Shams Activity List

Shams publishes something most free zones do not: an exact, written rule for how many activities a licence holds. Not “several”, not “usually around seven”, but two numbered package structures. If you are trying to work out what you can put on one Sharjah Media City licence, that rule is the answer, and it is the reason this page exists.

The second thing worth knowing is that Shams is a media free zone that licenses a good deal more than media. Its own published activity examples include General Trading, IT Services and Accounting/Bookkeeping. This guide covers the allowance rule, the three-level activity structure it depends on, and the approval categories Shams uses. All as published in August 2026.

The Allowance Rule, Read Properly

The two package types are not simply “one is bigger”. They are shaped differently, and which suits you depends on how concentrated your business is.

Type 1 gives you a whole Group plus four Classes. A Group is the widest of the three levels, so if your business sits inside one sector, taking that entire Group is the more generous option by a distance. Type 2 gives five Classes with no Group, which suits a business whose activities scatter across unrelated areas.

The wording of the two rules differs in one respect worth noticing: Type 2 is published as five Classes and does not state a Group allowance. Do not read that as “a Group is included too”. If your plan depends on holding a full Group, confirm it against Type 1 rather than assuming Type 2 carries the same right.

Group, Class and Subclass

The three-level structure is what makes the allowance readable, and it is a genuine advantage of Shams over zones that publish a flat activity list.

• Group is the broadest level, corresponding to a sector.
• Class sits under a Group and describes a type of activity within it.
• Subclass is the individual activity, and Subclasses come free with the Class above them.

The consequence is that counting individual activities is the wrong way to plan a Shams licence. Two businesses can both hold four Classes and end up with very different numbers of licensable activities depending on how many Subclasses sit beneath them. The question to ask the zone is not “how many activities do I get” but “which Class does each thing I do fall under, and how many Classes does that leave me”.

Pre-Approval and Post-Approval

Shams sorts activities into two approval categories, and its terminology is its own.

Pre-Approval, which Shams also calls Red License, covers activities where clearance is needed before the licence can issue. Post-Approval covers activities where the licence issues and the approval follows. For planning purposes the distinction is about sequencing: a Pre-Approval activity sets your start date by the regulator’s timetable rather than the zone’s, and mixing one into an otherwise straightforward activity list moves the whole application onto that slower path.

Shams does not publish which specific activities fall into each category, so confirm the status of every activity on your list with the zone before you plan around a start date.

A Media Free Zone That Licenses More Than Media

Sharjah Media City is named for media, and the assumption that it therefore only licenses media businesses is one of the more persistent misreadings of it. Shams’s own published list of commonly chosen activities settles the point:

• E-Commerce
• General Trading
• Management Consultancy
• IT Services
• Advertising
• Marketing Consultancy
• Accounting/Bookkeeping
• Activities of Holding Company

Three of those (General Trading, IT Services and Accounting/Bookkeeping) have no media character at all. Shams publishes them as popular options, which is first-party evidence that a non-media business is a normal Shams customer rather than an exception. Note that this is a published sample and not the full catalogue: the absence of your activity from this list says nothing about whether Shams licenses it.

Adding or Changing Activities Later

Because the allowance is counted in Groups and Classes, an amendment at Shams behaves differently from one at a zone with a flat activity list. Adding an activity that falls under a Class you already hold may cost nothing at all, since Subclasses come with the Class. Adding one that needs a new Class consumes a slot, and going beyond your package allowance is what triggers a change rather than the number of activities as such.

Shams does not publish amendment fees alongside its activity rules, so confirm the current charge with the zone. For package prices, visa costs and renewal fees rather than activities, see our Shams licence cost guide.