As of 1 October 2026: a UAE company needs an ICP Establishment Card before it can sponsor a single employee’s visa, and the basic fees alone run to AED 2,300 for the first year, read directly from ICP’s own service page. A company that misuses the card, or holds entry permits without actually operating, faces fines running as high as AED 20,000.
What does a UAE Establishment Card actually do?
The Establishment Card is the electronic record ICP uses to confirm a company’s trade name, licence number, partners, and business activity, and it is the document a company must hold before it can apply for any employee or dependent visa. Without it, a business, including a small one sponsoring just one or two staff, simply cannot start the visa sponsorship process at all.
What does a company actually get once the card is issued?
Once approved, ICP issues the card electronically within its own system rather than as a physical document, and that electronic record becomes the reference point every subsequent employee or dependent visa application draws on. A company renews this card annually, which is why the AED 100 issuance fee is listed per year rather than as a one-time charge, distinct from the one-time AED 2,000 system subscription.
How much does getting the card actually cost?
For private sector and free zone companies, ICP lists an Application Fee of AED 100, an Issuance Fee of AED 100 per year, and a Smart Services Fee of AED 100, plus a Subscription to the Authority’s Electronic System for Establishments at AED 2,000. Added together, that is AED 2,300 before a company has sponsored a single visa. Companies in the tourism sector face a separate Financial Guarantee of AED 75,000, alongside a AED 1,000 System Subscription Guarantee and a AED 20 guarantee deposit fee.
What documents does a company actually need?
A valid trade licence is the core requirement, along with a valid Emirates ID or Unified Number for one of the company’s authorised signatories, since the card issuance process cannot begin without it. Free zone companies do not apply directly through ICP at all; the request has to go through the specific Free Zone Authority the company is registered under instead.
What happens if a company gets this wrong?
ICP lists three specific fines tied to this card: AED 2,000 for violating the Authority’s instructions or decisions, AED 2,000 for misusing smart services, and, the steepest by far, AED 20,000 if entry permits are issued for an establishment that is not actually conducting any business activity. That last fine specifically targets shell or inactive companies using sponsorship as a workaround rather than running a real operation, a distinction worth understanding before assuming any registered trade licence is enough on its own.
How popular is this service, and what does that tell us?
ICP records over 54,000 total transactions on this one service, confirming it as a routine part of doing business in the UAE rather than a rare administrative step. The service takes 2 days to complete once a full application is submitted, run entirely through ICP’s Smart Services Website or App with UAE PASS login.
How does this connect to the visas it actually sponsors?
Our UAE family visa sponsorship guide and our UAE visa extension guide both assume a company already holds a valid Establishment Card before any of those downstream visa processes can begin. For a business owner setting up sponsorship for the first time, this card is the foundational step everything else depends on. Anyone weighing company sponsorship against individual freelance routes should also compare our Dubai freelance permit guide, which covers a genuinely different path that skips establishment-level sponsorship entirely.
What is the short version?
A UAE company needs an ICP Establishment Card before sponsoring any employee visa, costing AED 2,300 in combined application, issuance, and system subscription fees for the first year, with tourism companies facing an extra AED 75,000 financial guarantee. Misusing the card or holding entry permits for an inactive business risks fines up to AED 20,000, and free zone companies apply through their own Free Zone Authority rather than ICP directly.
Last updated: 1 October 2026. Primary source: ICP, Issuing an Establishment Card.
