Hi everyone,
willing to give OCT back a little of the wisdom gained over the years of being around here, through my own recent experience.
I don't know exactly how, but I ended up a while back landing on this short (lol) thread: https://www.offshorecorptalk.com/threads/sharjah-publishing-city-spc-free-zone-any-experience.42971/ . It just piqued my curiosity in that in my time in the UAE I've always considered both Sharjah and Ajman good candidates to establish oneself in, as they are cheaper and if you're not into fancy things, they have almost every bit of daily life (+ universities) covered. Thus, having to look for a new residency program for myself (as the partnership that got me sponsored in the first place got wounded up), I decided to do a bit of a research on Sharjah's Publishing City Freezone (https://spcfz.ae).
Their offer was quite compelling: (all figures in AED (1$ = 3.675AED) - Setup (all-in): 13,175 (including E-channel registration, 2-year Visa, Office, Emirates ID and Bank account opening). On top of that, I chose to pay 2,150 for the VIP Medical (where they picked me up at my residence, drove me in luxury to the Medical Test Center and drove me back to my place, having the results emailed in less than 4 hours). On top of that, I paid 1,200 for a yearly of bookkeeping (first 30 annotations free) plus the handling of all corporate tax matters. Finally, I also paid 1,200 for the compulsory yearly personal insurance for 1 director. All in all, I was looking at a bill for 17,725 (less than $5K). So I decided to give them a call and explore further. On that call, I was even reassured that everything would be done online and that in less than 3 weeks (!) it would be completed. Considering that the same amount of services + extras + timeline using any "reputable" corporate service provider over there would cost me no less than 25K, I decided to move forward.
Bear in mind that despite being a "publishing" Freezone (aimed mainly at book and magazine editorials), it now covers most liberal professions + some engineering and technical works + construction and ancillary services + consultancy + (perhaps the most important) IT and eCommerce (generally and vaguely, with many greys included). Since my own service is specialized online consultancy, they include it in the "other IT and eCommerce solutions" and it works fine.
After having paid the bulk of the invoice for the company registration + initial setup, I (stupidly) chose to check them out over at TrustPilot (https://www.trustpilot.com/review/spcfz.ae). What I read there sent a chill through my spine. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Horror story after horror story. And yet, to me, it all looked smooth and silk! Where the h*ll were those bad reviews coming from? I'll never know. What I can say, though, is that after my experience with the SPC Freezone team, TrustPilot is over for me as a reliable source to check on any company's business reviews.
Long-story short, in less than 3 weeks, like clockwork, I had it all done, bar the bank account, which I didn't anyway push for (I know they will get it for me if I do), because after receiving my ID, I was able to very quickly open with both Wio (FAB's digital bank) and Mashreq Biz (the elusive one for my previous venture). So that box is now also ticked off. Note: Wio costs 99AED/month to run, Mashreq is free of monthly fees if you keep over 10K balance, which is pretty doable.
I also engaged with both IFZA (who offer free lifetime visa renewal -obviously, at the expense of having the company renewal cost increased-) and the Meydan FZone, who offer similar packages, but all things considered, I wouldn't change them for the service received at SPC. The need for CSPs in Dubai is over for anyone who isn't a crazy lazy a*s and is willing to spend very few of his time to get things done. I didn't like the CSP idea before (having even been in touch with some who advertise in here and who have their own magical setups which of course aren't meant for me, apparently), even less so now with the digital UAE systems, which get your transfers (within the country) executed in less than 2 minutes and get business done in an instant if -of course- you're not showing any red flags.
I hope you find this helpful and may be of use. If you want to ask anything or comment (if you've dealt with the SPC yourself), please feel free. DMs NOT allowed, anything to be said out here in the open for everyone to read.
NVO
willing to give OCT back a little of the wisdom gained over the years of being around here, through my own recent experience.
I don't know exactly how, but I ended up a while back landing on this short (lol) thread: https://www.offshorecorptalk.com/threads/sharjah-publishing-city-spc-free-zone-any-experience.42971/ . It just piqued my curiosity in that in my time in the UAE I've always considered both Sharjah and Ajman good candidates to establish oneself in, as they are cheaper and if you're not into fancy things, they have almost every bit of daily life (+ universities) covered. Thus, having to look for a new residency program for myself (as the partnership that got me sponsored in the first place got wounded up), I decided to do a bit of a research on Sharjah's Publishing City Freezone (https://spcfz.ae).
Their offer was quite compelling: (all figures in AED (1$ = 3.675AED) - Setup (all-in): 13,175 (including E-channel registration, 2-year Visa, Office, Emirates ID and Bank account opening). On top of that, I chose to pay 2,150 for the VIP Medical (where they picked me up at my residence, drove me in luxury to the Medical Test Center and drove me back to my place, having the results emailed in less than 4 hours). On top of that, I paid 1,200 for a yearly of bookkeeping (first 30 annotations free) plus the handling of all corporate tax matters. Finally, I also paid 1,200 for the compulsory yearly personal insurance for 1 director. All in all, I was looking at a bill for 17,725 (less than $5K). So I decided to give them a call and explore further. On that call, I was even reassured that everything would be done online and that in less than 3 weeks (!) it would be completed. Considering that the same amount of services + extras + timeline using any "reputable" corporate service provider over there would cost me no less than 25K, I decided to move forward.
Bear in mind that despite being a "publishing" Freezone (aimed mainly at book and magazine editorials), it now covers most liberal professions + some engineering and technical works + construction and ancillary services + consultancy + (perhaps the most important) IT and eCommerce (generally and vaguely, with many greys included). Since my own service is specialized online consultancy, they include it in the "other IT and eCommerce solutions" and it works fine.
After having paid the bulk of the invoice for the company registration + initial setup, I (stupidly) chose to check them out over at TrustPilot (https://www.trustpilot.com/review/spcfz.ae). What I read there sent a chill through my spine. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Horror story after horror story. And yet, to me, it all looked smooth and silk! Where the h*ll were those bad reviews coming from? I'll never know. What I can say, though, is that after my experience with the SPC Freezone team, TrustPilot is over for me as a reliable source to check on any company's business reviews.
Long-story short, in less than 3 weeks, like clockwork, I had it all done, bar the bank account, which I didn't anyway push for (I know they will get it for me if I do), because after receiving my ID, I was able to very quickly open with both Wio (FAB's digital bank) and Mashreq Biz (the elusive one for my previous venture). So that box is now also ticked off. Note: Wio costs 99AED/month to run, Mashreq is free of monthly fees if you keep over 10K balance, which is pretty doable.
I also engaged with both IFZA (who offer free lifetime visa renewal -obviously, at the expense of having the company renewal cost increased-) and the Meydan FZone, who offer similar packages, but all things considered, I wouldn't change them for the service received at SPC. The need for CSPs in Dubai is over for anyone who isn't a crazy lazy a*s and is willing to spend very few of his time to get things done. I didn't like the CSP idea before (having even been in touch with some who advertise in here and who have their own magical setups which of course aren't meant for me, apparently), even less so now with the digital UAE systems, which get your transfers (within the country) executed in less than 2 minutes and get business done in an instant if -of course- you're not showing any red flags.
I hope you find this helpful and may be of use. If you want to ask anything or comment (if you've dealt with the SPC yourself), please feel free. DMs NOT allowed, anything to be said out here in the open for everyone to read.
NVO
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