To activate a UAE Stripe account, users must upload specific business and identity documents for verification via their Stripe Dashboard. For businesses, this includes trade licenses, memorandums of association, and proof of an active bank account. For individuals, color copies of passports, Emirates IDs, and residence visas are required for company representatives and all owners with 25% or more ownership in the business.

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Activating your UAE account

As part of your account setup, we will ask you to upload specific business and identity documents for verification.

All required documents must be uploaded via your Stripe Dashboard and verified by Stripe before your account can begin to process payments.

To check your account's outstanding verification requirements, you can:

• check your Dashboard for notifications
• go to Settings > Business details for more information.

For guidance on using the API to verify an account, check out our guide here.

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Required Business/Legal Entity Documents

For sole establishments, free zone establishments or branches of sole establishments, we require:

• Trade license or freelancer permit issued within the UAE

For LLCs, free zone LLCs or branches of LLCs, we require:

• Trade license or freelancer permit issued within the UAE
• Memorandum of association (or equivalent document) which shows the beneficial owners of your business and the split of shares between owners
• Proof of active bank account such as a bank account statement (dated within the last six months)

If any holding companies have 25% or more ownership of your business, you'll need to upload a memorandum of association or equivalent document for these entities as well. We will continue to request the MoA of nested entities until all individual beneficial owners have been identified.

In addition, if the company representative of your Stripe account is not a named manager or ultimate beneficial owner listed on your trade license or memorandum of association, we will also request a Power of Attorney document for the company representative. This document must be dated within the last three months.

More information on business verification can be found here: https://support.stripe.com/questions/verification-of-businesses-in-the-uae

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Required Personal Documents

For the company representative and all individual owners with 25% or more ownership in your business, we will require a color copy of specific identity documents, as outlined below:

• Passport, Emirates ID: for UAE nationals or GCC nationals living in the UAE
• Passport, Emirates ID and Residence Visa: for non-GCC and non-UAE nationals living in the UAE
• Passport: for individuals not living in the UAE

Any individual who ultimately owns 25% or more of your business will need to be added as an owner on the Stripe account. This includes individual owners from any holding companies that ultimately own a significant portion of your business (25% or more).

More information on owner/manager verification can be found here: https://support.stripe.com/questions/owner-verification-in-the-uae

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Renewing expired documents

We are required to keep up to date with expired documents, including expired trade licenses and identity documents. You can read more information about our continuous verification process here: https://support.stripe.com/questions/continuous-verification-in-the-uae