Ras Al Khaimah
Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone: real costs, licences and review
The best balance of price, breadth and credibility outside Dubai.
Our view
RAKEZ was formed in 2017 by merging RAK Free Trade Zone with the RAK Investment Authority, and it is the strongest all-round option in the northern emirates. It covers everything from a single freelancer permit to large industrial plots, and it does so with better infrastructure and a more professional administration than its price band would suggest.
It hosts well over ten thousand companies across more than fifty nationalities, and that scale shows in process quality: applications move, documents come back clean, and the partner channel is properly run.
The trade-off is distance — Ras Al Khaimah is roughly an hour and a half from Dubai — and the usual northern-emirate banking friction, though RAKEZ's size and age make this noticeably easier than from Ajman or UAQ.
Key facts
| Emirate | Ras Al Khaimah |
|---|---|
| Licence from | AED 6,000 |
| Typical cost (1 visa) | AED 11,000 |
| Issuance time | 2–7 working days |
| Visa quota | Unlimited (with office) |
| Flexi-desk | Yes |
| Remote setup | Yes |
| Licence types | Commercial, Professional / service, Industrial, E-commerce, Freelance permit, Educational |
| Established | 2017 |
Official source: rakez.com
Honestly
What works
- Excellent value across the whole size range
- Professional, well-run administration
- Scales from freelancer to factory
- Best northern-emirate banking reception
What doesn't
- 90 minutes from Dubai
- Still not a Dubai address
- Visa processing requires travel to RAK
- Banking harder than from DMCC or Meydan
Who this suits
- SMEs wanting value without the bottom of the market
- Industrial and manufacturing
- Freelancers needing a credible permit
- Trading companies with warehousing
Let's talk about your actual case
A twenty-minute call. We will also tell you if the UAE is the wrong answer for you — it often is.