Ajman Free Zone License Renewal 2026: Cost and Steps

An Ajman Free Zone license renewal in 2026 starts from AED 4,878.75 on the Free Zones Authority of Ajman's own service card, and the authority estimates 30 minutes to process it once every condition is met. On our 2026 rate card a complete renewal package costs AED 5,555 with no visas and AED 13,141 with one visa, while a licence from the separate Ajman NuVentures Centre Free Zone renews for AED 4,888 with no visas and AED 9,900 with one. Delay fines, an expired lease or a missing external approval must be cleared before any renewal completes.

That is the short answer. The longer one matters because a renewal in Ajman is rarely just the licence. Your establishment card, your e-channel subscription, your visas, your lease and your tax records each run on their own clock, and the authority will not complete the licence renewal while any linked obligation is outstanding. Founders who treat renewal as one invoice are usually fine. Founders who treat it as five separate deadlines usually discover one of them after it has expired.

This guide is written for someone who already holds a licence in Ajman and wants to renew it cleanly, on time, and without paying for a package they no longer use. Every price we quote as our own comes from our 2026 rate card. Every fee and rule we attribute to the authority comes from its own published service cards on afz.gov.ae. Government fees change, so confirm the current figure on the official portal before you pay. We are an independent private consultancy, not a government body, and the authority alone decides every application.

Ajman Free Zone license renewal cost in 2026: the numbers

There are two kinds of number in an Ajman renewal, and mixing them up is the most common reason a renewal budget is wrong. The first is the authority's own service fee for each transaction. The second is a package price, which bundles the licence, the immigration renewals and the handling into one figure.

Here are our 2026 package prices for both Ajman free zones that sit on our rate card, with the first-year price beside them so you can see what changes in year two.

Two things stand out. First, an Ajman Free Zone package renews at the same price as year one on our card, so there is no automatic second-year discount to bank on. Second, an ANCFZ renewal falls below its first-year price at every tier with visas: the one-visa package drops from AED 10,800 to AED 9,900, and the four-visa package drops from AED 25,200 to AED 21,150, a reduction of about 16%.

What the packages include: the licence renewal, the establishment card, the e-channel where it applies, and the visa renewal with medical and Emirates ID for each visa holder. What they do not include is health insurance, which is required by law for every visa holder and which we price separately from AED 500 per person per year for a basic plan. If the authority adds a delay fine or an outstanding amount, that is also on top, because it belongs to your file rather than the package.

If you are comparing quotes, ask every provider the same question: does this figure include the establishment card, the e-channel and the visa renewals, or only the licence? A licence-only quote will always look cheaper, and it is not the same renewal.

Which Ajman authority issued your licence? AFZ vs ANCFZ

Before you price anything, look at the name of the issuing authority printed on your licence. Ajman has more than one free zone authority, and they are not interchangeable.

• Ajman Free Zone (AFZ) is operated by the Free Zones Authority of Ajman, which refers to itself as FZA in its terms. Its renewals run through the FZA customer portal and mobile app, and its fees are listed on the service cards on afz.gov.ae.
• Ajman NuVentures Centre Free Zone (ANCFZ) is a newer free zone launched by the Ajman government with its own authority, and its licences are issued in its own name. ANCFZ states on its own website that licences must be renewed annually and that the process can often be completed online without shareholders being physically present.
• Ajman Media City is a third, separate authority with its own price list. We do not cover its renewal here.

The difference matters for three reasons. The renewal price is different, as the table above shows. The portal is different, so a login for one does nothing for the other. And any letter, proposal or bank form must name the right authority, because a bank compliance team will check the licence against the authority's register.

One more point that comes up at renewal: some founders ask whether their Ajman licence now lets them trade freely on the Dubai mainland. The Dubai Executive Council Resolution 11 of 2025 applies to Dubai free zones, not to Ajman, Sharjah or Ras Al Khaimah zones. A free zone company that carries out its activity physically on the mainland still needs a mainland licence or branch from that emirate's economic department. If your business model has moved onshore, renewal is the time to plan that, not after a client asks for a mainland licence copy.

What the Free Zones Authority of Ajman publishes about renewal

Ajman Free Zone used to sit on the list of free zones that publish no prices at all. That has changed. The authority now shows a starting price, an estimated delivery time and the conditions on each service card. Here is what it publishes for the transactions that make up a typical renewal.

Read the starting prices carefully. They are the authority's indicative figures for each service, not a total, and the authority's own terms state that where the indicative fee on a service card differs from the amount calculated for your application, the final amount on the application summary or invoice prevails. The fees in force on the date you apply are the ones that apply.

The licence renewal card also lists what you receive when it completes: a renewed business licence, an updated commercial registry certificate, an updated detailed commercial registry, an updated lease agreement and, where applicable, an occupancy agreement. If any of those is missing from your portal after payment, raise it before you send documents to a bank or a client.

The authority runs licence renewal as a fully digital service through its customer portal, its mobile app, its customer experience centre, its call centre, live chat and social media channels. Payment methods on the card include Visa, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, the authority's digital wallet, Tabby, Tamara, bank transfer, cheque and cash. Its strategic partners for the renewal are listed as the Ajman Chamber, the Ajman Department of Tourism, Culture and Media and Ajman Ports and Customs, which is why some activities pick up a partner requirement at renewal.

The card also describes the service as proactive: the authority may start the renewal and send reminders where the eligibility criteria are met, and it creates linked establishment card, e-channel, visa, insurance or amendment requests automatically where they apply. That is helpful, but it does not move the responsibility. If a linked request is created and sits unpaid, the renewal waits for it.

The renewal timeline: what to start 60, 30 and 0 days out

The single best habit for an Ajman renewal is to work back from the earliest expiry date in your file, not from the licence date. The establishment card, the e-channel and each visa may expire in different months. Here is the calendar we run for clients.

Two passport points catch founders every year. A residence visa cannot be renewed on a passport that is about to expire, so renew the passport first. And the authority's own FAQ is clear that once a residence visa has expired while the holder is outside the UAE, it cannot be renewed: the person must enter on a visit or tourist visa and the company must submit a new visa application. If a shareholder or employee travels for long periods, put their visa date in the same calendar as the licence.

On the positive side, the authority states that you do not need to submit the original passport to issue or renew a residence permit. Most of the visa renewal now happens through the portal, with physical delivery only where an outcome requires it.

Documents you need, by activity and premises

For a standard service company with no regulated activity and a desk or office in the zone, the authority retrieves most of what it needs from its own records, and the document list is short. The list grows with the activity and the type of premises. These are the conditional documents the licence renewal card names.

The branch documents deserve the most lead time. A good standing certificate has to be issued in the parent company's country, notarised, and then attested by the UAE embassy there. That is a multi-week process in many countries, and it is the one item no one in the UAE can speed up. If your company is a branch of a foreign parent, order the certificate as soon as you start the 60-day checklist.

For regulated activities, the external NOC is the item most likely to hold a renewal. The authority's terms state that submitting an application or paying the fee does not create a right to the outcome, and that each application remains subject to approvals by the relevant government entities and external authorities where required. In practice: get the NOC first, then pay.

For the residence visa renewals, the authority's card lists a valid colour passport copy, a colour photo on a white background, the existing residence visa and Emirates ID copies where applicable, a national ID from the home country where applicable, proof of valid health insurance, and an attested education certificate where the job title requires one. Have these ready for each visa holder before the renewal date.

Renewing the establishment card, e-channel and visas alongside the licence

The licence lets the company exist. The establishment card and the e-channel let it sponsor people. Lose either of those and every visa transaction stops, including a simple renewal for the founder.

The authority's FAQ lists four reasons an establishment card renewal can be rejected:

• the e-channel in the ICP Smart Services system has expired;
• fines have accumulated on the file;
• the licence has expired;
• the trade licence has not been updated in the ICP Smart Services system.

That last item is the one most people do not know about. After a new or renewed licence is issued, it must be activated in the ICP system, which the authority calls licence activation, and you apply for it through the same customer portal. Until that happens, the federal immigration system still sees the old licence, so the card renewal can fail even though your new licence is sitting in your inbox.

The Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security (ICP) processes the immigration side of every Ajman free zone transaction. Its own published fees include AED 100 per year of residence for the Emirates ID plus a smart service charge, and its residence permit charges are set per year of validity. The authority's visa renewal card starts from AED 2,400 per person and notes that overstay fines, guarantees, insurance or urgent-service charges may be added according to the case. In our renewal packages, the visa renewal, medical and Emirates ID are included for each visa on the package.

One rule for zero-visa licences: the authority states that both the establishment card renewal and the e-channel renewal are not available for an ineligible zero-visa package. If your licence carries no visa allocation, those two lines should not appear on your renewal invoice. If they do, ask why before you pay.

On medical tests, check the current list of accepted centres on the customer portal before you book, because the authority's guidance on which medical reports it accepts is updated through the portal.

Late renewal: delay fines and what an expired licence blocks

The authority's licence renewal card states that outstanding licence, lease, delay fine, facility or other company obligations must be completed before the renewal goes through. It does not print the delay fine amount on the service card, so the exact figure for your file will appear in the portal. Do not rely on a number from a forum or an old article. Check the portal, or ask us to check it for you.

The fine is rarely the real cost. The real cost of a late Ajman renewal is what stops working while the licence is expired:

1. Immigration. An expired licence is one of the listed reasons an establishment card renewal is rejected. Without a valid card, you cannot renew a visa, issue a new one or cancel one cleanly.
2. Banking. UAE banks routinely ask for a valid trade licence during periodic reviews. An expired licence can trigger account restrictions until a renewed copy is uploaded.
3. Contracts and invoices. Clients, landlords and suppliers often ask for a current licence copy. An expired one can delay payments or contract renewals.
4. Tax filings. Your FTA obligations continue whether or not the licence is current, so a lapsed licence does not pause your corporate tax or VAT deadlines.

The authority's terms also note that a request to review or challenge a decision does not suspend any official deadline, financial obligation or penalty unless the authority or the competent body decides otherwise. In plain terms: dispute a fine if you think it is wrong, but do not let the renewal wait for the answer.

If your licence has already expired, the order of work is simple. Clear the outstanding amounts first, renew the licence, activate it in the ICP system, then renew the establishment card and e-channel, then the visas. Doing it in any other order usually means paying for a request that is rejected.

Tax, ownership and bank checks to run before you renew

The authority's renewal is about the licence and the lease. The Federal Tax Authority does not run on the same calendar, but renewal is the best moment to check that your tax and ownership records match what the authority holds.

Corporate tax. Every Ajman free zone company is a taxable person under the UAE Corporate Tax Law and must be registered with the FTA, whether or not it expects to pay tax. A Qualifying Free Zone Person can benefit from 0% on qualifying income, while non-qualifying income is taxed at 9%, subject to a de minimis threshold of the lower of 5% of revenue or AED 5 million. Keeping that status depends on meeting the conditions, including maintaining audited financial statements. If your activities changed at renewal, check whether the new income still qualifies. You can read the FTA's guidance on tax.gov.ae.

VAT. If you are VAT registered and you add an activity, change address or change ownership at renewal, the FTA record must be amended. The published penalty for failing to update tax records within 20 business days is AED 1,000 for the first violation and AED 5,000 for a repeat within 24 months. That penalty is identical in the corporate tax and VAT tables.

Ultimate beneficial owner. If a shareholder changes, the beneficial ownership register must be updated within 15 working days under Cabinet Resolution 109 of 2023. Do this in the same cycle as the share transfer, not at the next renewal.

Bank. Upload the renewed licence, the updated commercial registry certificate and the new lease to your bank as soon as you have them. Many account restrictions after renewal are simply the bank holding an expired document.

If you are not yet registered for corporate tax or VAT, our 2026 add-on prices are AED 400 for corporate tax registration and AED 500 for VAT registration. A business bank account opening with Mashreq Neo or Wio is AED 800 on our card, with approval always decided by the bank.

Renew, downgrade, upgrade or move: the decision at renewal

Renewal is the one day a year when changing your setup costs the least, because you are paying for a full year either way. The authority lists Upgrade Package and Downgrade Package as separate company services, so you are not locked into the package you started with.

Renew as is when your activities, visa count and premises still fit. This is the cheapest option in effort and the right one for most service companies in their second or third year.

Downgrade when you are paying for visa capacity you no longer use. If you started with two visas and one employee has left, a smaller package may cut your renewal. The constraint is that a package with fewer visas will not work while the extra visas are still active, so cancel the visa first. On our rate card, moving an Ajman Free Zone package from two visas to one cuts the renewal from AED 17,181 to AED 13,141.

Upgrade when you need more visas, more activities or a physical office. It is cleaner to upgrade at renewal than mid-year, because the new package starts on the same date as the licence.

Move zones only with a clear reason. A company cannot simply carry its licence to another authority: moving usually means setting up a new company and closing the old one, with visa transfers or cancellations in between. If price is the only reason, compare the full renewal cost in both zones, including any new office, visa and bank changes. The ANCFZ one-visa renewal at AED 9,900 against the Ajman Free Zone one-visa renewal at AED 13,141 is a real difference, but a move carries its own setup costs, a new licence number for your bank and clients, and a period where both companies may need to run in parallel.

Our view: for a profitable company with stable visas, renewing where you are is almost always right. For a company carrying unused visa capacity, a downgrade at renewal is the fastest saving available. For a company whose work has moved onto the mainland, the question is not which free zone, but whether you need a mainland licence alongside or instead.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Budgeting from the starting price. AED 4,878.75 is the authority's starting figure for the licence renewal alone. The establishment card, e-channel, visas, insurance and any outstanding amounts are separate lines.
• Renewing the licence but not activating it in ICP. A renewed licence that is not updated in the ICP Smart Services system is a listed reason for an establishment card rejection.
• Letting the establishment card lapse. The authority advises renewing it two months before expiry. A lapsed card freezes every visa transaction.
• Paying before the external NOC is in hand. Payment does not create a right to the outcome. Regulated activities need the NOC first.
• Leaving a foreign parent's good standing certificate to the last week. Embassy attestation abroad takes time no one in Ajman can shorten.
• Letting a visa expire while the holder is abroad. The authority states an expired residence visa cannot be renewed from outside; a new application is needed.
• Confusing ANCFZ with Ajman Free Zone. Different authorities, different portals, different prices.
• Forgetting the FTA after an amendment. Changes made at renewal must reach the FTA within 20 business days, or the AED 1,000 penalty applies.
• Renewing a package you have outgrown or underused. Upgrade and downgrade are listed services. Renewal is the cheapest moment to use them.
• Trusting an old fee from a forum. The authority's terms say the fees in force on the application date apply. Check the portal.

What Noble Core does for you

Noble Core Ventures is an independent private business setup consultancy, founded in 2020, with six offices across the UAE. We are not a government body and we do not issue licences; the Free Zones Authority of Ajman and ANCFZ do. What we do is run the full renewal cycle so nothing in your file expires out of order.

For an Ajman renewal we check your licence, lease, establishment card, e-channel, every visa and every passport 60 days out, confirm whether you should renew, upgrade or downgrade, collect any NOC or premises certificate, clear the portal of outstanding items, submit the renewal, request the ICP licence activation and then renew the immigration items in the right order. We also confirm your corporate tax and VAT records still match the licence. Our renewal packages are fixed by visa count: Ajman Free Zone from AED 5,555 with no visas and AED 13,141 with one; ANCFZ from AED 4,888 with no visas and AED 9,900 with one. We cannot guarantee any authority's decision or timing, but we make sure your file is complete before it goes in.

Send us your current licence and we will review your renewal quote for free. Message us on WhatsApp or call +971 52 253 5694.

Frequently Asked Questions