Licences & changes
Freelance permit or trade licence?
A permit licenses you. A licence creates a company. The difference decides your liability, your banking, your ability to hire, and which residence routes are open to you.
What it covers
What this licence actually permits.
A freelance permit authorises an individual to carry on a professional activity in their own name. There is no separate legal entity, no share capital and no memorandum of association — the permit attaches to the person. A trade licence creates a company: a distinct legal person that contracts, banks and owns assets in its own name, and whose liability is separate from the shareholder's. Both make the work lawful; they differ in almost every other respect.
Four practical differences decide it. Liability: a freelancer is personally liable for the work, a company shareholder generally is not. Banking: a company opens a corporate account conventionally, a permit holder often ends up with a flagged personal account and struggles with card payments. Hiring: a permit cannot sponsor employees, a company can. And residence: the Green Visa freelance route requires a MOHRE freelance permit specifically, while a company supports an investor visa and, through the shareholding, the five-year Green Visa for partners. The right answer usually follows from which of those four is binding.
At a glance
- Freelance permit
- Licenses an individual; no separate legal entity
- Trade licence
- Creates a company with its own legal personality
- Liability
- Personal for a freelancer; separate for a company shareholder
- Hiring
- A permit cannot sponsor employees
- Banking
- Corporate accounts and card payments favour the company
- Green Visa
- The freelance route requires a MOHRE freelance permit
What it costs
The procedure
What the amendment involves.
- Decide whether liability separation mattersFor advisory work with professional exposure, a company is worth the cost. For low-risk creative work, less so.
- Check whether you will hireA permit cannot sponsor employees. If a second person is in the plan, this settles it.
- Test the payment requirementCard payments and conventional corporate banking favour a company substantially.
- Match it to the residence routeThe Green Visa freelance limb requires a MOHRE freelance permit; the partner limb requires a shareholding.
- Start with the permit if unsureUpgrading to a company later is straightforward. Over-building at the start costs money you may not need to spend.
Related
Questions
A permit authorises an individual with no separate legal entity. A licence creates a company with its own legal personality, liability and banking.
No. A freelance permit cannot sponsor staff. Hiring requires a company with an establishment card and quota.
A company, clearly. Freelance permit holders often end up with a flagged personal account and struggle to obtain card payment facilities.
Yes, and it is a common path. Starting with the permit and incorporating once volumes justify it is usually the cheaper sequence.
One question
What are you actually trying to change?
Name, activity, manager or address — each is a formal amendment with its own fee, and most require a fresh MOA addendum before the licence is reprinted. Bundling several amendments into one submission usually costs less and takes no longer than doing them one at a time.
How amendments runOr just ask usShare transfers are notarised, not administrative. Every shareholder signs or is represented under an attested power of attorney, the bank has to be told, and the UBO register updates within days rather than at the next renewal.
Transferring sharesOr just ask usThen do it properly rather than letting the licence lapse. An abandoned company accrues renewal penalties, immigration liabilities and a corporate tax deregistration fine, and it blocks the shareholders from clean incorporations later.
Closing down cleanlyOr just ask us