Meydan Activity List

Meydan Free Zone runs two licensing routes, and which one you can use depends on the activities you pick. That is the single fact that makes its activity list worth reading properly: on the regular route your activities are chosen from the full catalogue, and on the instant FAWRI route they are chosen from a smaller subset with its own grouping rule.

This guide sets out the categories Meydan publishes, how the two routes differ, and what the zone does and does not state about how many activities a licence holds. Figures are as published by Meydan in August 2026 and are set by the zone, so confirm them before you apply.

Meydan Activity Categories (Master Table)

The seventeen categories below are reproduced exactly as Meydan lists them, read on 8 August 2026. The licence-family column is our reading of where each category usually sits, not a Meydan classification, and the approvals column flags where an external regulator is commonly involved anywhere in the UAE. Treat both as prompts to check with the zone, not as answers.

FAWRI and Regular: The Choice That Actually Matters

Meydan presents these as two products, but for anyone choosing activities they are one decision with a trade-off.

FAWRI is the instant route. Meydan states the licence is “issued in just 60 minutes”, drawing on “over 1,800 options” organised into sector-based groups which it describes as “consulting, trading, e-commerce, education, logistics, and more”. The published allowance is up to three activity groups, and Meydan is explicit that those groups may “span completely different industry types”. For a founder who wants consulting plus e-commerce plus trading on one licence, that is the relevant rule.

Regular is the standard route, quoted at 3 to 5 days and described by Meydan as “a scalable license for startups and teams. Built for flexibility, partners, and long-term growth”. It draws on the full 2500+ catalogue, which is the reason to use it: if your activity is not among the 1,800 FAWRI options, the regular route is where it lives.

Meydan does not publish which activities are excluded from FAWRI, nor how many activities a regular licence includes. Both are worth asking before you choose a route, because picking FAWRI for speed and then discovering your core activity is not in the subset means starting the choice again.

How Grouping Affects What You Can Combine

Meydan organises activities into sector-based groups, and the FAWRI allowance is counted in groups rather than in individual activities. That distinction matters more than it first appears.

A group allowance is generous where your activities cluster: several related trading activities may all sit inside one group and cost you one slot. It is restrictive where they scatter: three unrelated activities can consume all three slots even if each is small. So the practical question when planning a Meydan licence is not “how many activities do I want” but “how many groups do my activities fall across”, and that is a question only the zone’s own category assignment can answer.

Activities That Need Approval Beyond the Zone

Being inside a free zone does not remove a federal or emirate-level regulator. Where an activity is regulated in the UAE generally (financial services, healthcare, education, real estate brokerage, food handling, waste and sewerage), expect the relevant authority to be involved regardless of which zone issues the licence.

Meydan does not publish a public regulated-activity list, so the approvals column in the table above is a general UAE prompt rather than a Meydan classification. The zone can confirm which of your specific chosen activities carry an approval step, and that answer is worth getting before you commit to the 60-minute route, because an activity needing a regulator’s sign-off will not be instant no matter which product it is licensed under.

Adding or Changing Activities Later

Activities can be amended after the licence issues. The zone reissues the licence to reflect the change, and where the new activity falls outside your existing groups or carries an approval, that adds both cost and time. Meydan does not publish its amendment fee schedule, so confirm the current charge with the zone rather than budgeting from a figure found elsewhere.

If you are still weighing Meydan against other options rather than choosing activities inside it, our Meydan Free Zone guide covers licence cost, visa allocation and office options.