Federal and emirate-level registers including the major free zones (DIFC, ADGM, DMCC, JAFZA). Mainland and free-zone authorities have different filing regimes. Courts in DIFC and ADGM are common-law; federal courts are civil-law Arabic.
The Emirates keep no single national company register. Each emirate runs its own, each free zone from the DIFC to the ADGM runs another, and the land departments record property separately again. That fragmentation is part of the appeal of the place and the difficulty of reading it: a complete picture means holding a dozen registers at once and finding where the same name, address or entity recurs across them, then reading that against whatever the same interest has left elsewhere.
Most of what we find never touches a public register. Where a client is under our standing watch, our own systems hold a continuous watch on the identity and exposure signals around them: names, addresses, directorships, and the appearance of their own identifiers in leaked or breached data, checked through a licensed source and never held by us. A change in the record here, or in the field around it, is seen as it forms rather than at the next review, weighed against everything already held, and read for what it means rather than simply logged.
Reading operates across the mainland, free-zone, and financial-centre registers that index private interests. Each free zone has its own filing regime; the audit addresses each that is material to the matter. The reading is thorough and works within the access regime of each register. Where a record requires specific procedural access, the desk addresses it through the appropriate channel; where access is constrained, the report says so plainly. The audit is built from what can be read, with no inference where observation is unavailable. Cross-reference is applied across the registers above and against the team's assessment in other jurisdictions where the client has exposure. The full methodology is set out under Methodology.
We work in the United Arab Emirates at the level set out above. A UAE-anchored audit is quoted on the same basis as a standard audit. Timing is adjusted for the depth of cross-reference where multiple registers are material; standard delivery remains two to three weeks, sooner where a matter is urgent. Engagement is through the audit intake, with replies within two working days.
On request, and only on request, we can compile and summarise the records and data held about you in the United Arab Emirates. It is something we do when asked, not unprompted, and it is not the main part of our work.
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