Start your business
in Saudi Arabia

No. You see the full invoice one more time on the payment screen, and nothing is charged until you confirm there. The $16,000 formation fee is a one-time charge. Translation and tax filing are priced in riyals underneath, so their dollar figures move slightly with the exchange rate, and any recurring service you selected is billed on its own cadence rather than folded into the one-time total.

We start with your documents. We review and notarize them, then file the MISA investment licence application, which is the long pole at about 60 working days. Once the licence is issued we reserve the company name, draft and notarize the Articles of Association, register with the Chamber of Commerce, and obtain the Commercial Registration (CR). Then we run the post-incorporation registrations (Ministry of Labor, GOSI, ZATCA and VAT, National Address, MUDAD, MUQEEM, QIWA), prepare the company stamp, and issue the General Manager's visa.

From the parent company: a legalized Commercial Registration valid for more than a year, legalized MOA/AOA, a financial audit report, a legalized board resolution and power of attorney, and a share certificate if the parent is a free-zone company. Per person: shareholder passport and ID valid more than six months, the manager's passport copy, and an iqama copy if they already live in Saudi Arabia. Everything has to be legalized and submitted in Arabic, so plan for certified translation. We review the whole set before submission so the MISA application goes in clean the first time.

The MISA investment licence sets the clock at about 60 working days, and that approval belongs to the Ministry of Investment, not to us. Name reservation, the Articles of Association, Chamber of Commerce registration and the Commercial Registration all follow once the licence is granted. The General Manager's residence visa takes about 15 working days after the licence is issued. We cannot compress a ministry's review, so we spend the time up front making sure nothing bounces.

Yes. Government fees and the post-incorporation registration fees sit inside the $16,000, so you are not paying MISA, the Chamber of Commerce, the commercial registry and each agency separately. The government fee component is an estimate, and if the actual fees differ, the difference is settled after the work is complete. Legalization and translation are the one exception and are billed separately.

The $16,000 covers the MISA licence application, name reservation, the Articles of Association, Chamber of Commerce registration, the Commercial Registration, every post-incorporation registration (Ministry of Labor, GOSI, National Address, ZATCA and VAT, MUDAD, MUQEEM, QIWA), the company stamp and the General Manager's visa issuance. The paid extras are certified Arabic translation and legalization, from SAR 300 (about $80) per document and up to SAR 1,000 depending on the document type; bank account opening assistance at $1,000 one-time; ongoing ZATCA tax and VAT filing from SAR 5,000 (about $1,333) a year; and the local director service at $10,080 a year if you have nobody to act as General Manager. Your share capital is separate too. There is no statutory minimum, but the practical minimum for a foreign-owned LLC is about SAR 500,000 (roughly USD 133,300) and some regulated sectors run much higher, up to SAR 30M, and that money is your investment into your own company rather than a fee we charge.

Yes to both. Every foreign-owned Saudi company must appoint a General Manager who holds a Saudi residence permit (iqama), and that person is the one legally able to manage the entity, sign with banks and deal with ministries. If one of your own people takes the role, the visa work is already inside the $16,000. If you have nobody, our local director service supplies a qualifying resident General Manager at $840 a month, $10,080 a year, and it is required before you can proceed. A local registered address is mandatory as well, and National Address registration is already in the formation package.

Yes, for a one-time $1,000. A local corporate bank account is not required to incorporate in Saudi Arabia, so the entity can exist before banking is sorted, but you will want one to run payroll through MUDAD, pay GOSI contributions and settle government fees. Saudi banks require in-Kingdom verification, so we drive the KYC back-and-forth for you instead of leaving you to chase it. The decision to open the account is still the bank's.

Because the registrations exist from day one. Formation registers you with ZATCA for tax and VAT, with GOSI, with QIWA and with the Chamber of Commerce, and those registrations carry obligations whether or not you invoice anyone. A dormant entity usually still owes returns. Corporate tax is 20% of profit and VAT is 15%, so a quiet year means nil returns rather than no returns.

Yes. The $16,000 formation fee is one-time and is the number you see today. The recurring services are separate: ZATCA filing support from SAR 5,000 (about $1,333) a year and the local director service at $10,080 a year are billed on their own cadence, not folded into the one-time total. If the entity will stay dormant for now you can start without filing support and add it when you begin trading, and bank account assistance can be added later too.

Your Saudi entity lands on a compliance calendar built from its jurisdiction and entity type, carrying every filing it owes, with status tracking and reminders ahead of the due dates. Our in-house team does the filing work and you get one point of contact rather than a ticket queue. Missed VAT returns attract penalties quickly once you are trading, which is what the calendar exists to prevent. One thing to plan for separately: Saudization requires businesses with foreign staff to hire one Saudi national for every four foreign employees, at a minimum salary of SAR 12,000 a year, so it shapes your hiring plan rather than your setup fee.

A 100% foreign-owned Saudi company is a foreign investment, so before anything can be registered you need an investment licence from MISA, the Ministry of Investment. That application is the gating step, about 60 working days, and it is built entirely on your parent company's documents: Commercial Registration, MOA/AOA, financial audit report, board resolution and power of attorney, all legalized and in Arabic. Nothing downstream can start until the licence is granted, not the name reservation, the Articles of Association, the Commercial Registration or the agency registrations. That is why a Saudi setup is a licensing exercise rather than a simple company registration, and why we review every document before it goes in.