Check out www.creativezone.ae and www.vz.ae. I had a meeting with Virtuzone at their office in Dubai when I was thinking about living in Dubai and they seemed very professional. They will be able to answer all your questions.
JimTrade,
Any update on getting a residence visa in Dubai?
I'm in a similar situation. I'm currently employed in Dubai, but looking for options to be self-employed and keeping my visa by setting up my own company.
Thanks robbo, I will check that out.
The other option is to buy a property in Dubai and apply for the residence visa that way. But I'm not intending to live there full-time at the moment and I'm not too optimistic about the property prices going forward.
The main advantage of going the property route would be that it's all legit in the eyes of the bank and brokerage. I'm not too sure how they will look at some company setup in a freezone and I really don't want to risk getting my accounts frozen.