How many visas a licence actually carries

A company can sponsor residence visas, which is why so many people incorporate. What is less well understood is that it can sponsor a specific number of them, and that number is a function of the licence and the space rather than of the business.

What sets the quota

• The premises. A flexi-desk or shared workstation carries a small allocation; a private office carries more, scaled to its area. This is the main lever.
• The free zone. Allocations differ between zones, and so do the rules for increasing them.
• The licence type and activity. Some activities carry different entitlements.
• On the mainland, the calculation runs differently again, tied to the establishment card and the space.

The practical consequence: a founder who incorporates on a flexi-desk to sponsor themselves, and then wants to sponsor a spouse, two children and an employee, has to upgrade the premises before any of that becomes possible.

The distinction people miss

A company's visa quota governs the permits the company issues — to the owner and to employees. Sponsoring your own family is a separate mechanism: you sponsor them personally, as a resident, against your own income and housing, once your own permit exists.

So a one-visa flexi-desk licence is not, in itself, a bar to bringing a family. It is a bar to putting the family on the company. The family question is answered by the personal sponsorship criteria — income and accommodation — not by the quota.

What to work out before incorporating

• How many permits you need, over three years rather than at launch.
• What premises that requires in the specific zone you are considering, and what that costs annually.
• Whether the zone permits increasing the allocation mid-term, and on what terms.
• Whether your intended activity is licensed in that zone at all — a licence that does not cover what you actually do creates a problem at renewal rather than at issue.
• What the total annual cost of the structure is, against the alternative bases for residence. For someone who owns qualifying property, a company set up purely for a visa is an expensive way to obtain one they already have.