HFZA Guide 2026: Hamriyah Free Zone Costs & Login

HFZA — the Hamriyah Free Zone Authority in Sharjah — is one of the UAE's largest industrial free zones, where a company licence starts from roughly AED 9,000–15,000 per year depending on package, and existing investors manage renewals, visas and requests through the HFZA login portal at hfza.ae. Established in 1995 around a deep-water port on the Arabian Gulf, HFZA offers 100% foreign ownership, 0% personal income tax, full profit repatriation, and some of the cheapest warehouse and industrial land rates in the Emirates.

If you searched "hfza" or "hfza login", you are probably in one of two camps: an existing investor trying to reach the portal, or an entrepreneur weighing Hamriyah against other UAE free zones. This guide serves both. We cover exactly what the HFZA investor portal does and how to access it, then go deep on the zone itself — licence types and real 2026 costs in AED, visa quotas, warehouses and industrial plots, the incorporation process step by step, and an honest comparison with SAIF Zone, its Sharjah sibling. Fee schedules at any free zone move with promotions and package restructures, so where numbers can vary we flag them and point you to the authority's official channels for the figure that will actually appear on your invoice.

HFZA login: accessing the Hamriyah Free Zone investor portal

The heaviest search around HFZA is simply people trying to log in, so let's handle it first.

The HFZA investor portal is the online services gateway for companies already registered in the zone. Through it, licensees can:

• Renew trade licences and pay renewal invoices online
• Apply for new employee visas, renewals and cancellations under the company's quota
• Request NOCs, attested letters and certificates (good standing, incorporation copies)
• Book or renew facilities — warehouses, offices, land-lease documentation
• Track application status and download official receipts
• Update company contact details and authorised-signatory records

How to log in:

1. Go to the official Hamriyah Free Zone Authority website — hfza.ae — and select the investor/customer portal login (the authority has consolidated e-services under its online portal; follow the "Login" or "E-Services" link on the official site rather than third-party links).
2. Enter the username and password issued at company registration. Access is tied to the company account, usually held by the authorised signatory or PRO.
3. First-time users or those with lost credentials use the password-reset flow tied to the registered company email, or contact the HFZA customer service desk with the company's registration number to have access re-issued.

Two cautions. First, only ever log in through the official hfza.ae domain — free zone portal credentials control visa applications and licence payments, and phishing pages imitating UAE free zone logins do circulate. Second, if your company's registered email belonged to a former employee or an old agent, fix that before renewal season: portal password resets go to that address, and re-establishing access through customer service takes days you may not have when a licence expiry is looming.

If you are not yet registered in HFZA, there is nothing for you behind the login — new applications start with the authority's sales/customer relations team or through a registered channel partner, which is the process we cover below.

What is the Hamriyah Free Zone? Scale, location and who it suits

HFZA sits on the coast of Sharjah at Hamriyah, roughly 20–30 minutes north of Sharjah city and about an hour from Dubai. Its defining asset is the combination of industrial land, a deep-water port with an inner harbour, and price points well below Dubai zones. Headline facts:

• Founded: 1995 by Emiri decree, making it one of the UAE's longest-running free zones.
• Scale: approximately 30+ million square metres of leasable land — one of the largest industrial free zone footprints in the region — hosting thousands of companies from over 160 countries.
• Port access: its own harbour facilities for bulk and project cargo, plus proximity to Port Khalid and Khorfakkan (Sharjah's east-coast container port with direct Indian Ocean access, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz), and about an hour's drive to Dubai's Jebel Ali.
• Sector strengths: oil and gas services, steel and metals fabrication, petrochemicals, maritime, timber, plastics, food processing (it hosts a dedicated food park), building materials, and general trading.
• Ownership and tax: 100% foreign ownership, zero personal income tax, full capital and profit repatriation, and no currency restrictions — the standard UAE free zone proposition. Corporate tax now applies UAE-wide at 9% on taxable profits above AED 375,000, with a 0% rate available to Qualifying Free Zone Persons on qualifying income under the Federal Tax Authority's rules — more on that below.

The honest positioning: HFZA is an industrial and trading zone, not a glossy startup campus. If your business needs a warehouse, a fabrication yard, quayside access or cheap land at scale, it is one of the strongest options in the country. If you need a prestige Dubai address for a consultancy, a Dubai zone or mainland licence may fit better — compare via our business setup in Dubai guide.

HFZA licence types

HFZA issues licences under a straightforward taxonomy:

• Industrial licence — manufacturing, processing, assembly, packaging. Requires a physical facility (warehouse or land) and environmental/civil-defence approvals appropriate to the activity.
• Commercial licence — import, export, distribution and trading of specified goods. Available from small "E-Office" packages up to warehouse-backed operations. A general trading variant covers a wide span of tradable goods for a higher fee.
• Service licence — consultancy and service activities conducted from the zone.

Entities can be formed as a Free Zone Establishment (FZE) with one shareholder or a Free Zone Company (FZC) with two to five shareholders, or registered as a branch of an existing foreign or UAE company. HFZA historically markets minimum share capital of AED 150,000 for an FZE/FZC — capital is declared rather than escrowed in most cases, but confirm current treatment with the authority.

HFZA costs in 2026: realistic numbers in AED

Free zone pricing is package-driven and promotional, so the table below reflects well-established public ranges. The authority's quotation is the only binding number — verify current packages with HFZA directly or through a registered consultant before budgeting.

Rule-of-thumb budgets: a one-person trading setup with a smart-desk package and one visa lands around AED 15,000–22,000 in year one; a small warehouse-backed trading or light-industrial operation with three or four staff typically runs AED 60,000–140,000 in year one once the facility, visas and approvals are counted. Renewal years drop the one-time fees.

Corporate tax and VAT at HFZA

Two federal regimes apply regardless of which free zone you choose, both administered by the Federal Tax Authority (FTA):

• Corporate tax: 9% on taxable profits above AED 375,000. Free zone companies can access the 0% Qualifying Free Zone Person rate on qualifying income (broadly, certain transactions with other free zone persons and specified activities such as manufacturing and distribution from a designated zone) if they maintain adequate substance, prepare audited accounts, and meet de-minimis conditions. The rules are detailed and activity-specific — review them on the FTA's official site at tax.gov.ae and take advice before assuming 0%.
• VAT: 5%, with mandatory registration once taxable supplies exceed AED 375,000 per year. Parts of Hamriyah's fenced areas are treated as designated zones for VAT, which changes how goods movements are treated — valuable for re-export businesses, but it demands correct documentation.

All HFZA companies must also register employees correctly for immigration and labour purposes; free zone work permits run through the zone's own system in coordination with federal authorities rather than through the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE), which governs mainland employment — a distinction that matters if you later add a mainland branch, at which point MOHRE registration, WPS payroll and mainland labour rules apply to those staff.

Visas at HFZA

Visa allocation is tied to your facility:

• Smart desk / E-Office packages: typically 1–2 visas.
• Executive offices: commonly 1 visa per ~9–10 m² of office space.
• Warehouses and industrial land: quotas scale with facility size and activity — industrial operations can sponsor large workforces, and HFZA provides on-zone labour accommodation zones for industrial staff.

The process: company obtains its establishment card, then applies per employee for an entry permit, in-country status change (if applicable), medical fitness test, Emirates ID biometrics and residence stamping. Emirates ID and residency records sit with the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security (ICP) federally. All of it is filed through the HFZA portal — one more reason to keep that login healthy. Budget ~AED 3,500–6,000 all-in per visa and two to four weeks per employee, longer if security approvals apply to the nationality or role.

Investor/partner visas for shareholders follow the same mechanics and are typically issued for two years, renewable.

Warehouses, industrial plots and the port

This is HFZA's real differentiator, so it deserves specifics:

• Pre-built warehouses from roughly 200 m² up to several thousand square metres, many with built-in office blocks, three-phase power and loading bays. Rates in the ~AED 100–250 per m² per year band undercut Dubai equivalents (Jebel Ali/DIP warehousing commonly runs AED 300–500+ per m²) by a wide margin.
• Industrial land on long leases (commonly up to 25 years, renewable) at rates that can fall to single-digit or low-double-digit AED per square metre annually for large plots — among the cheapest serviced industrial land in the UAE. Lessees build to their own spec under HFZA's development and environmental controls, with utilities (including gas for some phases) brought to plot.
• The harbour: an inner harbour and quay access for project cargo, bulk materials and marine services — a genuine advantage for steel, oil-and-gas services and heavy fabrication businesses that need to move oversized loads without road permits.
• Sector parks: dedicated clusters such as the food park, maritime city area, and oil-and-gas zones concentrate suppliers and simplify approvals for those activities.

Environmental permits, civil defence approval and (for food) municipality food-safety controls apply per activity; factor approval timelines of several weeks into industrial project plans.

How to set up a company in HFZA: step by step

1. Define activity and licence type. Match your real operations to HFZA's activity list; mismatched activities cause bank-account and customs friction later.
2. Reserve the trade name and submit the application with passport copies of shareholders, a simple business profile, and (for corporate shareholders) attested parent-company documents.
3. Choose the facility — smart desk, office, warehouse or plot — since it fixes both cost and visa quota.
4. Receive initial approval and sign the Memorandum and Articles for the FZE/FZC and the lease agreement.
5. Pay the invoice (licence + registration + facility) and receive the trade licence — for desk/office packages this can complete in a few working days; industrial facilities take longer due to approvals.
6. Immigration setup: establishment card, then visas as above.
7. Bank account: UAE banks will want the licence, MOA, lease, shareholder passports and a business plan with expected flows. Industrial and trading companies with real premises generally clear compliance faster than paper-only setups.
8. Tax registrations: corporate tax registration with the FTA is mandatory for all companies; add VAT registration when thresholds are met.

A registered agent or consultancy (this is exactly what Noble Core does across Sharjah's zones) compresses this to a largely remote process — typically only biometrics require presence.

Documents checklist before you apply

Have these ready and formation moves at the fast end of every timeline above: passport copies for all shareholders and the manager (six months' validity minimum), passport-size photos, a short business profile or plan describing activities and expected trade flows, proof of address, and — for corporate shareholders — the parent company's certificate of incorporation, memorandum, board resolution approving the HFZA entity, and an incumbency certificate, all attested and legalised for UAE use. Individual-shareholder files are usually accepted as plain copies; corporate documents are where weeks are won or lost, so start attestation before anything else. Bank onboarding will additionally want six months of personal or parent-company bank statements and, for trading businesses, sample supplier and customer contracts or invoices that evidence the flows you described.

HFZA vs SAIF Zone: which Sharjah free zone fits?

Sharjah's two flagship zones get compared constantly. The short version:

If your goods fly, look at SAIF; if they float or need a yard, Hamriyah wins. We break down the airport zone in our SAIF Zone company setup guide, and compare every Sharjah option — including SHAMS for media and services — in the Sharjah free zone company formation guide. For lean service businesses without cargo at all, SHAMS packages often undercut both industrial zones.

Worked cost examples: three real HFZA budgets in AED

Package tables blur together, so here are three concrete year-one budgets built from the established public ranges. Every figure below should be re-quoted with the authority before you commit — promotions and package restructures move these numbers.

Budget 1 — solo trader, smart-desk package. E-Office commercial licence at ~AED 12,000, one-time registration at ~AED 9,500, establishment card ~AED 2,000, one investor visa all-in ~AED 4,500. Year one: roughly AED 28,000; renewal years: roughly AED 16,500 once the one-time fees drop away. Add a corporate bank account (no government fee, but expect minimum-balance requirements of AED 25,000–50,000 at many banks) and basic accounting at ~AED 6,000–12,000 per year for corporate tax compliance.

Budget 2 — trading company with a small warehouse. Commercial licence ~AED 16,000, registration ~AED 9,500, 300 m² pre-built warehouse at ~AED 150/m² = AED 45,000, establishment card ~AED 2,000, four visas at ~AED 4,500 each = AED 18,000, plus insurance, utilities deposits and fit-out contingency of ~AED 15,000. Year one: roughly AED 105,000; renewal years: roughly AED 80,000–85,000. This is the classic HFZA profile — the same warehouse in a Dubai zone would add AED 45,000–100,000 to the annual line on rent alone.

Budget 3 — light manufacturer on leased land. Industrial licence ~AED 16,000, registration ~AED 9,500, 5,000 m² plot at ~AED 20/m² = AED 100,000 per year on a long lease, environmental and civil defence approvals ~AED 10,000–25,000 depending on activity, construction to the operator's own budget, establishment card, and a first tranche of ten visas at ~AED 45,000. Year-one authority-and-land cost: roughly AED 185,000–200,000 before construction. The land rate is the entire argument: comparable serviced industrial land closer to Dubai commonly costs multiples of this.

Who HFZA suits: five founder scenarios

• The steel fabricator or oil-and-gas services contractor. Needs a yard, cranage, quay access for project cargo and cheap power at scale. HFZA is arguably the strongest single option in the UAE; the inner harbour removes road-permit headaches for oversized loads.
• The commodity or building-materials trader. Needs bonded warehousing, customs efficiency and re-export VAT treatment. HFZA's designated-zone status and warehouse rates fit exactly, with Jebel Ali an hour away when a shipment must route through Dubai.
• The food processor. The dedicated food park clusters suppliers, cold-chain logistics and municipality food-control processes in one place — faster approvals than a generalist zone.
• The lean consultant or e-commerce founder with no cargo. Honest answer: HFZA works, but a services zone such as SHAMS usually undercuts it on price, and a Dubai zone may serve client-perception needs better. Compare before defaulting to an industrial zone.
• The manufacturer selling into the UAE mainland. HFZA plus a mainland distribution arrangement (or a second mainland entity) is the standard structure — plan the corporate tax treatment of mainland revenue from day one rather than retrofitting it.

HFZA setup timeline: week by week

A realistic schedule for a desk- or office-based company with individual shareholders:

1. Week 1: activity selection, name reservation, application submission with passport copies and business profile; initial approval typically follows within days.
2. Week 2: sign the MOA and lease, pay the invoice, receive the trade licence. Corporate shareholders add two to six weeks here for attestation and legalisation of parent-company documents — start that paperwork first if it applies.
3. Weeks 2–3: establishment card issuance, opening the immigration file.
4. Weeks 3–6: visas — entry permit, status change, medical, Emirates ID biometrics and stamping run about two to four weeks per person and can be parallelised.
5. Weeks 4–8: bank account onboarding; industrial and trading companies with real premises and clear flows generally clear compliance in three to six weeks.
6. Within FTA deadlines: corporate tax registration on EmaraTax — do not leave this for renewal season.

Industrial projects run a second track on top: facility handover or construction, environmental permits and civil defence approvals, each of which can add several weeks and should anchor the project plan rather than trail it.

Common Mistakes

• Chasing the "hfza login" page through third-party links. Portal credentials control your visas and licence payments; bookmark the official hfza.ae portal and never enter credentials on lookalike domains.
• Letting the registered email go stale. Password resets and renewal notices go to the email on file; when it belongs to an ex-employee or old agent, investors get locked out at renewal time.
• Budgeting only the headline licence fee. Registration fee, establishment card, visas, facility lease, insurance and attestations push real year-one cost well past the advertised package number.
• Picking a smart desk when you need a warehouse quota. Visa allocations follow facility size; upgrading mid-year means new leases and re-papering.
• Assuming 0% corporate tax automatically. Qualifying Free Zone Person status has substance, audit and qualifying-income conditions under FTA rules; mainland-facing revenue can be taxed at 9%. Get advice before pricing contracts.
• Ignoring designated-zone VAT mechanics. Goods moving in and out of the fenced zone have specific VAT treatments; wrong paperwork creates assessments later.
• Trading outside the licensed activity. Customs codes, bank compliance and insurance all key off the activity list — add activities properly rather than improvising.
• Missing renewal deadlines. Late licence renewal triggers fines and can freeze visa processing for the whole company; calendar the licence, establishment card and lease dates together.

Frequently Asked Questions