Trade License Amendment Dubai 2026: Process and Fees

A trade license amendment in Dubai changes the details on an existing licence without closing the company: partners, trade name, activities, manager, capital or business location. On the mainland, Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) completes the amendment within 10 minutes once the file is complete, but the paperwork around it decides the real timeline. Free zones publish their own fees: DMCC charges AED 1,515 to change an activity, an address or the manager, and AED 4,515 to change the company name or share capital. After any change, the Federal Tax Authority expects a tax records update within 20 business days.

That is the short version. The longer version is that an amendment is rarely one step. The licence change is quick. What takes time is everything that feeds it (notarised documents, partner consents, external approvals, a new trade name or tenancy contract) and everything that must follow it (establishment card, MOHRE file, bank mandate, tax and beneficial owner records). This guide is written for owners who already hold a Dubai licence and need to change something on it this month. It explains which authority handles your change, what each type of amendment involves, the fees we could verify from official sources, the deadlines that start the day the new licence is issued, and when an amendment is the wrong tool.

What a trade licence amendment is, and when you need one

Your trade licence is a public record of who owns the company, what it is called, what it is allowed to do, where it operates, who manages it and, for many legal forms, how much capital it holds. When any of those facts changes in real life, the licence has to change with it. Operating with details that no longer match the licence creates problems quickly: banks freeze or query accounts when the signatory on the mandate is not the manager on the licence, immigration transactions fail when the establishment card does not match, and a buyer or investor doing due diligence will find the mismatch in minutes.

You need an amendment when you:

• Bring in a new partner, remove a partner or change the shareholding between existing partners.
• Rename the company or change its trade name.
• Add, remove or replace a business activity.
• Appoint a new manager or change the manager's details.
• Move to a different office or change the licence address.
• Increase or reduce share capital.

You do not need an amendment for routine renewals, for adding employees within your existing visa quota, or for changes that do not appear on the licence or the memorandum of association. If you are unsure, the test is simple: if the fact appears on the licence, the commercial register or the memorandum of association, changing it is an amendment.

The Department of Economy and Tourism describes the service as the way to make changes to your trade licence, including information related to the memorandum of association. That second part matters. For a limited liability company, most amendments are really changes to the memorandum of association, and the licence is updated to reflect them. The document that does the work is the addendum (annex) to the incorporation contract, not the licence itself.

The six amendments DET lists, and what each one really involves

DET's own service card for the request to amend a trade licence names six common modifications. Here is what each one means in practice for an existing business.

1. Amend partners or parties

This covers adding a partner, removing one and moving shares between partners. It is the most document-heavy amendment because it changes ownership. In an LLC, the memorandum of association normally gives existing partners a right of first refusal, so the notary and DET will expect the other partners to sign or to have waived that right. A full ownership change is covered in our share transfer guide; the key point here is that a partner change is not finished when the licence is reissued. Visas held through the outgoing partner, the bank mandate and the beneficial owner register all need updating afterwards.

2. Change the business location

A new address on the licence needs a new tenancy contract registered in Ejari (for Dubai mainland premises) or a new lease with your free zone. Moving is also the moment to check your visa quota, because on the mainland and in many free zones the quota follows the size of the office. Downsizing to save rent can leave you with more visas than the new space supports.

3. Change the manager's details

This is the change that most often breaks day-to-day operations when it is done late. The manager is usually the person the bank, MOHRE and immigration treat as the authorised signatory. Change the licence, then update the establishment card and the bank mandate in the same week, or payroll changes and visa renewals stall at the signature step.

4. Modify business activities

Adding or removing an activity is quick if the new activity sits in the same licence category and needs no outside approval. It is slow if it needs one. Health, education, food, security and financial activities often need a regulator's approval before DET or the free zone will add them. See our guide to adding an activity to a Dubai trade licence for how activity groups and external approvals work.

5. Change the capital

A capital increase is usually straightforward: partners sign a resolution, the memorandum of association is amended and the licence is updated. A capital reduction is treated with more caution because it affects creditors, which is why DET's documents list includes an auditor's report on capital reduction. If you are reducing capital to tidy up the balance sheet, plan for the audit step.

6. Amend the trade name

A new name has to be available and compliant before it can go on the licence, so a name change starts with a trade name reservation. Dubai's published trade name fee is AED 620; confirm the current amount on the official portal before you pay. Our company name change guide covers the naming rules and the knock-on updates to contracts, invoices, signage and bank accounts.

Mainland or free zone: who approves your amendment

The authority that issued your licence is the authority that amends it. That sounds obvious, but it is the first thing to confirm, because the process, the fees and the documents differ completely.

Dubai mainland companies amend through DET. DET's card says you can visit any of its service centres for the amendment and that the service is completed within 10 minutes. It does not publish a single fee schedule for amendments; it says there are a variety of fees depending on the service, and it lists payment by direct debit at Dubai Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank of Dubai or Emirates Islamic, or cash and cheque through Aafaq Islamic Finance, Commercial Bank of Dubai or Emirates Islamic. Because the mainland fee depends on the specific change, the honest answer is to get the figure from DET for your exact file before you commit.

Free zone companies amend through their free zone authority, usually on the member portal. Free zones set their own fees and document lists, and several publish them. DMCC is the clearest example, so we use it as the worked case below.

Other emirates follow their own economic departments: Sharjah's SEDD, Abu Dhabi's ADRA through TAMM, and the departments in Ajman and Ras Al Khaimah. The logic is the same, but the portals and fees are local.

One rule applies everywhere: the licence must be valid when you file. DMCC states this directly for officer changes, and in practice every authority expects renewal to come first. If your licence expires next month, renew and amend together so the new certificate carries the updated details for the whole year.

The DET amendment process, step by step

For a Dubai mainland company, a typical amendment runs in this order.

1. Define the change precisely. Write down exactly what changes on the licence and in the memorandum of association. A partner change and a manager change filed together is one file; filed two weeks apart it is two files, two sets of signatures and two rounds of downstream updates.
2. Check what the change depends on. A new name needs a reservation. A new activity may need an external approval. A new address needs a registered tenancy contract. A new partner may need attested documents from abroad. Start these first, because they set the timeline.
3. Prepare the legal documents. For most LLC changes this is an addendum to the memorandum of association, signed by the partners and notarised. For companies with a board or general assembly, it may be a resolution approving the change. DET's document list for this service includes the appendix to the incorporation contract, an auditor's report for capital reduction, board or general assembly resolutions, and, for the sale of a shop, the contract of sale.
4. Submit to DET. File at a DET service centre or through the channel DET directs you to, pay the fees for your specific change and receive the amended licence.
5. Update everything downstream. Establishment card, MOHRE, bank, tax and beneficial owner records. This is covered in detail below, and it is where most amendments go wrong.

For a clean file, the whole sequence usually takes days. Where an external approval or an overseas signature is involved, allow weeks and plan business decisions around that, not around the 10-minute counter time.

A realistic timeline for an amendment

Timelines depend on what the change depends on. As a guide for a clean file:

• Manager change or address change, documents ready: a few days on the mainland including notarisation, plus the downstream updates.
• Activity addition with no external approval: a few days.
• Activity addition that needs an external approval: the approval sets the timeline, often weeks.
• Trade name change: a few days after the name is reserved, then weeks of practical updates across banks, contracts and branding.
• New partner, partner resident in the UAE: about one to two weeks.
• New partner or corporate shareholder abroad: add time for attestation and courier of original documents.
• Capital reduction: add time for the auditor's report.

Free zones publish their own processing times for some services. Where a free zone states a timeline, we plan to it; where it does not, we plan to our recent experience with that authority and tell you which step is the bottleneck.

Free zone amendments, with DMCC's published fees

DMCC publishes a full schedule of charges, which makes it a useful benchmark for what licence and registration amendments cost in a Dubai free zone. The figures below were read from DMCC's schedule of charges page in September 2026. DMCC states that all charges are in UAE dirhams, are subject to an additional AED 20 Knowledge and Innovation Dirham fee, and can change without prior notice, so confirm the current figure on DMCC's own page before you pay.

Two lines in that schedule catch owners out. First, DMCC allows up to six activities beginning with the same first two digits of the activity code and charges AED 1,500 per additional activity per year beyond that, so adding activities has a recurring cost, not just a one-off fee. Second, operating from a second building is not an address amendment; it needs an additional licence at AED 20,265 a year. If you are expanding into a second office, price it as a second licence.

Other free zones follow the same pattern with different numbers and, in several cases, no published price at all. Where a free zone does not publish its amendment fees, we quote from the authority's written quotation for your file rather than from a generic table.

Documents to prepare for each type of change

The exact list depends on the authority, the legal form and the change, but this table shows what to have ready so the file is not sent back.

A practical note on signatures: if any partner is outside the UAE, find out early whether the authority will accept a signature before a UAE notary under a power of attorney, a remote notarisation, or an attested document signed abroad. Our power of attorney guide explains the options. This single question decides whether the amendment takes three days or three weeks.

After the licence: establishment card, MOHRE, visas and the bank

The amended licence is the start of the downstream work, not the end. These updates matter because each system checks the others.

Establishment card. The immigration establishment card carries the company's name, address and authorised signatory. A name change, address change or manager change on the licence needs a matching update on the card, through GDRFA for Dubai-sponsored companies or through the free zone's immigration desk. Until it matches, new visa applications and renewals can be rejected. Our establishment card guide covers the process.

MOHRE. For mainland companies, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) holds the company's labour file, including the authorised signatory for work permits and contracts. A new manager or a new name has to be reflected there too.

Visas. Employee visas are tied to the company's establishment card, so an amendment does not cancel them. Partner and investor visas are different: if an outgoing partner held a visa through the company, it must be cancelled or moved, and an incoming partner who wants residence through the company will apply after the amendment is registered.

Bank. Send the amended licence and MoA addendum to your relationship manager as soon as they are issued, and update the account mandate if the signatory has changed. Banks review ownership and signatory changes under their own compliance rules, which can mean an updated know-your-customer file. Nobody can promise how long a bank review takes; what we can do is make sure the pack is complete the first time.

Commercial contracts and branding. A new name or address needs to reach your invoices, website, letterheads, signage and key contracts. Where contracts name the company, check whether a name change needs a notice to the counterparty.

Tax and beneficial owner deadlines that start the day the licence changes

This is the part owners most often miss, because it happens after the visible work is done.

Federal Tax Authority: 20 business days. If your company is registered for VAT or corporate tax, the Federal Tax Authority requires a tax records amendment within 20 business days of any change to the information it holds. Its own tax records amendment service page sets out the rule. The information that triggers it includes the business name and address, trade licence activities, legal entity type, articles of association or equivalent and the nature of the business. The penalty for failing to inform the Authority of a change that requires a tax record amendment is AED 1,000 per violation, and AED 5,000 for a repeat within 24 months. The same amounts appear in both the corporate tax penalties decision (Cabinet Decision No. 75 of 2023, as amended) and the VAT penalties decision (Cabinet Decision No. 40 of 2017, as amended). The update is filed on EmaraTax.

Beneficial owner register: 15 working days. Under Cabinet Resolution No. 109 of 2023, legal persons must update their beneficial owner register and record any change within 15 working days of becoming aware of it, and file the updated details with the registrar. A partner change, a share transfer or a change in who ultimately controls the company all qualify. Administrative penalties for breaches are set by a separate resolution, Cabinet Resolution No. 132 of 2023. Both resolutions are published on the UAE federal legislation portal. For more detail see our UBO filing guide.

Corporate tax position. Some amendments also change how the company is taxed, not just what the record says. Moving a free zone company's activities or premises, adding mainland-facing activities or bringing in a corporate shareholder can affect qualifying free zone status, group relief or small business relief eligibility. If the amendment changes what the business does or where it does it, review the tax effect before filing, not after.

The practical rule we use: the day the amended licence is issued, the 15-day and 20-day clocks start. Put both dates in the diary before you celebrate the new certificate.

Amend, add a licence or restructure: choosing the right route

An amendment is the right tool when the company stays the same legal entity and you are changing facts about it. It is the wrong tool in a few common situations.

The new activity does not fit your licence category. If you hold a professional licence and want to add general trading, or your free zone does not offer the activity at all, the answer may be a new licence or a branch rather than an amendment.

You need a second location. In DMCC, a second building needs an additional licence at AED 20,265 per year; on the mainland, a branch has its own licence. Filing an address amendment when you actually need two addresses will not solve the problem.

You want to change the legal form or jurisdiction. Converting a sole establishment into an LLC, or moving a free zone company onto the mainland, is a restructure. Our guide to converting a free zone company to the mainland explains the options. The UAE Commercial Companies Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021) sets the framework for conversions and transformations, and our Commercial Companies Law guide summarises what applies.

The company carries problems the new owner will not accept. When a buyer does not want the company's history, the answer may be an asset sale or a new company rather than a share transfer.

Our view: amend when the company is worth keeping, its licence category fits the new plan and the change is about ownership, management, name, activity or address. Restructure when the change is about what kind of entity you are or where it is licensed. If you are unsure which applies, a 20-minute review of the licence and MoA usually settles it.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Filing the licence change and stopping there. The establishment card, MOHRE file, bank mandate, FTA record and beneficial owner register all need updating. The licence is the first update, not the last.
• Missing the 20 business day FTA window. A late tax records amendment carries an AED 1,000 penalty, and AED 5,000 for a repeat within 24 months. It also creates problems later when you apply for a tax residency certificate.
• Splitting related changes into separate files. A partner change and a manager change filed together is one set of signatures and one downstream update; filed separately, it is two of each.
• Amending an expired licence. Renew first. Authorities expect a valid licence, and an amendment on a lapsed licence is simply refused.
• Ignoring the memorandum of association. Pre-emption rights, notice periods and consent clauses in the MoA apply to partner changes. A change that ignores them can be refused or challenged later.
• Treating a second office as an address change. In DMCC it needs an additional licence at AED 20,265 per year; on the mainland it is usually a branch.
• Adding activities without checking the recurring cost. DMCC charges AED 1,500 per activity per year beyond six activities in the same group.
• Forgetting partner and investor visas. Employee visas survive an amendment. A visa held through an outgoing partner does not fix itself.
• Relying on a price you cannot trace to the authority. Mainland amendment fees are not published as a single schedule. Get the figure for your exact change before you commit.

What Noble Core does for you

Noble Core Ventures is an independent private business setup consultancy, founded in 2020, working with owners across six offices in the UAE. We are not a government body and we do not issue licences; DET and the free zone authorities do. What we do is make sure your amendment is filed once, correctly, with everything downstream handled in the same file.

For an existing Dubai licence, that means we:

• Review your licence and memorandum of association and confirm which authority, which documents and which fees apply to your exact change.
• Prepare the MoA addendum, resolutions and partner consents, and arrange notarisation, including for partners outside the UAE where the authority allows it.
• File the amendment with DET or your free zone and track it to the amended licence.
• Update the establishment card, the MOHRE file and visas where needed, and prepare the pack your bank needs for its review.
• File the FTA tax records amendment within 20 business days and update the beneficial owner register within 15 working days. If you are not yet registered, VAT registration and corporate tax registration are available as add-on services.

We do not promise approval times from authorities or banks, because nobody can. We do promise a complete file and a clear list of who does what, by when.

Message us on WhatsApp with a photo of your licence and one line on what you want to change, or call +971 52 253 5694. We will tell you the route, the documents and the fees for your file before anything is signed.

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