Where People Are Coming From
The short answer
The right route depends less on the product than on the situation you are starting from. A group expanding into the region, a café that wants a card terminal, a founder taking their own residency and a company declined by a bank each face different questions, and each has a page here that starts from theirs.
Each page starts from a situation rather than a service, says what the authority, the bank or the acquirer will ask, and works towards the route that tends to fit it.
Setting up
Start with where you are
Visas & PRO
Visas & PRO services
Residence visas for owners, staff and family, Emirates ID and medicals, and the PRO work that keeps a licence and its people in good standing. Eligibility and approval stay with the authority.
Visas & PRO services
Residence visas for owners, staff and family, Emirates ID and medicals, and the PRO work that keeps a licence and its people in good standing. Eligibility and approval stay with the authority.
→A founder taking their own residency on their own licence
A residence visa on your own company, step by step: establishment card, entry permit, medical, Emirates ID, and the partner-or-employee choice.
→Hiring your first employees in the UAE
Work permits, visas, labour contracts, medicals, Emirates ID and wage protection for a company's first hires, sequenced on one calendar.
→
UAE bank account
UAE bank account setup
A bank-ready file and an introduction to the bank whose appetite matches your profile. Approval and timing stay with the bank.
UAE bank account setup
A bank-ready file and an introduction to the bank whose appetite matches your profile. Approval and timing stay with the bank.
→A company with foreign or corporate shareholders and the bank file
What a UAE bank asks of a company owned from abroad or by another company: the ownership chain, attested documents and source of funds.
→Declined by a UAE bank: the second application
Why UAE banks decline corporate accounts, appetite or file, and how the second application is rebuilt and introduced to a bank that fits.
→Exporters and online sellers paid from abroad
Currency accounts, an international account beside the UAE one, and the invoice trail a bank needs to understand flows from customers abroad.
→
Accounting & tax
Accounting & bookkeeping
Monthly bookkeeping, VAT and corporate-tax filings, and year-end accounts, with statutory audit signed by a registered auditor.
Accounting & bookkeeping
Monthly bookkeeping, VAT and corporate-tax filings, and year-end accounts, with statutory audit signed by a registered auditor.
→Your first UAE licence: books, VAT and corporate tax from month one
Corporate tax registration, the VAT question and bookkeeping set up in the first month of a new UAE company, on one calendar with the licence.
→An SME trading in the UAE and abroad: two currencies, two VAT treatments
Multi-currency books, VAT on exports and the reverse charge, and management accounts a bank can read, for a UAE SME trading abroad.
→A UAE subsidiary of a foreign group: filings, reporting and the bank
One ledger for a UAE subsidiary: local corporate tax and VAT filings, a group pack in the group's format, and intercompany flows the bank can read.
→
Legal
Legal services
Contracts, corporate documents, disputes and regulatory matters, advised by lawyers licensed to practise in the UAE.
Legal services
Contracts, corporate documents, disputes and regulatory matters, advised by lawyers licensed to practise in the UAE.
→Co-founders papering a shareholders' agreement
What a shareholders' agreement says that the memorandum does not, drafted by a licensed law firm and reconciled with the company's filings.
→
Escrow & transactions
Escrow & transaction management
Funds held in a segregated, regulated escrow account for share purchases, capital raises, holdbacks, paying-agent distributions and property completions.
Escrow & transaction management
Funds held in a segregated, regulated escrow account for share purchases, capital raises, holdbacks, paying-agent distributions and property completions.
→A non-resident buying UAE property without a UAE bank account
How a non-resident completes a UAE property purchase without a UAE bank account: funds held in a regulated escrow account until title transfers.
→Paying many parties on one set of conditions: a paying-agent arrangement
A regulated paying-agent arrangement in a segregated account: the schedule verified, every recipient onboarded, one trigger, every payment recorded.
→
Card payments & POS
Card payments: POS machines, payment links & online checkout
POS machines, payment links and online checkout so your business can accept card payments from customers in the UAE and abroad, arranged with a licensed acquirer.
Card payments: POS machines, payment links & online checkout
POS machines, payment links and online checkout so your business can accept card payments from customers in the UAE and abroad, arranged with a licensed acquirer.
→A shop, café or clinic taking cards at the counter
A POS machine at the counter, arranged with a licensed acquirer: what it reviews on a counter merchant, the settlement account, and how the file is prepared.
→An online store selling in the UAE and abroad
A checkout for UAE and international cards, settling in dirhams: the licence activity, the pages an acquirer reads, and the application prepared for both.
→A service business paid by card through a payment link
Invoices paid by card through a link, from clients in the UAE and abroad, with the settlement, the books and the VAT line agreeing with the invoice.
→A merchant declined or restricted by an acquirer
Why acquirers decline or restrict merchants, what corrects each reason, and how a second application is prepared for an acquirer that fits.
→
Marketing
Marketing & performance marketing
Strategy, brand, digital campaigns and public relations for businesses launching or growing in the UAE.
Marketing & performance marketing
Strategy, brand, digital campaigns and public relations for businesses launching or growing in the UAE.
→Launching a business in the UAE: the go-to-market decisions first
Which activity leads, how to price, which channel and what the brand says, decided from the licence outwards before the first campaign.
→Marketing a regulated business in the UAE: promotion within the rules
Campaigns for a VARA-licensed or otherwise regulated business, built inside the regulator's marketing rules, reviewed and kept on record.
→
Compliance & consulting
Regulatory consulting & fractional roles
VARA licensing advisory, AML/CFT frameworks and risk assessments, and fractional MLRO, compliance, security and finance roles.
Regulatory consulting & fractional roles
VARA licensing advisory, AML/CFT frameworks and risk assessments, and fractional MLRO, compliance, security and finance roles.
→A licensee with an AML framework or review due
An AML/CFT framework built or reviewed against the rulebook and the federal law, gaps closed by risk, and the evidence pack a reviewer asks for.
→A fractional CFO, MLRO, compliance officer or CISO for your company
A senior role filled part-time by an experienced person accountable to your board, scoped in writing and prepared for the regulator's approval.
→Independent directors for a UAE board
Independent non-executive directors for a regulated or investor-backed UAE board, tested for independence, with the board process to match.
→
Crypto OTC
Crypto OTC execution
Large crypto-to-fiat and fiat-to-crypto execution for corporate and private clients, executed on a VARA Broker-Dealer Services licence.
Crypto OTC execution
Large crypto-to-fiat and fiat-to-crypto execution for corporate and private clients, executed on a VARA Broker-Dealer Services licence.
→A company holding virtual assets: banking, books, audit and execution
One file for a company with virtual assets on its balance sheet: a bank that keeps the account, books, an audit prepared for, a licensed desk.
→A private client converting a large crypto position
Execution on a VARA-licensed desk for a private client with a large position, with the file the desk and the bank ask for prepared once.
→
Know your route before you file.
Tell us how you intend to operate and we will identify the questions, structure paths and preparation steps an adviser should assess. It is a planning tool, not legal, tax, immigration or banking advice.