- To verify a business setup company, check five facts a front cannot stack together before you pay; reviews prove little.
- Ask for a licence, AML registration, a contract in the licensed name, a written scope and a named owner of your file.
- Treat any guaranteed bank account or visa as a red flag, since banks, the ICP and GDRFA decide those.
Verify a business setup company before paying
The firm holds your documents and your fee, while you hold a website and a few reviews. The question to ask is whether it can prove what it claims and answer for what it does.
Is my business setup company legit?
A logo and a star rating take an afternoon to fake, but these five are much harder to assemble. Put the questions to any firm and see which ones hesitate. If you are still comparing firms, start with how to choose a business setup consultant in Dubai.
A licence to act as a corporate service provider
Ask: "What is your trade licence number and your legal company name?"
Registration as an AML reporting entity
Ask: "Are you a registered AML reporting entity, and can you show me the registration?"
Contract and invoices in the licensed name
Ask: "Will my contract and invoices carry the legal name on your licence?"
A quote that names what it covers
Ask: "What does this cover, and what is not included?"
A named person accountable for your file
Ask: "Who, by name, owns my file, and how do I reach them after I pay?"
Business setup scam warning signs
Any one is reason enough to stop. The full list of business setup consultant red flags has its own page.
A guaranteed bank account or visa
Banks decide accounts and the immigration authorities decide visas, so no firm can promise either.
Pressure to pay it all now
It wants the full amount up front, paid into a personal account against a deadline, although a real firm has no reason to rush you.
No answers on paper
Everything stays verbal, and nothing that is not written down can be relied on.
What an unverified firm costs
The loss is rarely the fee alone. A structure filed wrong, or filed and abandoned, can leave a licence in the wrong jurisdiction, a half-opened immigration file and an unwinding bill.
In practice: correcting a mishandled structure commonly costs more than the original setup.
How we answer the same five questions
Apply the same test to us on paper before any money changes hands.
Licensed and named. A DET-licensed Corporate Service Provider, with the licence shown on every page.
AML registered. A registered AML reporting entity, a DNFBP, under UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025.
Clear about the scope. We scope the work on paper and name the exclusions, as our How we work page explains.
One named owner of your file. A senior advisor owns your file from first call to final document and is named before you pay.
If you have already paid a firm that has gone quiet, a second opinion tells you where the structure stands and the cleanest way forward. More on who we are is on the about page.