Incorporated with IFZA last month. License in hand and that is where the formation agent's involvement effectively ended. Since then we have been trying to close the rest of the operational stack ourselves and it is not moving. Current state is that we have a valid trade license and almost nothing else functioning.
What is still outstanding: establishment card not issued, MOHRE registration not started, WPS account not set up, corporate bank account application sitting in week four of review, Ejari pending (the flexi-desk agreement from the free zone is not being accepted by the bank and we are not sure what format they want), corporate stamp and signature kit not yet organised, VAT registration pending, first two employee visas not started. Each of these has its own sub-chain of dependencies and each week we move further away from being operational.
Honestly, we are not the right people to run this ourselves. We have been spending our time chasing small pieces and have not made a real dent. Revenue-generating activity is on hold because we cannot invoice without the corporate account live, cannot sign the operating lease without the stamp, cannot put our two planned hires on payroll without MOHRE and WPS. The opportunity cost of another month like this is real.
What we need is a PRO firm that treats this as one engagement and takes all of it end to end. Not a firm that does visas but outsources banking. Not a firm that handles MOHRE but leaves corporate stamp to us. One firm, one named account manager, one weekly status call, and a 30-day target to hit operational state.
Deliverable definition of 'operational': establishment card issued, MOHRE registration complete with WPS active, corporate account open with online banking and a working token, Ejari registered, corporate stamp and signature kit in hand, VAT registration submitted, first two employee visas at least through the pre-approval stage. That is the bar. Anything short of that is still 'setup in progress'.
Priority on speed and follow-through over price. We have already paid for one formation package that stopped at the license. We are not going to pay again for a second firm that stops halfway. Need a firm that commits to the 30-day timeline on the first call or tells us on day one what realistic is, so we can plan accordingly.
After the initial sprint is through, we want the same firm on a monthly retainer for ongoing PRO, visa renewals and whatever else this kind of business needs on an ongoing basis. Not a one-off engagement, a relationship.
