Customs Clearance Services in Dubai

Every commercial shipment entering or leaving the UAE must be declared to customs before it can move. A customs broker — called a clearing agent in the UAE — prepares that declaration on your behalf: classifying the goods under the correct HS code, calculating duty and VAT, filing electronically through Dubai Trade, and resolving any inspection or query the shipment attracts. Done well, cargo releases in a day or two. Done badly, you pay for it in storage charges, penalties, or held goods.

You need a clearing agent if you have no in-house customs team, if your goods are regulated (food, electronics, pharmaceuticals), or if a time-sensitive shipment simply cannot afford a clearance mistake. Mar Shipping clears cargo we carry on our own sea freight and air freight services — and as a standalone service for importers whose freight was booked elsewhere but who want the Dubai side handled properly.

Dubai runs one of the fastest clearance regimes anywhere because almost everything is electronic. Declarations are submitted through the Dubai Trade portal into Mirsal 2, Dubai Customs' declaration system, and most are processed without anyone touching paper. Here is what happens between arrival and delivery — and what we do at each stage.

UAE customs duty is normally 5%, charged on the CIF value of the shipment — the cost of the goods plus international freight plus insurance. Import VAT is then 5%, calculated on the CIF value plus the duty, not on the invoice value alone. Two exceptions matter: alcohol carries 50% duty and tobacco 100%, while some categories, including many basic foodstuffs and medicines, are duty-exempt.

The worked example below shows the arithmetic on a typical shipment. Run your own figures through our UAE import duty calculator for an instant landed-cost estimate before you commit to a purchase.

Not every import pays the standard 5% — and claiming the right exemption is a filing decision made at declaration time, not something you can fix afterwards. These are the exemptions and deferrals worth planning around:

Dubai Customs clears against a core set of six documents, and most clearance delays trace back to one of them being missing, inconsistent, or expired. The golden rule: the invoice, packing list, and transport document must tell the same story — same shipper, same consignee, same quantities, same values.

One requirement that surprises new importers: commercial invoices valued over AED 10,000 must be attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFAIC) at AED 150 per invoice. Attestation is electronic and should be completed within 14 days of the customs declaration to avoid a penalty — we file it as a routine part of the clearance job.

Before your first commercial import, your company must register with Dubai Customs for an importer code (also called a customs code). Registration is completed online through the Dubai Trade portal: you upload the trade licence and the authorised signatory's ID documents, enter company details, and pay a small registration fee. The code is normally issued within about one working day.

Two things trip up new importers. First, the code is tied to your licensed activity — a licence that does not cover trading in the goods you are importing will stall the declaration. Second, the code expires with your trade licence and must be renewed annually; an expired code blocks all filings until renewed. We check both before your cargo ships, and we handle the entire registration for first-time importers.

Every declaration submitted through Mirsal 2 is risk-assessed and assigned a channel that determines whether your cargo is examined. The scoring weighs the commodity, the trader's compliance history, the origin, and the consistency of the documents — which is why accurate, consistent paperwork is the cheapest fast-track there is.

With documents in order, standard clearance completes within 24–48 hours of arrival — and because we file before the vessel berths or the flight lands, green-channel cargo is often released the same day.

Restricted does not mean prohibited — it means a UAE authority must approve the goods before or alongside the customs declaration. The requirement attaches to the HS code, so two products from the same supplier can face completely different rules. These are the categories importers hit most often, and the authority that controls each:

A mainland entry (import to local) pays duty and VAT at clearance, and the goods are then free to circulate anywhere in the UAE. A free-zone entry — into JAFZA, for example — pays no duty on arrival: the goods sit in the zone under customs control, and duty is triggered only when, and only on the quantity that, crosses into the mainland. Stock re-exported from the zone never pays UAE duty at all.

The right structure depends on where your stock ends up. If most of it is re-exported to the GCC, Africa, or the CIS, free-zone storage usually wins; if everything sells locally, a direct mainland entry is simpler and avoids double handling. Our warehousing service covers both bonded and free-zone options, and we file the ex-zone bills of entry as stock moves out — so duty is paid in instalments that follow your sales, not in one hit on arrival.

We clear cargo at every major Dubai entry point: Jebel Ali Port for containerised sea cargo, Port Rashid for RoRo and general cargo, Dubai International (DXB) for air freight arriving through Dubai Cargo Village, and Al Maktoum International (DWC), the freighter hub at Dubai South. The declaration is the same Mirsal 2 filing everywhere — what changes is the terminal handling, inspection location, and cut-off times, which we manage around your delivery date.

If your cargo routes through another emirate — Khalifa Port, Sharjah, or a northern-emirates airport — clearance files with that emirate's customs authority instead. Tell us the routing when you request a quote and we will arrange clearance there through our local partners, with the same single point of contact.