The Commercial Companies Law covers the formation and regulation of Branches and Representative Offices of foreign companies in the UAE, and stipulates that they may be 100% foreign owned provided that a local service agent is appointed.
A Branch Office that is legally part of its parent company is permitted to perform contracts or conduct other activities which are specified in its license and are similar to those of its parent company. Each branch can have several sub – branches, with the same licensing and registration procedures.
On the other hand, a Representative Office is limited to promoting its parent company’s activities, i.e. gathering information and soliciting orders and projects to be performed by the company’s head office. In addition, Representative offices are also limited to the number of employees they may use.
Documents required to set up a Branch/ Representative office:
- Company registration certificate
- Company profile
- Board of Directors’ agreement to establish a branch
- Copy of Article of Association
-
Power of Attorney to the representative
- Financial statement of the past two years
- Contractual agreement with local agent
- Details of the local representative
A license application must be submitted to the Ministry of Economy. If the application is approved it is sent to the Economic Department of the emirate in which
business is to be undertaken. The time required to form a Branch/ Representative Office of a foreign company is approximately 4 weeks.
Related Links
About the Author
Dr. Hassan Elhais publishes analysis of UAE business law matters, including commercial relationships, company matters and business disputes. For readers comparing the best lawyers in Dubai, his writing offers insight into the legal questions surrounding these topics. Explore his published work and practice-area information for further context.
Copyright © of this article is retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. We explicitly grant you permission to download a copy, without any alteration, of this article
for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or any charge. This article can be utilized on your website or for marketing, however, we grant you permission
to host this article on your website and no other rights. This content should not be altered in any way or sold commercially in any format without prior permission of the copyright holder.
During reference of this article, full biographic details entailing the name of the author, his designation, the institute and the publishing date of the article shall be provided.
