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How to eSign a document: online signature legality for businesses in UAE

hello everyone I'm Mabel and welcome back to my YouTube channel where I'm helping you live your best life in the United Arab Emirates now I did a video six months ago about all about my journey of setting up a free zone business in the UAE and I did not expect to get so many questions and to be able to help so many people so I really wanted to reshoot it with way more detail and way more information so if you're looking to find out what a free zone is how you can set one up what the benefits are and things to look out for from my personal kind of Journey doing it um then you're in the right place this is what we're going to go through in this video okay let's start with the basics what even is a free zone now maybe you're doing lots of your in for research at the moment but I really want to make this video accessible to anyone even if you have absolutely no idea where to start so a free zone is an area in which a foreign business can operate and benefit from certain advantages so it's an area where it's got certain rules basically I want to explain this like beginner's English you know I don't want to over complicate things I know that all of you could go away and Google what is a Dubai free zone but it's literally an area that kind of has its own rules and there's so many benefits from operating your business from within a free zone the first of which is because it's easy to set up I'll talk more about the setting up process anyway so there's a lot of um kind of reasons that you might be attracted to living in Dubai or starting a business in Dubai part of which is the lifestyle that comes with here but you can also operate and manage your business virtually if that's something you're looking for so yes Dubai is a popular destination to start a business whatever that business may be it's got a location which is kind of in the middle of the world if you like it makes it really easy to travel to a lot of countries um it's got business friendly policies it's um got a kind of I want to say a supportive environment and an entrepreneurial environment I think there's a lot of people starting businesses here so I think for a lot of these reasons you might be wondering about starting business in Dubai or in or somewhere in the UAE I'm saying Dubai but this actually applies to a lot of areas in the UAE now if you you've probably heard that if you're starting a business in Dubai then you'll need to have you know a majority owned by emirati national now with a free zone this is not the case so that is a big one okay this is 100 foreign ownership so you as an expat or as an investor can fully own your business and this is the case with me you know I fully own my free zone business and I don't need to have an MRT National um you know kind of part owning the business it's all me let's talk about the benefits of using a free zone as opposed to a Mainland business now I know a lot of people will be searching for the tax regulations in the UAE and that's probably the reason you're even looking into this so within a free zone you do have um very low taxes you're pretty much exempt from those types of taxes that includes value-added tax that includes corporate tax and that includes income tax so you can also enjoy 100 repatriation of your profits and capital um 100 of it so such a major benefit for setting up your business in a free zone I think this is you know this is my personal opinion is the UAE he really wants business owners to come and start business they're making it very very attractive for business owners to invest in the UAE and to come and start their business in the UAE like I said at the start of the video you don't need a local service agent to part own your business or anything like that and the process is actually surprisingly easy although I'm going to put little asterisks on that it's easy depending on where what free zone you're using right so there's I think there's over 40 different free zones in the UAE and for those of you that didn't watch my video that I made six months ago I want to tell you about the journey that I've had with starting a free zone business in the UAE so basically I started the whole process I picked a free zone and I picked it because it was the most cost effective right I picked the cheapest one out there and it was one called rack easy and that's based in Ras alcamer which is an Emirate it's about an hour's drive from Dubai it happened to be where I was living at the time so I picked that one and like I said I picked it because it was extremely low cost and it was the best price I could find I wish someone had told me that you pay for what you get and ultimately I had to completely close that business with them because they I they didn't give me the full information about or that I needed in order to hire employees sponsor employees have an office it was very very confusing and they essentially said I had to rent this big office space if I wanted to have employees which is that's not what my business needs I need um virtual or co-working so I eventually found that with SPC another free zone and I have had a great experience with them so what the mistakes that I made that I really want people to avoid when you're on this journey yourself is not knowing the right questions to ask okay so I it's not that they lied to me it's more that I had no idea I was trying to find the information on YouTube okay so I had no idea that I needed to um hire an office when I would eventually grow my business so everything was fine until it got to the point where I was ready to hire my first employee and then they said I needed to hire this expensive office space in the middle of the desert and I wanted to go see it and it was horrendous and it was something I would never ever use I work online anyway I don't want to go off on a time and too much about this nightmare that I had um there was also another issue that I had with them is that they didn't tell me properly how to approach the process of my Visa renewal which resulted in me being fined unknowingly obviously I'm you know at the time I was literally 22 and I've never done this before I really needed a bit of hand holding to be honest and I know I did but at the time you know I simply didn't know what I did know so that being said I then closed my free zone business with rock easy reopened with this you know with the same name and everything with a completely different free zone um that I found and actually when I was speaking to them they said that they had also heard a lot of negative experiences about this free zone in Massacre so you know I'm not saying that every single free zone is perfect definitely definitely not I think you've got to do your own research and find what's right for you what's really interesting is that they have different free zones with different kind of special specializations so they've got um you know Sports specializations Healthcare and so depending on your industry you'll probably be able to find a free zone that can really support you specifically that being said don't let um you know for example charge a publishing City and you're not and you're not in publishing don't think that you can't use that reason because you will actually have three different business activities on your business license that's pretty much standard all of the quotes that I got gave you three different business activities okay so mine for example I have advertising I work in marketing I have um retail sales mail order houses or via internet which is basically e-commerce and then I also have a web portals that's incredibly vague so that's a lot of online kind of stuff in media that I can legally operate as in the UAE so let's go through the steps that you will need to take in order to set up your free zone business in the UAE number one you are going to research and find your best reason that is best suited to you like I said I can give you a great recommendation and I would be more than happy to refer you to the agent that helped me so so helpful I've actually helps at least seven or eight people I think since my last YouTube video I'd be more than happy to connect you to them like I said they've been absolutely great they answer literally I sent them an email this morning to do some research for this video and they answered me within two minutes honestly they are so so attentive and that is what I need I need you know I don't want to be chasing up people I don't want to you know I want to be able to have a conversation with someone that can speak English and that I can really understand and feel safe you know so yeah I've had a great experience with them so number one you're going to research and you're going to choose your free zone you're probably going to take my recommendation for example then they're going to be able to give you a quote for your business and yes it will vary on a couple of different things how many employees do you have what are what is your business activity and what are you doing so I can give you my exact breakdown and actually I did this in my past video if you're interested in that so go and look at that if you want to see and that was obviously one employee at the time um and mine has now increased now that I've got three employees so I've got four Visa license and the good thing about SPC is that you can have up to six without the need to hire an office so this is perfect for me because I'm an online business and we co-work um so after you've done that you're then going to register the business and you need to choose a name that nobody else has and that's appropriate you can't use things like Dubai in the name or something like that and there's a few different regulations which they'll be able to help you with I for example have just used my name then you're going to be able to do all the paperwork now the best thing about using your free zone um company that is you know come recommended is that they will literally help you through every step of the way so you will just need to provide your details whether you've got a Visa at the moment if you're watching here from the UAE or if you're wherever you are in the world you will also need to apply for a Visa now that's kind of a separate process and usually they are billed separately so you'll have your Visa which lasts three years and then you'll have your business license which is usually on a yearly basis although you can do it longer and save some money I pay mine yearly personally and yeah it's literally a case of paperwork and filling in forms and they will help you through every step of the way now another thing this is something else I got so many questions about last time and that is about the bank situation now let me tell you when I was with the foreign they had partnered with a bank in rattle camera and then literally like what I can imagine banking was like 20 years ago like it's such a it's such a like dinosaur bank so I don't recommend them and I've actually just opened a new new bank account um and I'm going to show you and I've actually just opened a new what's that famous thing and I've actually just opened a new um bank account with a bank called wio or Wyo I don't really know how you say it but um I saw an advert then come up and I thought interesting there's not many internet banks in the UAE so immediately I clicked on it realized it was for businesses and I already knew that I wasn't really satisfied with rack Bank my business bank account um side note background it took ages for me to set it up it was so so just it was just not a good process and I've heard so many other horror stories of people literally taking months and months and months which was the case for me with this it literally was like within a week they replied on WhatsApp they're very very attentive again this is the kind of service that I kind of won and look for so that's why I'm recommending it to you guys so definitely just search that on the App Store you can apply within the app and you will need your Emirates ID for that so you'll have to set up your freezer first your free zone will help you do that and then you can apply for your bank account if you are also looking to open a personal bank account then you will also need your Emirates ID for this interestingly my job title on my Visa now that I am the owner of freezing company is investor and I have heard that some banks in the UAE won't offer you a personal credit card with the title investor so I asked SPC if this was if they can confirm this they said that you can get a personal credit card in the UAE with an investor visa um but it's subjects to the bank approval so that depends on which bank personally I use Emirates MBD but I got my credit card before I was an investor and it was when I worked full-time at a Mainland company so I don't have experient personal experience for you but I did do some research with SBC and they told me that you can so I hope that's helpful another thing to note if you've got an investor visa and you want to be managing the business from your home country is that you you can only say I'm literally reading the email that I got from SPC this morning because I wanted to fact check this for you so as an investor you can stay up to 359 days outside the UAE so bear that in mind if you're planning to manage your business totally remotely and if you're not planning on being here in the UAE while you're managing your business okay I've actually got a list of the things that you'll need when you start your application and I wanted to mention that as well in case you'll find that useful so you will need a copy of your passport and you will also need a copy of your Visa if you've got that already or if it's in process you'll need your e-visa you'll also need an application form which you'll get from SPC you'll also need a business plan and some of your previous experience so for example for me I remember the first time around I needed to submit my CV my kind of work experience that I have in my area and kind of a plan of what I'd plan to be doing for me for anyone that's interested I have a social media marketing agency and I've been working in social media for four and a half years prior to slightly business so I essentially just told them that and that was enough so I wouldn't stress too much on that you'll also need a board resolution that's if you've got um multiple shareholders and then you also need a memorandum and articles of Association now if if I'm speaking gibberish to you honestly don't worry because that was me as well they will help you do everything most things just need your signature it's new documentation that you might not even have already so don't stress now with the free zone that I used you will get your license same day that's how long it takes it's same day one of the things that so many people ask is how long does it take and you will you can get your license as soon as you pay for it same day but you bear in mind your Visa it might take a little bit longer because well it will actually you can't get a same day Visa unless you like royalty I think so your Visa will take up to a few weeks so if you're planning to uh you know come to Divine operate from here your Visa will take a while but they do offer same-day licenses let me just check that but yeah they have an article I just wanted to factor that because I was like I swear I don't mind the same day how to get your business trade license in just two hours this is what they posted so it's incredible um just put me at DM because I can refer them to you connected with that I use so so so helpful um help me every step of the way um and if you want to see my full breakdown of course you can go watch it in my other video um but for now that's all I have for you and I'll see you in the next video bye guys