [7].

How much does Ajman Media City cost?

AMC publishes four tiers: Business Club at AED 4,999 with no visa renewing at AED 4,999, Visionary at AED 12,999 with one visa renewing at AED 8,999, Pioneer at AED 17,999 with two visas renewing at AED 10,999, and Innovator at AED 22,999 with three visas renewing at AED 14,999 [6].

Is Ajman Media City a VAT Designated Zone?

No. Ajman Media City does not appear on the Federal Tax Authority's List of Designated Zones, while Ajman Free Zone does, effective 1 January 2018 [7]. If your model depends on Designated Zone treatment for goods, that difference decides which of the two zones you belong in.

When was Ajman Free Zone established?

In 1988, and it is widely described as the second oldest free zone in the UAE. A single third-party source states it was granted autonomous status in 1996, which we could not confirm on afz.gov.ae, so treat that date as indicative rather than verified [1].

How many companies are registered in Ajman Free Zone?

A Gulf News feature quoting AFZ states over 20,000 companies from more than 145 countries, but it appears in an AFZ-sponsored feature format with no as-of date, so read it as reported and undated [9]. An older third-party figure was 12,362 companies as of Q1 2018.

What licence types does Ajman Free Zone offer?

Three broad categories on AFZ's own pages, not the seven that consultancy articles list: a Business Licence covering trade, import, export and distribution; an Industrial Licence for manufacturing; and a Sole Professional Licence for freelancers across 40 designated categories [2].

Does Ajman Free Zone have a separate e-commerce licence?

Most likely not as a distinct legal licence type. On AFZ's own taxonomy, e-commerce sits as a sub-activity within the Business Licence category, so a marketed "e-commerce licence" reads as a named package rather than a separate product [2]. Ask what your licence document will actually say.

What is the AFZ Sole Professional Licence?

AFZ's freelancer route, which it describes in its own words as "the most cost-effective license in all the Emirates for Freelancers", available across 40 designated categories with co-working access [2]. That cost claim is AFZ's marketing, and since AFZ publishes no price, it cannot be checked.

What entity types can I register in Ajman Free Zone?

Four: an FZE with a single shareholder, an FZC with multiple corporate partners, a branch of a local UAE company, and a branch of a foreign company [3]. The structure follows your shareholder position rather than your activity.

What share capital does Ajman Free Zone require?

AFZ does not publish a share capital requirement on its own pages. The commonly repeated USD 50,000, roughly AED 185,000, declared on paper rather than deposited, is third-party consensus only and should be treated as indicative. Get the requirement confirmed in writing with your quote.

Can a foreign company open a branch in Ajman Free Zone?

Yes, and AFZ's own wording sets an important limit: for a branch of a foreign company, "sales can be made through a UAE registered agent or distributor only" [3]. Price that route against simply incorporating a subsidiary, because it changes how you reach customers.

How many visas can an Ajman Free Zone company get?

There is no published quota table. AFZ's own FAQ says "every business package chosen has a different number of visas allocated", so quota follows the facility and package rather than the licence type [4]. Get your allocation stated in writing as a number before you pay.

How many visas does a freelancer company get at AFZ?

Two. AFZ's FAQ confirms that a freelancer company can apply for two visas, which is the only visa number AFZ commits to publicly [4]. Everything else is package-specific and unpublished.

Is Ajman Free Zone a VAT Designated Zone?

Yes. AFZ appears on the FTA's List of Designated Zones effective 1 January 2018, under Cabinet Decision 59 of 2017 as amended, most recently by Cabinet Decision 81 of 2021 effective 12 September 2021 [7]. Confirm current status before building a supply chain on it.

Does Designated Zone status mean an AFZ company pays no VAT?

No. Only certain supplies of goods fall outside the scope, and only where strict conditions on movement and consumption are met. It is not a general exemption, it has no effect on corporate tax, and an AFZ company still registers on the normal thresholds [7].

Are services in Ajman Free Zone free of VAT?

No. Services supplied in a Designated Zone are standard-rated at 5%, so a consultancy, agency or IT business in AFZ gains nothing on VAT from the zone's Designated Zone status. That status is a goods concept and always has been.

If I buy goods from a Dubai mainland supplier into AFZ, is that an export?

No. Goods moved from the UAE mainland into a Designated Zone are treated as a local supply rather than an export, so your Dubai or Sharjah supplier charges 5% normally. Founders budgeting for a zero-rated purchase are regularly caught by this.

Can an Ajman Free Zone company get the 0% corporate tax rate?

Some can. Manufacturing of goods or materials, processing of goods or materials and logistics services are Qualifying Activities under Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025, so an industrial or logistics tenant meeting every QFZP condition has a real route [8]. Most service tenants do not.

Is consultancy a Qualifying Activity for an AFZ company?

No. The Article 2(1) list is closed with no services catch-all, so ordinary consultancy, marketing, agency, design and IT services appear nowhere on it [8]. Those tenants are ordinary taxable persons at 0% up to AED 375,000 and 9% above.

Does distribution from Ajman Free Zone qualify for 0%?

Conditionally. Because AFZ is a Designated Zone, distribution in or from it can qualify, but only where the goods enter the State through the Designated Zone and are supplied to a customer who resells, processes or alters them, or to a public benefit entity [8]. Supply to an end consumer does not qualify.

Can an AFZ company claim Small Business Relief?

Yes, if it is not a Qualifying Free Zone Person, revenue is at or below AED 3,000,000, and the tax period ends on or before 31 December 2029. That is Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023, as amended by Ministerial Decision 131 of 2026, a separate instrument from the Qualifying Activities decision, and it is an election made on a return.

Can an Ajman Free Zone freelancer work in the Dubai mainland?

AFZ's FAQ answers "Yes, you can" to using a freelancer licence in the mainland [4]. Read plainly, that means delivering services to mainland clients under the normal free zone framework, not a special exemption from mainland licensing. Get the permitted scope confirmed in writing before relying on it.

How far is Ajman Free Zone from Dubai?

AFZ leadership is quoted describing the zone as 30 minutes from Dubai [9]. That is a best-case off-peak drive from the Ajman side. In morning and evening peaks it is considerably longer, which matters if your clients, your bank and your staff are all in Dubai.

Can an Ajman Free Zone company open a corporate bank account?

Yes, routinely. Expect enhanced scrutiny if your entity is low-substance or desk-based, which applies to such entities anywhere in the UAE rather than to AFZ specifically. Budget several weeks, an in-person meeting and a minimum balance, and prepare an answer to where the business is genuinely run from.

References

[1] Ajman Free Zone. Homepage and zone overview, including the Free Zones Authority of Ajman relationship and the description of accessibility to the adjacent Ajman port and to Dubai and Sharjah airports. Ajman Free Zone

[2] Ajman Free Zone. Business licence types: the Business Licence covering trade, import, export and distribution, the Industrial Licence, and the Sole Professional Licence for freelancers across 40 designated categories, plus the facilities attached to each. AFZ business licence types

[3] Ajman Free Zone. Types of business: FZE, FZC, branch of a local UAE company and branch of a foreign company, including the wording that a foreign branch may make sales through a UAE registered agent or distributor only. AFZ types of business

[4] Ajman Free Zone. FAQs, including E-Channel renewal at AED 1,100, company manager change at AED 2,500, licence cancellation at AED 2,135, the statement that every business package has a different number of visas allocated, the two-visa freelancer answer, and the freelancer mainland answer. AFZ FAQs

[5] Ajman Free Zone. Cost calculator, the only route to an AFZ price, which collects requirements and returns a personalised quote by email rather than displaying a published package schedule. AFZ cost calculator

[6] Ajman Media City. Packages page with the published four-tier schedule: Business Club AED 4,999, Visionary AED 12,999, Pioneer AED 17,999 and Innovator AED 22,999, with renewal prices, visa counts, up to 10 activities, up to 10 shareholders and co-working. Ajman Media City packages

[7] Federal Tax Authority. List of Designated Zones under Cabinet Decision 59 of 2017 as amended by 35 of 2018, 43 of 2019, 34 of 2021, 63 of 2021 and 81 of 2021. Ajman Free Zone is listed effective 1 January 2018; Ajman Media City is not listed. FTA List of Designated Zones

[8] Ministry of Finance. Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025 on Qualifying Activities and Excluded Activities, including the closed Article 2(1) list covering manufacturing, processing, logistics services and distribution in or from a Designated Zone with its entry and customer conditions. Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025

[9] Gulf News. Ajman Free Zone global expansion coverage, including the 30 minutes from Dubai description, the reported company and country figures, the 25% promotional campaign, the international representative offices, China Mall Ajman and the automotive district. Note that one Gulf News item in this format is an AFZ-sponsored feature. Gulf News, Ajman Free Zone expansion