Sharjah's deep-water industrial zone: oil & gas services, steel, maritime and heavy trading with its own port berths — the budget alternative to JAFZA for physical operations.
The numbers
Licence fromAED 11,000
Visa quotaup to 1 on the entry tier
Activities2,000+
Officerequired (per facility)
Setup time3–7 business days
LAST VERIFIED: 21 JUL 2026 · Tariff verified against the official schedule.
Who Hamriyah actually fits — and who overpays here
Hamriyah is a physical-operations zone first and a licence second. It earns its keep for founders who move, make or store something heavy: oil & gas service contractors, steel fabrication and metals, maritime and offshore support, building materials, and commodity traders who need a berth and a yard rather than a business-centre address. The 14-metre deep-water port and industrial land are the real product; the trade licence is the wrapper around them.If your business is a consultancy, a holding structure, an agency or anything that lives on a laptop, Hamriyah is the wrong tool. You would pay for infrastructure you never touch and sit in Sharjah when a cheaper desk-only zone would serve you better. For that profile, look at SAIF Zone or a low-cost Dubai option and compare the numbers in our setup-cost calculator before committing to an industrial zone you don't need.
What the AED 11,000 licence includes — and what sits beyond it
The headline from AED 11,000 buys the licence itself for a base activity, with one visa allocation and the standard registration. That figure is honest for a lean service or trading licence — but it is the entrance fee, not the running cost of a physical operation.The real budget for a Hamriyah project sits in the facility. Warehouse or land lease, industrial/manufacturing licence class, EHS and port approvals, labour accommodation and per-facility rent all land on top of the licence and dwarf it. Additional visas scale with the space you lease, not with the base package. Treat the AED 11,000 as the floor for a paper presence and model the facility separately.
Office, land and visa mechanics specific to this zone
Office is required here, quoted per facility — you take real space (executive office, pre-built warehouse, or a land plot on long lease), and your visa headroom is tied to that space rather than to a fixed package number. The base allocation is one visa; scaling to a workforce means leasing more area and upgrading the establishment card.Formation itself is quick — roughly 3–7 working days for the licence once documents and activity approvals are clean — but the physical side (land handover, construction, utilities, EHS sign-off) runs on its own timeline. Bank onboarding for a genuine industrial operation with substance is generally smoother than for a shell; see our corporate bank account notes. With 2,000+ approved activities, most industrial and trading combinations are available under one licence.
Hamriyah vs SAIF Zone vs JAFZA
The honest comparison is against two neighbours. SAIF Zone is the other Sharjah option — airport-based, tuned to air-freight and light industrial. JAFZA is the premium Dubai port zone: bigger scale, stronger brand, higher cost. Hamriyah is the budget deep-water play between them.
Zone
Emirate
Best for
Positioning
Hamriyah
Sharjah
Deep-water industry, oil & gas, steel, maritime
Budget port + land
SAIF Zone
Sharjah
Air-freight, light industrial, trading
Airport-linked
JAFZA
Dubai
Scale, logistics, prestige
Premium, higher cost
Pick Hamriyah when you need a deep-water berth and industrial land at a lower burn than Dubai and can live with a Sharjah base. Pick JAFZA when scale, the Jebel Ali ecosystem or the Dubai address carry weight. Weigh them side by side in our zone comparison.
Setting up in Hamriyah Free Zone
01
Activity & name
Pick licensed activities and reserve a trade name. Activity choice drives approvals, banking and whether your income can be QFZP-qualifying.
02
Documents & KYC
Passports, application forms and a clean source-of-funds story. No local sponsor is needed — free zone companies are 100% foreign-owned.
03
Licence & establishment card
The zone issues your licence (typically 3–7 business days), then the immigration establishment card that unlocks visa processing.
04
Visas & bank account
Entry permit, medical, Emirates ID for each visa holder; corporate account opening runs in parallel — this is usually the slowest step.
Straight answers
Is Hamriyah cheaper than JAFZA?
For the licence, yes — Hamriyah starts from AED 11,000 and positions itself as the budget deep-water alternative in Sharjah, versus JAFZA's premium Dubai pricing. But compare total cost including your warehouse or land lease, not just the licence line, because the facility is where the real money sits.
Can I set up in Hamriyah without a physical office or warehouse?
No. Office is required per facility, and an industrial operation needs real leasable space — there is no virtual-office route here. If you want a flexi-desk with no physical footprint, a desk-only zone fits better than Hamriyah.
How many visas does the base Hamriyah licence include?
One visa on the base allocation. Beyond that, visa headroom scales with the space you lease rather than a fixed package number, so a larger workforce means leasing more area and upgrading the establishment card.
Does a Hamriyah company give me a Dubai address?
No — Hamriyah is in Sharjah, at Hamriyah port. If a Dubai address or the Jebel Ali ecosystem matters to your business, JAFZA is the Dubai-based industrial alternative to weigh against it.
Hamriyah or JAFZA for industrial operations?
JAFZA buys the region's deepest port ecosystem at the region's prices; Hamriyah delivers berths, land and sheds at a fraction of the cost with less congestion. Heavy container throughput to global lines → JAFZA; regional manufacturing and oil-field services → Hamriyah wins the spreadsheet.
Can I start small at Hamriyah without a plot?
Yes — the zone runs office and warehouse-lite tiers below the industrial plots, letting trading companies enter cheap and upgrade to land when volumes justify it.
Is the “from AED 11,000” price real?
It is the official entry-tier licence figure — without visas, establishment card or add-ons. Our estimate above shows a realistic first-year floor; anything quoted below it usually hides a fee.
Can this company do business on the UAE mainland?
A free zone licence covers business inside the zone and abroad. Selling onshore generally needs a mainland distributor, a branch, or a dual-licence arrangement where offered — we flag which applies before you commit.
Does 0% corporate tax apply here?
Free zone companies pay 0% only on qualifying income under the QFZP regime — substance, audited accounts and de-minimis limits included. Otherwise the standard 9% above AED 375k applies. We model this in the corporate tax calculator.
Tell us what you're building.
We reply with numbers — a line-by-line setup estimate for your case. Not a call script, not a brochure.