# Pre-Approval For Freelance Visa



## omar92 (Oct 8, 2013)

Decided to set up a freelance company with Creative City in Fujairah. Once I submitted the initial paperwork for the set-up, was told that 'immigration pre-approval' was required, and would take 20-30 working days to process. This pre-approval is necessary for a number of nationalities, including mine. This is on top of the 4-6 week process required to everything, from getting the trade license to the residence visa stamping.

My question is-does it really take them 20-30 working days to process this pre-approval, or are there cases of the processing period being much shorter? 

Been living in the UAE for 12 years, and my security clearance for my residence visa would always take half a day, just a few hours really. This step potentially adds 4-6 weeks to an already long process. Worth noting that I was not advised that pre-approval would take this long during the initial round of emails regarding the set-up process. 

Any tips and comments on dealing with Creative City, or expediting things later on (i.e. opting for 'urgent') would be most welcome =)


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## Chocoholic (Oct 29, 2012)

I went with UAQ FZE instead. Creative Zone seemed unnecessarily complicated and costly. Also I got a company to do EVERYTHING for me, for a fee, but well worth it. All done and dusted in just over a month.

I don't know about pre-approval as I didn't require that. But I;m guessing it varies from emirate to emirate and you just have to wait it out.


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## omar92 (Oct 8, 2013)

Thanks for the quick reply. 
Can I know how much you paid to do it through UAQ FZ? Fujairah quoted me 30,000 for the first year including the visa. 

I decided not to do it through an agent as the process seemed straightforward and am familiar with how things are done here (or so I like to tell myself!) as opposed to someone just moving here.


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## Chocoholic (Oct 29, 2012)

It wasn't that much. I paid a company 5k to do everything for me. Including that money and TWO visas I think we paid around 30k. So if you do it yourself it'll be cheaper.


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## Iosta (Jul 10, 2015)

DMCC free zone has higher chances for immigration approval for Egypt nationals but it is more expensive


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Iosta said:


> DMCC free zone has higher chances for immigration approval for Egypt nationals but it is more expensive


How does that work then?
Surely all the freezones get the immigration approval from the same source?


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## omar92 (Oct 8, 2013)

@ Chocoholic-UAQ FZ has different 'tiers' for their freelance/consultancy packages. The field I want to work in is listed as a 'premium consultancy', the fees for which are 35k. The 'general consultancy' fields (which I presume you are registered under) is around 25k, without an agent. That's why I was surprised at the figure you quoted, and had to take a look at the emails I sent to UAQ a while back to understand why there was a difference in the pricing. 

@ Iosta-While DMCC may be 'easier' for Egyptians, they do not offer consultancy/freelance licenses. 

@ Stevesolar-I also think the immigration/security approval is from the same source (i.e. federal) but wouldn't be surprised if different emirates/entities within the same emirate have different ways of applying for this approval. Although immigration is a federal affair, we all know in practice there can be a lot of differences. 

Emailed the UAQ FZ yesterday, and was told pre-approval for Egyptians takes 10-15 working days with them. Half the time quoted by Fujairah. Hopefully clearance will come through soon, as I'm not exactly applying for a research position in nuclear physics.


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## Iosta (Jul 10, 2015)

@ Iosta-While DMCC may be 'easier' for Egyptians, they do not offer consultancy/freelance licenses. 

I think DMCC offers consultancy business license but not freelancer meaning you can do your consultancy business from within the free zone area but not from your home(freelancer)


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