Home business licence: RAK, Fujairah and UAQ fees

What is the home business licence in Ras Al Khaimah?

It is Al Ghad, in Arabic رخصة الغد, rendered on RAK DED's own English page as "Alghad License". The Department of Economic Development in Ras Al Khaimah launched it in 2007 so people could run a commercial activity from home at low cost until they were ready for a shop. Applications went to the Business Development Department, which assessed each one on its merits.

What RAK published

Fees, as last published by RAK DED:

AED 1,000 to issue, including the trade name reservation
AED 800 a year to renew
AED 10 to cancel, and AED 10 a month as a fine if you let it expire
Amendments charged at ordinary licence rates

Conditions:

You must be 18 or over
Al Ghad must be your first venture. You may not already hold a commercial licence
The home must be inside the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah
Two licences per home, maximum
No employees. Labour may not be sponsored on an Al Ghad licence
Up to three harmonised activities on one licence
You must own the home or live in it, with the landlord's written consent if you rent
No nuisance to neighbours, no parking congestion, no animals, no hazardous or flammable materials
Nobody may run the licensing procedure for you under a power of attorney

Documents: initial approval from the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship, a passport copy, a valid Emirates ID, proof of ownership or a tenancy contract with a no objection letter from the landlord, and a health card for food activities.

The published activity list was heavily food: hot and cold beverages, retail chocolate and sweets, traditional confectionery, hospitality services, cafeteria and snack sales, pastries and pies, spices, olives and pickles, honey, jam, date packing, and e-trading in foodstuffs at retail. RAK DED ran a second home-based licence from 2018, the Virtual Trader licence (رخصة التاجر الافتراضي), for businesses run through social media, websites and apps. Same fees, three licences per home rather than two, and three extra conditions: fixed working hours, no large-scale storage or transport of goods, no acting as agent for anyone else.

Why you cannot rely on those figures today

Everything above comes from RAK DED pages archived on 19 January 2021. Those pages are gone from the live site. The live services catalogue, last updated on 15 January 2025, lists four services: start a new business, manage a business, manage a trade name, request a certificate. None is Al Ghad. The licensing page, last updated on 26 December 2022, describes three legal forms and publishes no fees.

So whether Al Ghad is still issued in 2026 cannot be established from any live official source, and no cancellation notice was published. Check the current rule with RAK DED before you budget anything. Our guide to home business licences across the UAE covers the better documented emirates.

How do you apply for a home business licence in Fujairah?

Through Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality, where the service is live today. The licence is Mashroui, رخصة مشروعي, "My Project", filed under commercial licences.

Fee to issue: AED 100. That is the only fee the municipality publishes
Attachments: Emirates ID, passport, health card, plot plan, lease contract
Steps: reserve a trade name that has not expired, apply, fill in the form, attach the documents, confirm
Health card: AED 50 new or renewed, at Al Sharq Medical Centre or Salama Medical Centre, with a photo, medical examination, passport, trade licence and Emirates ID

There is a cancellation service, with no fee published and no documents required. There is no renewal card and no renewal fee published, even though the municipality counts renewals: 43 home licences in one year, 25 new and 18 renewals (the municipality's release does not name the year), and 10 new and 9 renewed, part of 2,414 licences the municipality completed in the first half of 2022.

Food is the point of the scheme. The municipality describes Mashroui as an initiative under which food is sold from homes and marketed through social media. Inspectors visit and check where food is prepared: sanitation, temperatures at receipt, preparation and display, cross contamination and pest control. Zero health violations were recorded across those 43 licences, and most holders are women working from home.

If you live in Fujairah city rather than Dibba

Here the official record contradicts itself. Fujairah Municipality's 2023 services guide runs to 252 cards and has none for issuing, renewing or cancelling Mashroui, and its economic licence cards publish no fee at all, on the basis that fees follow the activities. The emirate's Rukhsati portal lists seven services, none home based. Yet the same guide prices a Ramadan market permit specifically for Mashroui holders at AED 150, against AED 500 for ordinary licence holders and AED 200 for farm owners, so the city clearly treats them as a class of customer. Either the municipality issues the licence without publishing it, or Fujairah city residents go through Dibba. No official source resolves it. Ask both.

Does Umm Al Quwain have a home business licence?

Not one that is published anywhere. The Department of Economic Development in Umm Al Quwain lists permits only: discounts, clearance, promotional campaigns, billboards, trading after hours, kiosks, warehouses, trade name reservation. Alongside them sit two licensing guides, one promising data on expected fees, documents and external approvals. Both link to the same file, and that file is a two page placeholder whose entire text content is the word "TEST". The site footer reads "last updated 1 July 2017". The emirate's main portal and its municipality subdomain currently return server errors or fail to connect, so there is no municipal catalogue either.

That is an absence of publication, not a documented rule. No official UAQ source names a home business licence, and none says there is not one. u.ae, the federal platform, has no home based business page for any emirate. Do not plan around a figure from a consultancy blog. Telephone UAQ DED, ask what a resident may run from home, and ask for the answer in writing.

What does a food business need on top of the licence?

In RAK, a food application went to the Public Health Department at the municipality for prior approval before the licence could issue, and a health card from that department was required. In Fujairah, the health card is one of the five attachments, and inspectors visit. UAQ publishes nothing.

None of the three publishes a written standard for preparing food at home, an inspection schedule, or a list of foods you may not sell. Nor does any of them say whether you may sell through a marketplace or a delivery app, who carries responsibility for the food in transit, or whether a separate distribution permit is needed. If delivery is part of your plan, put the question to your issuing authority in writing, and read our guide to delivery for a home business for how the options compare.

Can a resident who is not a UAE national hold one?

No official source answers this cleanly, and two of them contradict themselves on the same page.

Ras Al Khaimah. The Al Ghad introduction says the licence opened an opportunity for citizens. The binding conditions set no nationality condition, and the documents list asks for a passport plus a valid Emirates ID, which every legal resident holds.
Fujairah. Dibba's Arabic card says Mashroui is dedicated to citizens residing in the Emirate of Fujairah. The English version of the identical card says only that it issues a licence to practise an activity at home, with no nationality restriction.
Umm Al Quwain. Silent.

Treat the question as open. Go to the counter, state your residency status plainly, and get the answer in writing before you pay for a trade name.

How do the three emirates compare?

	Ras Al Khaimah	Fujairah	Umm Al Quwain
Licence name	Al Ghad, رخصة الغد	Mashroui, رخصة مشروعي	None published
Issuing authority	RAK Department of Economic Development	Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality	UAQ Department of Economic Development
Fee to issue	AED 1,000, includes trade name	AED 100	Not published
Fee to renew	AED 800 a year	Not published	Not published
Validity	Not published	Not published	Not published
Employees	Not permitted	Not published	Not published
Food activities	Yes, with prior Public Health Department approval and a health card	Yes, the core use case, health card required	Not published
Source live today	No, archived to 19 January 2021	Yes	Site last updated 1 July 2017

Fujairah is the cheapest published route by a wide margin, and the only one you can verify on a live government page today. A blank in that table is a question for the counter, not a gap for a blog to fill.

Once licensing is settled, the next questions are what to charge and where to sell. Our pricing guide covers the first. KLU is free to join, with no listing, subscription or setup fees. You get a storefront link to share, buyers order on iOS, Android or the web, and you choose pickup or delivery with the buyer paying the delivery fee at checkout. KLU takes 5% commission on completed orders plus 2% card processing, and pays out weekly to a UAE bank account. Onboarding is in English and Arabic. Your licence stays between you and your emirate's authority.

Frequently asked questions

Is the RAK Al Ghad licence still being issued?

Nobody outside RAK DED can say. The information page and the application form were both removed from the live site without notice, and the last archived captures date from 2021. The live services catalogue lists four services and none is Al Ghad. Ring RAK DED before you assume either way.

How much does a home business licence cost in the northern emirates?

Fujairah publishes AED 100 to issue through Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality, plus AED 50 for the health card. RAK last published AED 1,000 to issue and AED 800 a year to renew, on pages archived in January 2021. Umm Al Quwain publishes no fee for any licence or permit.

How long is the licence valid for?

No official source in the three emirates states a validity term. RAK's renewal fee is described as annual, which implies a year, but the page never says so. Dibba publishes no validity for Mashroui and no renewal card. Ask when you apply.

Can I hire someone to help me?

In RAK the rule was explicit: labour may not be sponsored on an Al Ghad licence. Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain publish no rule either way, which is not the same as permission. Ask the issuing authority in writing first.

Can I sell through a delivery app or an online marketplace?

No official source in RAK, Fujairah or Umm Al Quwain answers this. RAK's Virtual Trader licence was built for businesses run through social media, websites and apps, so online selling was expected, but its conditions also ban large-scale storage and transport of goods without defining that scale. Ask your issuing authority to confirm in writing what your licence permits.

Sources

Last verified: 24 August 2026.