Don't worry, Traveltomtom is not going to stop traveling. Neither did Traveltomtom buy or rent an apartment in Dubai. Don't be fooled by the title! Traveltomtom is not going to live in Dubai either.
In fact, Traveltomtom already moved to Dubai a couple years ago, so it is actually nothing new. But I am here to explain why I call Dubai my home and how I set up my Business in the UAE.
I have quite often posted about being in Dubai and always got the same questions... why I am traveling to Dubai so often? Therefore I decided to write this guide and tell you the story why I am visiting Dubai regularly, how I set up my business in the UAE and what are the advantages of being based in Dubai.
Traveltomtom, not Tom
When I speak about Traveltomtom, I mean the brand, the company and not me. I am still the same full time nomadic world traveler and I have no plans to change that in the near future. In fact, Traveltomtom has moved to the UAE already for a long time, but yet I have continued traveling around the world.
A couple years ago I decided to register a business, basically start a company in the UAE, obviously called after my brand name Traveltomtom. For several reasons I decided to start a company in Fujairah actually, so not even in Dubai.
However, when I would tell you Traveltomtom moved to Fujairah that doesn't sound so appealing, right! In fact, it is all the same country: UAE. Just another city, and it is only on paper anyway.
From hobby to business
When this crazy journey around the world started back in 2012 I had no idea it would develop into a lifestyle and that it would allow me to make money from traveling.
It is a long story how things took an unexpected turn and how Traveltomtom grew to be one of the leading travel bloggers in the world with more than 500,000 unique monthly visitors on my website.
At the same time I built a strong following on social media with more than 2 million followers as of 2024.
Read more about my story of how I afford to travel in an old blog from 2018. This blog tells the story of how I started to slowly to turn Traveltomtom from a hobby into a lifestyle.
It tells the transition of how Traveltomtom went from a backpacker to a luxury traveler and shows how in those days I started to make my first money online.
I always advice everyone to read it. It is a reality check for many people. Where I am nowadays and the success of Traveltomtom is all because of what I built up many years ago.
Why moving to Dubai
Let me start with giving you my reasons to Dubai and if you are contemplating about it then why you should do to.
Technically I should say moving to the UAE and not Dubai. Dubai is just one of the options you can choose when setting up a company in the UAE. I used Virtuzone to set up my company in the UAE, they are based in Dubai. When visiting the UAE I mostly travel to Dubai. But in fact, Traveltomtom LLC is not even registered in Dubai but in another Emirate. Keep reading why.
When I started to make money from Traveltomtom the need for a properly registered company was calling. One of the most important things was that I wanted to keep up with my nomadic lifestyle. I had no plan to settle down somewhere.
Therefore I explored several countries that offered regulations that made it possible for me to set up a company in a country without having a permanent residential address. In the UAE that is possible!
Dubai is still tax heaven - 0% income tax
Obviously another main reasons to register my company in Dubai was for tax reasons. There is still 0% income tax in Dubai and until 2023 there was also no Corporate Tax. However, things changed and as per 1 January 2024 the Dubai Government implemented a 9% Corporate Tax.
Luckily, the Corporate Tax is still aimed at big corporations and there is a small business relief that excludes most small business from paying Corporate Tax in Dubai.
A simple rule of thumb is that when you do your administration right and you file your tax registration the proper way, small business are exempt from paying Corporate Tax. As long as your total revenue of your company is somewhere below $750,000 USD per year you do not need to pay Corporate Tax in Dubai.
I have used Virtuzone, a company specialized in setting up companies in Dubai, to set up Traveltomtom in Dubai and I also use them to file my Corporate Tax as well as my VAT Exemption.
Since Traveltomtom LLC does not work with any UAE based clients I have a VAT exemption. This VAT exemption needs to be properly registered and doing so Virtuzone helped me setting this up for a one time fee of about $1,000 USD.
They dealt with the UAE Tax Registration Department and signed the required documents for Traveltomtom.
Virtuzone also handles Traveltomtom's Corporate Tax registration and administration for the Tax department for a fee of about $1,200 USD for the first year of 2024 when Corporate Tax was introduced to the UAE.
Keep reading for more info about how to properly register your company in Dubai.
Easy to register a company
Setting up a company in Dubai is easy. I will tell you below more about my own experiences, but trust me it is very simple and done fast. I also looked up to it and didn't know where to start, but in the end it all went well.
My first recommendation is to find a company that is able to register your business in Dubai, arranges your trade license and takes you through the necessary steps to set everything up your business in the UAE properly.
Traveltomtom chose to use Virtuzone to set up Traveltomtom LLC in Fujairah.
Asking around I received several different but all positive feedback from other people in my business that had used and recommended Virtuzone for setting up a company in the UAE.
If you opt for a residence visa in Dubai you will have to do a medical test to get your Emirates ID which will take a couple days extra, but your trade license and officially setting up your company can be fixed in just 2 days.
What actually takes much longer is other stuff like applying and waiting for your Emirates ID, getting an official Dubai phone number with your Emirates ID, then opening a bank account, etc. I will tell you all about that below.
Center of the world
Not everyone is always positive about Dubai, but the complaints are in general always the same and mostly from people that have never been in Dubai or went there one time on a stopover.
Sure, I understand Dubai is not for everyone, and I am also not trying to sell Dubai to you. But I love visiting Dubai! And yes, I could live here.
Remember Traveltomtom is just registered as a company in the UAE, I don't live in Dubai. It is not a necessity for starting a company in the UAE!
Since I travel full time it is always a nice stop to visit Dubai in and between my busy travel schedule.
Convenient living
In Dubai I just know that I don't need to worry about the weather. Must admit, I try to avoid the Summer heat. I tend to stay away from Dubai between May and September, but all other months I regard the weather as very pleasant. Outside the Summer months Dubai is pretty much perfect in temperatures day and night.
There are always things to do in Dubai. Massive events, new openings, concerts, shows, etc. Public transportation is very affordable and in general everything just works in Dubai. Personally, I mainly use taxis in Dubai and they are surprisingly affordable.
There are no protests nor strikes or anything like that that could disrupt your travel plans abruptly. I love that I don't need to worry about these kind of things.
Safety
Safety is 100! As a male I don't even care about safety so much as I have also traveled to world's most dangerous countries. But leaving all your belongings on a table inside a coffee place and going for a short 15 minutes stroll to stretch your legs... no problem!
The UAE has been ranked as one of the top safest countries in the world for many consecutive years and has a super low crime rate. Petty crimes like pickpocketing is extremely rare.
Dubai has very strict laws and regulations in place to contribute to safety. If you live by those rules you will never have any issues and you help contributing to keep the UAE a safe place to live and for tourists.
Remote work
As a nomad I love to work in coffee places and Dubai has a ton of them. High quality coffee places, trained baristas, healthy food options and superb public WiFi. Dubai is great for working from coffee shops and they are open till late.
Dubai is also full of expats and interesting people and I am sure in your line of business there are many events and activities that you can participate in to get to know people with the same interests.
Cons about registering a company in Dubai
Required to visit Dubai every 6 months
Here is the answer why I regularly travel to Dubai. One of the requirements of registering a company in the UAE and the visa package I chose is that I have to visit the UAE every 6 months to make sure my Trade License does not expire.
Therefore in and between my trips around the world I make sure I pass by the UAE so now and then. It does not necessarily have to be Dubai, I can also travel to Abu Dhabi, Sharjah or other places, as long as I cross the border into the UAE.
Since Traveltomtom LLC is officially located in Fujairah you might think I also have to travel to Fujairah but that is not true. In fact, I have never visited Fujairah before.
There is no minimum stay required, so potentially I can go through customs on a long layover. As I mentioned, for me Dubai is the center of the world anyway so it is easy to find a flight through the UAE. It is not a punishment to travel to Dubai, there are many amazing things to do in Dubai and Abu Dhabi year-round.
Expensive costs of living
Yes, Dubai is really expensive. In my opinion one of the most expensive places in the world when it comes to costs of living. Especially entertainment and nightlife can be over the top expensive. Dinner in a good restaurant for 2 people will easily cost you more $200 USD and then you probably only ordered 2 drinks.
Dubai hosts incredible events, but tickets are very expensive and so is housing and hotels. In the Summer months things get a little more affordable, but in the winter season hotel prices go through the roof. In winter you will easily pay around $300 USD per night for a decent 4 star hotel in a good location.
Expensive data
Getting data on your phone in Dubai is very expensive compared to other countries in the world. When you decide to register a company in Dubai and get an Emirates ID you can get a phone contract with either Virgin Mobile, Etisalat or Du. In fact you need a Dubai phone number to open a bank account.
Click here to read more about how to buy a prepaid sim card in Dubai.
But when just like me you are visiting Dubai so now and then to make sure your trade license doesn't expire then simply opt for an e-sim. Check out my comparison of the best e-sim cards for Dubai.
Costs of setting up your business in Dubai
Registration fee
Officially it is not called a registration fee, but that is what I name it to keep it simple. The annual fee to register your company in Dubai costs somewhere between $3,500 to $7,000 USD, depending on what kind of company you register and if you are opting for a residence visa, etc.
This fee includes several things like: trade license, office lease, visa costs, etc.
There are many different packages available and some of my friends that also registered a company in Dubai, did not opt for the residence visa, so that makes setting up a company in the UAE already a little cheaper for example.
For setting up Traveltomtom LLC in the UAE I initially paid a total of $6,500 USD.
Since I had no intention to live in Dubai permanently I was adviced by Virtuzone to not set up my company in Dubai but in Fujairah. A different Emirate, also within the United Arab Emirates but in Fujairah the fees are much lower.
Therefore Traveltomtom LLC is officially located in Fujairah. Thanks to Virtuzone to save me a couple thousand dollars.
Contact Virtuzone for an inquiry what it would cost to set up your business in Dubai and what would be your annual fee to renew it.
Renew annually
This is a very simple process. Virtuzone sends me a reminder every year about 3 months before my trade license is about to expire. You will have to sign your renewal contract and pay via a secured payment link and all is done within just a couple simple steps.
Virtuzone takes care about the rest.
I just paid another $11,500 USD to renew my Traveltomtom business and trade license in the UAE for 2 more years. Traveltomtom is still registered in Fujairah because of the lower fees compared to anywhere else in the UAE, like Dubai.
My experiences setting up a company in the UAE
Let me first say that I am super happy that I chose to register Traveltomtom in Dubai and that I had never thought it would be so easy to do something like this.
Of course I was a bit hesitant in the beginning and I sincerely thought it would be a lot of work and lawyers and a whole long administrative process. I literally had no clue how to set up a company, let alone how to set up a company abroad.
However, I must say that in the end it took much longer than expected before EVERYTHING was set. As I mentioned the official procedure of setting up a company in the UAE is very straight forward, easy and fast. But everything around it like getting a phone contract, my Emirates ID and setting up a bank account took a lot more time than I had imagined.
Setting up my company in the UAE through Virtuzone was a breeze. From the moment we got in touch they were very clear. They send me all the necessary documents, they explained everything to me in detail and were there to answer my questions.
I needed a couple days to think about it and gather some feedback from other people that had moved their business to Dubai and then I decided to go ahead with Virtuzone.
I can sincerely recommend to use Virtuzone to set up your company in Dubai!
At the time of singing all the contracts I was in Southeast Asia, far away from Dubai and together with Virtuzone I arranged everything remotely. I remember signing the official contracts. The hotel reception printed a whole stack papers for me, I signed them one by one, the hotel all scanned them for me and then emailed it back to me. The last step was forwarding all the official documents to Virtuzone.
Within just 1 day everything was arranged and Traveltomtom LLC was born.
For activating my UAE visa, the last necessary step was to actually travel to Dubai. To make it official I needed to enter the UAE and get my temporary residence visa stamped by border control to start my residency process in Dubai.
On arrival in Dubai I went to the office of Virtuzone straight away, located next to the Dubai Mall and Fountain. I needed to start the process of getting my Emirates ID.
Virtuzone arranged a driver to bring me to my medical appointment. For getting a residency visa in the UAE you first need to undergo a medical test. The test results are ready in 24 - 48 hours.
You need the medical test results to officially apply for your Emirates ID where your photo will be taken together with your fingerprint. You will need to bring your passport and your temporary residence visa that is stamped by an official government official, so make sure you don't enter as a tourist.
Since there are thousands of people in the process of getting an Emirates ID in Dubai there is a waiting list of sometimes even a couple weeks.
For normal residences that is no problem obviously, but I didn't want to wait for so long. Therefore Virtuzone arranged me a driver and an appointment at a government office in Sharjah, a nearby Emirate within the next days.
All in all the medical appointment and the official application for my Emirates ID took me about a week, on weekends they are closed. Then 5 working days later your Emirates ID will be delivered to your home address or in my case to the Virtuzone office.
In the meantime I already left Dubai as I had a fully packed travel schedule and was only returning 2 months later.
When I then returned in Dubai I went to pick up my Emirates ID at the Virtuzone office. I was filled with pride when I opened the envelop and found my new Emirates ID.
With my Emirates ID I headed to a phone store to get myself a local UAE phone number which is required to open a bank account.
Without an Emirates ID you can not get an official phone number from the UAE and without an official phone number you can not open a bank account in Dubai. Tourist sim cards are not accepted.
So only after you have the physical Emirates ID in your hand you can start the process of opening a bank account in the UAE. After you open your bank account they will send you your debit and/or credit card to any address in the UAE within 2 working days.
The whole process of opening a bank account also took me about 5 working days.
All in all registering my business in the UAE was done remotely and only took about 24-48 hours, but all the extra stuff like getting my Emirates ID and opening a bank account took me more than 2 weeks.
Since I was not staying in the UAE I had to visit Dubai multiple times to make everything happen. So when opening your business in the UAE I advice you to stay around and arrange everything in person and you should be done in about 10 working days.
Let me know if you have any more question, please leave me a comment below and I am more than happy to help you out.