Free Zone Amendment Fees Compared 2026: Name Change, Share Transfer, Manager Change

Published free zone amendment fees diverge far more than most owners expect. A manager change costs USD 100 at Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and AED 1,515 at Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC). A name change or share transfer reaches AED 4,515 at DMCC but is still USD 100 at ADGM, while Meydan Free Zone charges one flat AED 2,000 that falls to AED 0 when the change is filed at renewal.

What are free zone amendment fees, and when do they apply?

Free zone amendment fees are the charges an authority levies when a registered company changes something the registry holds on file. Every free zone company is incorporated with a fixed set of records: its Articles of Association, its Memorandum of Association, its trade licence, and a register of shareholders, directors, managers and authorised signatories. Change any of those and the registry has to record the update and reissue the affected documents, which is what the fee pays for.

The triggering events are predictable: a trade name change, a share transfer, an increase or decrease in share capital, the appointment or removal of a manager, director or secretary, the addition or removal of a business activity, and a change of registered address. Less obvious ones also carry a tariff at some zones, including a change of financial year end and an amalgamation of two entities.

The practical risk of a stale record is rarely a fine. It is that banks, the Federal Tax Authority and immigration counters all read the registry copy, so a licence naming a manager who left a year ago quietly blocks routine requests. For the mechanics rather than the price, see our guide to amend a UAE company MOA.

Free zone amendment fees compared: name change, share transfer, manager change

Set the three published schedules side by side and the divergence is structural, not incremental. DMCC itemises, so an ownership change costs three times what an officer change costs. ADGM flattens, so almost every event-driven notice is the same USD 100. Meydan bundles, charging one amendment fee whatever the change happens to be.

The gap is widest on the two amendments owners make most often. A company name change or a share transfer costs AED 4,515 per request at DMCC, plus the AED 20 Knowledge and Innovation Dirham fee applied to every charge on that schedule. Both filings cost USD 100 at ADGM. Meydan charges AED 2,000, or AED 0 at renewal. On one share transfer that is a spread of roughly AED 4,150 across the three.

Officer changes are priced differently again. DMCC charges AED 1,515 for a change of manager and the same AED 1,515 for a change of director, secretary or legal representative. ADGM charges USD 100 for a notice of appointment or cessation of any of them. For the procedural side of these two changes, see our UAE free zone company name change guide and our breakdown of the share transfer process for a free zone company.

Why the same amendment costs four times more at one zone than another

There is no federal tariff for corporate governance changes. Each free zone sets its own schedule, and the differences in free zone amendment fees follow from three genuinely different pricing philosophies rather than from one zone being expensive and another cheap.

The first is the itemised tariff, which DMCC uses. Each transaction is priced by the depth of registry work it creates. Equity transfers and rebrands sit at AED 4,515 because they touch the constitutional documents and require compliance screening of incoming parties; an officer swap sits at AED 1,515 because it does not. The logic is coherent, but it means the cost of a restructuring depends heavily on which specific filings it decomposes into.

The second is the flat filing fee, which ADGM uses. As a common law financial centre, its priority is a register that is accurate and current, so nearly every event-driven notice is priced at USD 100 and several cost nothing at all. Where ADGM does charge seriously, it is not for paperwork but for supervision: moving a licence from Category C to Category B costs USD 3,100, and Category B to Category A costs USD 11,300.

The third is the bundled amendment fee, which Meydan uses. One AED 2,000 charge covers a formation or licence amendment whatever it contains, and the printed rule is that the fee applies only once where a formation and licence amendment are made together. For a company making several changes at once this is the cheapest of the three models by a wide margin; for a company making one small change mid-term it is the most expensive of the three relative to the work involved.

The DMCC line items most owners miss

The headline figures are only part of a DMCC restructuring bill. The schedule carries a second tier of registration charges that a single amendment often pulls in behind it, and every one of them attracts the same AED 20 Knowledge and Innovation Dirham fee.

An ownership change usually requires adopting updated Articles of Association: AED 2,015 for the standard form, AED 3,015 for a non-standard draft. If the deal also moves capital, an increase or decrease is AED 4,515, and an increase that brings in a new shareholder is AED 7,224. A transaction described in one sentence at the negotiating table lands as three separate line items.

Personal-detail updates are chargeable too: a change of name, nationality or address on legal documents costs AED 1,515 for an officer and AED 2,015 for a shareholder. One consolidation rule is worth reading closely. Where the shareholder is also a DMSL, the schedule states that only one charge of AED 2,015 applies and all amendments are done at once, which can be the difference between one fee and several. Confirm with the registry whether a given structure qualifies before filing changes separately.

Timing is the biggest lever on cost

Of every variable that moves the total, the filing date is the one owners control and most often ignore. Whether it saves anything depends entirely on which pricing model the zone runs.

At Meydan the saving is total and explicit. A formation or licence amendment filed mid-term is AED 2,000; the same amendment filed at renewal is AED 0, printed on the price list as amendment is free of cost at renewal. For a company holding two or three non-urgent changes, waiting for the renewal window removes the authority fee entirely.

At DMCC the date is irrelevant: a share transfer is AED 4,515 and a manager change AED 1,515 whenever they are filed. The only lever left there is bundling, which avoids paying for the same certified copies twice.

Delay carries its own price. The ADGM schedule states that event-driven filings apply upon execution of the event, and that timely filing as per the Regulations is required to avoid a late filing fee or fine. The USD 100 headline is therefore the cost of filing on time; filing late is a separate and unpublished number. A share transfer left unrecorded for months turns a routine notice into an enforcement question. The same logic governs licence dates generally, covered in our analysis of late renewal penalties by zone.

Compare UAE Freezone costs instantly → Use our zone cost comparison to see what each authority charges before you commit to a licence.

What an amendment actually triggers downstream

The registry fee is the first cost, not the last. A change of manager, address, owner or activity propagates into immigration, tax and banking records, and each of those updates has its own price and its own queue.

Immigration records go first, because a stale establishment card stops visa processing outright. Meydan prices an immigration card amendment at AED 2,000, a residence visa amendment at AED 850, and a visa transfer between companies at AED 2,000. Employment contracts naming the outgoing manager as signatory are AED 350 each. On a company with fifteen staff, that line alone exceeds the registry fee that started the process.

Tax records follow, since a Federal Tax Authority record that no longer matches the licence obstructs filings and refunds; Meydan lists a VAT registration amendment at AED 1,500. Banks come last and move slowest, because compliance teams want certified copies of the amended licence, the share certificates and the constitutional documents before touching the mandate. Certified copies cost AED 215 per document at DMCC and USD 100 at ADGM.

Where a restructuring ends in closing an entity rather than amending it, the same published-versus-quoted split applies to exit fees, which we set out in our guide to free zone company closure cost.

Indicative amendment fees at the volume zones

DMCC, ADGM and Meydan publish. Most of the high-volume zones do not, quoting amendment charges inside a package instead. The figures below are indicative advisory market quotes rather than published authority tariffs, so treat them as a budgeting range to confirm with the zone, never as a schedule.

At the International Free Zone Authority (IFZA), advisory quotes cluster around AED 2,000 per amendment, covering a shareholder change, an activity change or a manager change, and amendments are generally not charged when made at renewal. That is the same shape as the Meydan model, at roughly the same price.

Shams is indicatively quoted at AED 2,000 to AED 2,200 per amendment, and RAKEZ at AED 1,000 to AED 2,000 depending on the type of change. The useful conclusion is not the individual number but the clustering: outside DMCC, the market has largely converged on a flat charge of roughly AED 2,000 per amendment.

How to budget for a free zone amendment in 2026

Budgeting an amendment well comes down to four checks, applied before anything is submitted.

• Decompose the change into filings. Adding a shareholder can mean a share transfer, a capital increase, an Articles adoption and a set of certified copies. Price the filings, not the intention.
• Ask whether filings consolidate. DMCC prints a rule alongside its Share Transfer line stating that where the shareholder is also a DMSL, only one charge of AED 2,015 applies and all amendments are done at once.
• Test the renewal date first. At Meydan an amendment made at renewal is AED 0 rather than AED 2,000. At DMCC the date changes nothing. Knowing which of those two your zone is worth more than any other single fact here.
• Budget the downstream, not just the registry. Establishment card, employment contracts, visas, tax record and bank file routinely cost more in total than the amendment that triggered them.

One caveat applies to every figure on this page. The DMCC schedule states plainly that all fees and charges are subject to change without prior notice, the ADGM overview carries a January 2025 version date, and the Meydan price list is published as a commercial document rather than a regulation. Treat published free zone amendment fees as the correct order of magnitude and the right basis for comparison between zones, then confirm the exact figure with the authority on the day you file.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average cost to change a company name in a UAE free zone?

There is no single average, because the published figures are an order of magnitude apart. ADGM charges USD 100 to register a change of company name. Meydan charges AED 2,000, falling to AED 0 at renewal. DMCC charges AED 4,515 plus the AED 20 Knowledge and Innovation Dirham fee, although a change to the company suffix alone is free of charge on the same schedule.

Can free zone amendment fees be avoided by waiting for licence renewal?

At some zones, yes. Meydan sets its formation and licence amendment fee to AED 0 when the change is made at renewal, and IFZA is indicatively quoted as doing the same. DMCC does not: its free zone amendment fees are identical whether filed mid-term or on the renewal date. Establish which of the two models your zone follows before deciding whether waiting is worth anything.

Is there a fee if an amendment request is cancelled after submission?

At DMCC there is. The schedule prices both a registration amendment service cancellation and a licence amendment service cancellation at AED 515, applicable where the service is cancelled after submission but before approval, and states the charge is non-refundable once the service has been approved. That makes an abandoned filing a real cost rather than a free retry, so resolutions and supporting documents are worth finalising before the application goes in.

Do changes to company directors or managers require a trade licence amendment?

Yes. The manager named on the licence and the officers held on the register both have to be updated formally, and the authority charges for it: USD 100 at ADGM, AED 1,515 at DMCC, and AED 2,000 at Meydan unless the change is made at renewal.

What secondary costs arise after amending a free zone corporate structure?

The establishment card, employee residence visas, employment contracts, the tax record and the bank mandate all follow the registry change. Using the Meydan published figures as a marker, that is AED 2,000 for the immigration card, AED 850 per visa amendment, AED 350 per employment contract and AED 1,500 for the VAT record, plus certified copies at AED 215 each from DMCC or USD 100 each from ADGM.

Why do financial centre amendment fees differ from commercial free zones?

They are solving different problems. A common law financial centre such as ADGM wants a register that is accurate and current, so it prices routine notices low and flat at USD 100 and reserves large fees for licence category changes that require real supervision. A commercial free zone prices each amendment by the registry work and document reissuance it creates, which is why DMCC separates a AED 4,515 share transfer from a AED 1,515 officer change.