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The One Freezone Passport: One Licence Across Dubai's Free Zones
The short answer
The One Freezone Passport is an initiative announced by the Dubai Free Zones Council on 22 July 2025 that lets a company licensed in one participating Dubai free zone operate in another without a separate trade licence or re-incorporation. The first company to use it was Louis Vuitton, which kept warehouse operations in Jebel Ali Free Zone while establishing a corporate office in DWTC Free Zone. Advisers reporting on the scheme describe tight conditions: identical activities, shareholders and managers across the licences, no hiring or transfer of staff into the second zone, and no virtual, flexi or shared desk arrangements there.
Each of Dubai's free zones licenses and registers its own companies. A company that wanted premises in two of them therefore held two licences, one on each register.
The One Freezone Passport is the first mechanism to cut across that. At announcement one company had used it, and the Media Office put that company's expansion licensing at five days. That is a thin base: one case and no published rulebook.
What was announced, and by whom
The Dubai Free Zones Council announced the One Freezone Passport on 22 July 2025 as successfully implemented. Its stated aim is to let a business keep a single licence while using facilities in other free zones. Amna Al Ali, Vice President, Licensing and Registration at Jebel Ali Free Zone, said the programme works without requiring additional licensing in the other zones.
Louis Vuitton kept its warehouse operations in Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA) and set up a corporate office at One Za'abeel, part of DWTC Free Zone. Both sites are on the free zone side of the free zone versus mainland line, and the announcement said nothing about onshore trading. The Media Office stated that the free zone licence expansion took five days.
The initiative sits under the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, which aims to double the size of Dubai's economy by 2033. The announcement quoted officials on Dubai's appeal to global business, not on fees or a timetable, and no schedule of charges was published with it.
What it replaces
Before the announcement, as Fragomen put it, businesses needed to apply for a separate licence for each zone. A company with a warehouse in one zone and an office in another held two licences, filed against two registers, renewed on two cycles and dealt with two authorities. Each was a full UAE trade licence with its own activity list.
The passport collapses that into one licence with a second operating location. To be precise, this is not a merger of Dubai's free zones into a single jurisdiction, and it does not change which authority regulates the facility you occupy. It changes how many licences you hold.
Reported Conditions of the One Freezone Passport
The Dubai Free Zones Council has not, at the time of writing, published a consolidated public rulebook for the scheme. What is in circulation comes from professional firms describing it for clients, and the conditions they set out are consistent with each other and consistently restrictive.
- Activities on the secondary licence must be identical to those on the primary licence: a trading company cannot use the passport to add an unrelated service line
- Shareholders, directors and managers must be the same across both licences
- Businesses cannot hire employees in, or transfer existing staff to, the second free zone
- Certain business types are excluded, including retailers
- Virtual office arrangements, desk sharing, shared spaces and business centres are not permitted under the initiative
- Regulated categories (financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions) are described as outside the scheme
The employment restriction is the practical limit
Of the conditions above, the one that constrains most plans is the restriction on staff. A second location you cannot staff from that location is a facility rather than an operation, which fits a warehouse, a showroom-adjacent office, or a piece of specialised infrastructure, and does not fit opening a second team.
Fragomen noted in August 2025 that various regulatory points were expected to be clarified in future. That remains the honest position on the immigration mechanics: how establishment cards, visa quotas and residence sponsorship interact with a secondary location is not something a public source settles, and it should be confirmed with the zones involved rather than inferred.
Who it actually fits
The profile the scheme was built around is visible in its first user: an established company, one activity, one ownership structure, needing two physically different kinds of space in two different zones. Storage in one place, a corporate address in another.
It is not a setup route. A company being formed now chooses one zone and licenses there; the passport lets an existing licence-holder extend. It does not open the domestic market either. A free zone company that needs to trade onshore has the mainland licence route, or the Free Zone Mainland Operating Permit that Dubai Business Registration and Licensing Corporation (DBLC) launched on 8 October 2025 under Executive Council Decision No. 11 of 2025. Eligible holders of a Dubai Unified Licence (DUL) apply through the Invest in Dubai (IID) platform, and the first phase covers non-regulated activities.
What to confirm before planning around it
- Which free zones are participating today: the first implementation was between JAFZA and DWTC Free Zone, and no consolidated participating list has been published
- Whether your specific licensed activity is eligible, confirmed by both zones rather than by one
- What the second zone charges for the facility itself, which the passport does not remove
- How establishment cards, visa quotas and existing sponsorships are treated across the two locations
- What happens at renewal, and which authority's renewal cycle governs the arrangement
- Whether the arrangement survives a change of activity or shareholding, given both must stay identical
In short
What to take from this
- Announced by the Dubai Free Zones Council on 22 July 2025; the first user was Louis Vuitton, across JAFZA and DWTC Free Zone.
- One licence, a second operating location, and not a merger of Dubai's free zones.
- Activities, shareholders, directors and managers must be identical across both licences.
- Staff cannot be hired in or transferred to the second zone, which makes it a facility mechanism rather than an expansion route.
- No consolidated public rulebook has been published; confirm eligibility and participation with the zones directly.
- What is Dubai's One Freezone Passport?
- It is a Dubai Free Zones Council initiative, announced on 22 July 2025, under which a company licensed in one free zone can use facilities in another across the emirate without an additional licence there. Louis Vuitton was the first user, with its licence expansion completed in five days.
- Which Dubai free zones take part in the One Freezone Passport?
- The first implementation announced was between Jebel Ali Free Zone and DWTC Free Zone. No consolidated list of participating zones has been published, so participation should be confirmed with the free zone authorities concerned.
- Can I hire staff in the second free zone under the One Freezone Passport?
- Advisers reporting on the scheme state that businesses cannot hire employees in, or transfer existing staff to, the second free zone under the passport arrangement. Immigration mechanics should be confirmed with the zones involved.
- Can my activities differ between the two free zone licences?
- No. The activities on the secondary licence are required to be identical to those on the primary licence, and shareholders, directors and managers must be the same across both.
Sources
Where this comes from
- Dubai Media Office: DFZ Council and DWTC Free Zone welcome the first corporate member under Dubai's One Freezone Passport initiative (22 July 2025)
- KPMG: Dubai launches the Freezone One Passport
- Fragomen: Dubai introduces a 'One Free Zone Passport': what it is and how it is used
- Fragomen: Dubai introduces 'One Free Zone Passport' across free zones (14 August 2025)
General information drawn from the CBUAE Rulebook, including the Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation (C 15/2021), and Cabinet Resolution No. (134) of 2025 as published, not legal or tax advice. Rules and guidance change, so confirm the current text and each institution's own requirements before you submit.