Every guide to freelancing in Dubai lists the same routes, quotes the same package prices, and tells
you the permit comes with a visa.
One of those routes does not exist. The visa is not included in any of them. And the two most heavily
marketed options are not the ones that qualify you for the residence visa freelancers actually want.
Here is what a Dubai freelance permit genuinely gets you, checked against each issuing
body’s own pages.
The distinction everything hangs on
A freelance permit or licence makes your freelancing lawful and invoiceable. A
residence visa lets you live here. They are separate products, bought separately, and
conflating them is the source of most of the confusion.
All three issuers say so in their own words. DMCC: the AED 4,020 package “includes only FreelanceUAE
License valid for 1 year”, explicitly “without visa”. GoFreelance, answering whether its fee includes a
visa: “No. This is just the cost for the freelance package.” And the federal permit is issued to people
freelancing independently “including foreign nationals on self-sponsored residence visas” — it presupposes
residence rather than creating it.
If you already hold a spouse, golden or employment visa, “permit only” is exactly what you want: the
licence legitimises your work without touching your residency. That is why the regulator asks valid-visa
holders for a self-declaration form, and why someone in full-time employment can hold one.
The routes that exist
| Route | Instrument | Residence visa included? |
|---|---|---|
| DDA / GoFreelance (TECOM communities) | Sole Professional Licence — official regulator fee AED 7,500 plus AED 20 in Knowledge and Innovation Dirhams | No. A separate employment visa, priced separately |
| DMCC FreelanceUAE | Licence — Package 1 AED 4,020, plus AED 20 | No — stated as “without visa” |
| MoHRE federal freelance permit | Work permit under Cabinet Resolution 1 of 2022 | No — but it is the permit the Green Visa requires |
| Green Residence | Five-year renewable residence visa, no sponsor | Yes — the only one here that is a visa |
Correction one: there is no Dubai Silicon Oasis freelance route
It appears in almost every listicle. DSO’s own licence page states that entities “can choose from three
types of licenses” — Service, Trade and Industrial. The word “freelance” does not appear on it at all.
The authority behind it is gone too. Dubai Law No. 16 of 2021 provides that “DIEZA is hereby deemed the
legal successor of the Dubai International Airport Free Zone Authority and the Dubai Silicon Oasis
Authority”, and repeals the founding legislation outright. Dubai Integrated Economic Zones now consolidates
Dubai Airport Free Zone, Dubai Silicon Oasis and Dubai CommerCity.
Correction two: DMCC’s freelance visa packages are on hold
Consultant sites still sell “DMCC freelance permit plus visa” at two higher package prices. DMCC’s own
FreelanceUAE site says: “Currently, visa packages are temporarily on hold due to upcoming updates from UAE
Immigration.”
Its published schedule of charges corroborates that. Under new issues, only Package 1 at AED 4,020 is
listed. The higher packages appear only in the renewal table — existing holders renew; new visa packages
are not being sold.
We are not describing what those higher packages contain, because the inclusion text is not published
and the suspension notice contradicts the obvious inference.
Correction three: GoFreelance is narrower than advertised
It covers four communities — “Dubai Media City, Dubai Internet City, Dubai Design District and Dubai
Knowledge Park” — and four sectors: “at present we have tech, media and education and design activities.”
Dubai Studio City and Dubai Production City are not licensing communities for this product. And there is
no business consultancy, accounting, legal, engineering or finance freelancing on this route.
Two further details rarely mentioned. Applications go through TECOM Group, which operates the
communities, while DDA is the regulator — most guides collapse the two. And the visa GoFreelance offers is
an employment visa requiring an Establishment Card first: “you will kindly be asked to pay for the
Establishment Card which is required by DNRD as a pre-requisite to obtain the employment visa.”
How to choose between the two free-zone routes
Not on price. On what you actually do.
DMCC’s activity list is materially different from GoFreelance’s — it includes e-commerce seller
categories, personal trainer, life coach, master of ceremonies and Web3 and AI roles. GoFreelance is tech,
media, education and design. Your sector, not the fee, usually decides the route.
Both share the same restrictions, and both state them plainly:
| Restriction | Applies to |
|---|---|
| No hiring or sponsoring employees | Both — stated by each |
| Licence issued in your own name, not a brand name | Both — DMCC’s format is “John Doe FL 247635” |
| Cannot be converted into a company licence later | DMCC: the two “each stand as a distinct product” |
| One profession per licence | DMCC |
DDA quotes a two-working-day turnaround; DMCC quotes seven to ten working days.
The federal permit, and why it matters more than it looks
The MoHRE freelance permit is the twelfth and last of the work-permit types in Article 6(1) of Cabinet
Resolution No. 1 of 2022. Its definition is worth reading because of its final clause: it is issued to
people undertaking independent self-employment, earning money by providing services to individuals or
establishments, “whereas this natural person is in no way a worker for those individuals
or establishments.”
That phrase appears twice in the Regulation. It is why a freelancer has no gratuity, no employment
contract and no employee claim — the trade-off for the independence.
We are not describing how to apply for it, what it costs or how long it lasts. The reason is itself
worth knowing: the MoHRE service page that every guide links to returns HTTP 200 but redirects to a
page-not-found screen. It is a soft 404 — a dead page that looks alive to an automated check, which is
exactly how confident-sounding summaries end up citing nothing at all.
The turn: only one permit qualifies for the Green Visa
This is the fact that reorders the whole decision, and it is double-sourced from both immigration
authorities.
The Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship requires applicants to “hold a freelance work permit
or a self-employment permit issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.”
Dubai’s own residency authority lists just two documents: a passport valid six months or more, and “a
self-employed permit from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.”
Neither names a free zone. So the two most-marketed Dubai freelance products — the DDA licence and the
DMCC licence — are not, on these pages, the route to a Green Visa.
The Green Residence itself runs five years, renewable, with no sponsor, and lets you sponsor a spouse
and children. Its three eligible categories are skilled workers, freelancers and self-employed, and
investors and business partners. The freelancer criteria add a bachelor’s degree, specialised diploma or
equivalent, plus proof of stable income or financial solvency.
And the income figure is not the hard gate it is usually presented as. Dubai’s authority words it as
income over the two preceding years that “should not be less than (360,000) … or prove his
financial solvency throughout his stay in the country.” It is an alternative, not a threshold you must
clear.
Published issuing fees from the Dubai authority are AED 200 for the residence permit, AED 10 Knowledge
Dirham, AED 10 Innovation Dirham, AED 500 for issuance inside the country and AED 20 delivery, with the
issuance fee rising by AED 100 annually once the residency is over two years.
One route we are not covering
The Dubai mainland freelancer route through the Department of Economy and Tourism. Every DET-family
portal refuses automated access, so we could not verify a single fee or condition, and we are not
repeating consultant-blog figures as though they were official.
Worth flagging while we are here: the old domains ded.ae and dubaided.gov.ae are dead — one fails on TLS,
the other resets the connection. Guidance still pointing readers there sends them nowhere. The live entity
is Dubai DET.
Our guides to the
UAE
freelance and remote-work visa,
Dubai’s free zones,
setting
up a business in Dubai and
the Dubai instant
licence cover the neighbouring options, and our
overview of UAE visa types
sets out where the Green Residence sits among them.
Primary sources: Dubai Development Authority on the
Sole
Professional Licence and
freelancer
licensing;
GoFreelance;
DMCC’s FreelanceUAE and
DMCC’s schedule
of charges;
Dubai Silicon Oasis
licence types and
Dubai
Law No. 16 of 2021; MoHRE’s published English text of
Cabinet
Resolution 1 of 2022; the UAE Government portal on
work
permits and the
Green
visa; and both immigration authorities —
ICP
and
GDRFA
Dubai. Fees checked 20 August 2026. This article is general information, not immigration advice.
