RAKEZ activity register
Individual / Professional licence activities in RAKEZ
The short answer
RAKEZ issues the Individual/Professional licence to one owner against a single named activity, drawn from a defined list of design, data and similar single-practitioner work such as user interface design, statistical analysis or web-hosting. It is built for one person working under one activity, not a company adding staff or several lines of work. The deciding fact is usually whether the work is genuinely one of these activities rather than two described as one, since a second activity or any staff points to a different RAKEZ licence.
Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone ([RAKEZ](https://rakez.com/)) licenses the Individual/Professional category to one owner against one activity, drawn from a short, specialist list rather than the zone's general commercial register. RAKEZ's own licence-types page states the category plainly: one owner, one activity, in a specific specialty or expertise. That is narrower than a Professional licence, which can cover firms offering expertise such as consulting or engineering, and different again from the [Freelancer Permit](/zones/rakez/freelance-permit), drawn from its own media, education, IT and analyst professions list rather than from this register.
The activities filed here are concrete and mostly design- or data-led: user interface design, logo design, visual design, fashion design, and manufacturing design; data entry, data preparation, and statistical analysis; and others, including web-hosting, business coaching and translation. A holder takes one as the licensed activity, not a bundle of several, so the licence carries that one activity rather than a portfolio of unrelated work.
Take someone licensed under User Interface Design: the licence covers UI design work and the invoices that go with it, not a general design-agency offering that happens to include UI work. If that same practitioner later wanted to add logo design as a separate paid line, or to employ a second designer, RAKEZ's own classification points toward a [Professional licence](/zones/rakez/professional-licence) or a [Services licence](/zones/rakez/services-licence) rather than stretching this one-owner, one-activity structure.
Velarozone works alongside RAKEZ and other UAE authorities as an advisory and company-formation firm — we are not RAKEZ, and we do not decide which activity its register files under this classification. See [how Velarozone works](/why-velarozone) for how that advisory role is structured.
What the Individual / Professional classification covers
This is a compact family of activities the authority files for individual and professional packages: design, data work, digital marketing, analysis, coaching, and similar single-practitioner services.
The entries are deliberately practical — each one names a concrete service a single professional sells — and the family sits between a freelance permit and a full service licence in how it is used.
What a individual / Professional licence here is structured for
A licence built from this family suits a single professional or a very small practice selling defined services, where the full breadth of a general services licence is not needed.
Because the list is short, the fit question is binary: either your service is genuinely one of these entries or it is not — in which case the zone's larger service families are where to look next.
From the register
Activities in this family, by name
All 24 activities RAKEZ files under Individual / Professional, exactly as the register names them. Activity names are the authority's own wording and are shown in English in every language; register codes are not published.
- Business Analysis
- Business Coaching
- Business Plans
- Creative Design
- Data Collection from One or More Sources
- Data Entry
- Data Preparation
- Data Storing and Recovering
- Databases Designing
- Digital Designing
- Fashion and Clothes Designing
- Internet Marketing
- Jewellery design
- Landscape Design
- Light Archiving
- Logo Design
- Manufacturing Design
- Photoshop Design
- Social Media Marketing
- Statistical Analysis
- Translation & Languages
- User Interface Design
- Visual Designing
- Web-hosting
What this page does not decide
Decision factors
What changes the answer
One owner, one activity sounds simple, but a handful of facts decide whether this licence is the right size for the work in question.
- Whether the work is genuinely one activity from RAKEZ's individual/professional list, or really two lines of work described as one for convenience.
- Whether that specific activity carries an approval from another UAE authority before RAKEZ will licence it — the activity name alone does not say so.
- Which workspace package the application takes, since RAKEZ sets office and visa allocation by the facility chosen rather than by the activity named on the licence.
- Whether the practitioner will ever need to employ someone else or add a second activity, since this category is sized for one owner against one activity.
- Whether the clients and banks you invoice will accept a single-owner, single-activity licence over a company licence with broader wording.
Where this family is a strong fit
- A solo graphic, UI or logo designer whose invoices are for design work under one named activity.
- A data specialist working alone — data entry, data preparation or statistical analysis — with no plan to hire support staff.
- A translator, business coach or small-scale web-hosting provider who sells one defined service in their own name.
- Someone who has compared this against RAKEZ's Professional and Services licences and still finds one owner, one activity, a genuine fit.
Where it is the wrong family
- A design studio or agency that will employ a second designer or take on a partner — this category is sized for one owner.
- A business that genuinely sells two or more of these activities as separate paid lines, such as logo design and web-hosting together.
- Work that is really a regulated profession — engineering, legal, financial advisory — where a Professional licence or an external regulator's approval is the relevant route.
- An occupation that actually sits on RAKEZ's Freelancer Permit professions list instead, such as media, education, IT or analyst work outside this specific activity list.
About this listing
Questions
Frequently asked
- Can a RAKEZ Individual/Professional licence cover more than one activity?
- No. RAKEZ licenses this category to one owner against one named activity. A business needing a second activity is usually better served by a Professional or Services licence, which RAKEZ structures to carry more than one.
- What is the difference between this licence and the RAKEZ Freelancer Permit?
- The Freelancer Permit is drawn from a separate RAKEZ professions list covering media, education, IT and analyst occupations, and it is a personal permit rather than an activity-register licence. This licence is drawn from this activity list instead — design, data and similar single-practitioner work.
- Can I employ staff under an Individual/Professional licence?
- The category is built around one owner and one activity. Anyone planning to employ staff should raise that with RAKEZ against a Professional or Services licence rather than this one.
- Does my activity need another authority's approval before RAKEZ will licence it?
- Some activities in this family can carry an external approval alongside the RAKEZ licence. Whether yours does is checked against RAKEZ's current rules, not assumed from the activity name.
- What visa allocation comes with this licence?
- RAKEZ sets visa allocation by the workspace package taken, not by the activity named on the licence, and that allocation is confirmed with RAKEZ at application rather than fixed by the licence category.
Check where this activity can be licensed
Velarozone can check whether your work matches a single RAKEZ individual/professional activity or needs a broader licence instead.
This page is general information about UAE business setup, not legal, tax, immigration, or banking advice. Rules, fees, permitted activities, and bank policies can change. Final eligibility depends on your facts and the applicable rules at the time of application.