SOHAR Freezone (Sohar Free Zone), part of SOHAR Port and Freezone
Sohar · OPAZ (regulator); SOHAR Port and Freezone / SOHAR Industrial Port Company SAOC (operator, 50/50 Asyad Group - Port of Rotterdam JV)
Manufacturers, logistics/3PL operators, metals and petrochemical processors, and re-export traders who want deep-sea port adjacency outside the Strait of Hormuz, abundant industrial land and some of the GCC's lowest license fees.
Freelancers, consultants and small service startups looking for flexi-desk + bundled-visa packages, and businesses whose primary market is Omani domestic consumers (customs duty and distributor requirements erode the free-zone advantage).
01Capability profile
02Where Sohar Free Zone sits
Sohar Free Zone: 92th percentile (AED 4,298) · Licence + registration, AED.
Sohar Free Zone: 19th percentile (15 days) · Total estimated days from application to operational.
Absolute maximum visa allocation. Values above 500 clipped to the right edge so the bulk of the distribution stays readable.
Sohar Free Zone: Moderate · Corporate bank account opening difficulty. Each cell is one zone.
03Costs
- Base licence
- AED 1,910
- Registration
- AED 2,388
- 2-year visa cost
- AED 3,100
- Establishment card
- AED 1,000
- Visa renewal
- AED 1,800
- Visa cancellation
- AED 980
- Dependent / spouse visa
- AED 880
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04Visas & workspace
- Family sponsorship
- Not available
- Freelancer permit
- Not available
- Processing time
- ~7 days
- Virtual office
- No
- Flexi-desk
- No
- Dedicated office
- No
- Warehouse
- No
- Industrial unit
- No
05Banking & setup
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to account
- ~14 days
- Minimum deposit
- AED 240
- UBO filing
- Required
- AML / KYC
- standard
- Documents & applicationPassport, visa, business plan — ~3–5 days
- Licence issued~10 business days after submission
- Bank account activeAdditional ~14 days · Moderate banking
- OperationalTypically ~15 days, up to ~45 days
06Jurisdiction & ecosystem
This zone offers physical-office options sufficient for a standard QFZP substance posture, though the bar still applies at the entity level (CTGFZP1).
QFZP, audit, mainland-permit and substance values are sourced where the zone authority or FTA publishes them, and inferred from published zone characteristics otherwise. How we determine these values.
07Strengths & limitations
- Direct integration with a deep-sea port outside the Strait of Hormuz, with a 14-minute bonded port-freezone corridor and road links to the UAE and Muscat
- Corporate tax holiday up to 25 years, 0% personal income tax, 0% import/re-export duties, 100% foreign ownership and no minimum capital requirement
- Very low official license fees: OMR 150-750 per 3-year term (~AED 1,430-7,163) plus OMR 250 five-year CR - among the cheapest in the GCC
- Abundant serviced industrial land with a 670-hectare Phase 2 expansion, ready-built and build-to-suit warehouses
- Preferential access via Oman FTAs with the USA, Singapore and EFTA; upcoming Sohar-Abu Dhabi rail link
- Keeping the tax holiday requires meeting rising Omanization quotas (15% rising to 50% by year 21-25) and filing audited accounts annually
- No published rate card for land/warehouse/office leases - pricing is negotiated per project, making Year-1 budgeting opaque; online third-party fee figures conflict with the official 2023 schedule
- Not suited to micro-businesses: no flexi-desk/virtual-office products, labour accommodation banned inside the zone, and mainland Omani sales attract 5% customs duty and need a local distributor
Not ideal for: Freelancers, consultants and small service startups looking for flexi-desk + bundled-visa packages, and businesses whose primary market is Omani domestic consumers (customs duty and distributor requirements erode the free-zone advantage).
08Tax considerations
Will you need audited accounts even if this zone doesn't require them?
FTA corporate-tax filing typically expects audited accounts for revenue above AED 50M, and banks often request them at much lower thresholds.
Do any of your customers, suppliers, or shareholders meet the FTA's related-party definition?
Related-party transactions need transfer-pricing documentation and may push otherwise-qualifying income into the 9% bracket.
These prompts are due-diligence questions, not tax advice. Confirm every answer with a UAE-licensed tax advisor before incorporating.
09About this data
Sohar Free Zone data is sourced from official zone authority publications, government fee schedules, and where available, verified against direct communications with the zone. All figures in AED.
- Location
- Sohar
- Authority
- OPAZ (regulator); SOHAR Port and Freezone / SOHAR Industrial Port Company SAOC (operator, 50/50 Asyad Group - Port of Rotterdam JV)
- Last verified
- 2026-07-18
- Confidence
- high
- Methodology
- How we score →
- QFZP eligibility (0% corporate tax)Secondary · 2026-07-18Primary source ↗
- Audit requirementSecondary · 2026-07-18Primary source ↗
- Economic substanceSecondary · 2026-07-18Primary source ↗
- Mainland trading permitSecondary · 2026-07-18Primary source ↗
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