Registering the company is the quick part. The commercial registration itself takes 3 to 7 days once your documents are ready; what takes months is the bank account and the resident card. We handle every step, from trade name to your resident card, and we tell you from the outset which parts are ours to control and which are not.
What we actually do
We are a licensed Sanad office in Al Ghubra, Muscat. Registering a company in Oman crosses 3 separate government systems, and the work is the same whether you are in Muscat or still in Tehran, Dubai or London: filing, following up, and knowing which counter a stalled application is sitting at. We file and we follow up. You sign, and you turn up in person where the rules require you in person.
This is a transactional page, not an explainer. It does not re-explain the law, because our guides do that and they are linked throughout: what a commercial registration is, choosing the legal form, and registering on the Business platform cover the ground underneath everything below.
What you get back
These are deliverables, not features. Hold us to the list.
- A reserved trade name and a legal form chosen for the activity you actually intend, not the one that files most easily.
- A commercial registration carrying the activity codes you agreed, filed across the three government systems the process crosses.
- Chamber of Commerce (OCCI) membership, at the grade your CR supports.
- A tax card, registered inside the 60 days that follow the CR.
- A municipal licence for your premises, with the signboard permission that goes with it.
- A complete bank account file, prepared the way the bank asks for it, and someone who goes to the branch with you.
- An investor visa application at the Royal Oman Police, with the medical fitness step booked and tracked.
- Every document in your hands, in copies you keep, rather than held in someone else's drawer.
If a stage does not apply to you — you already hold a CR, or you are not applying for residence — it comes off the scope and off the price.
The sequence, and what each stage really takes
The order matters, because several stages block each other. The timings below are the ones our guides publish; where nothing is published, the table says so.
| Stage | What we do | Typical time |
|---|---|---|
| Trade name and legal form | Reserve the name, agree LLC or SPC, fix the activity codes | No published timing of its own |
| Commercial registration | File on the Business platform, across the three government systems | 3-7 days once documents are ready |
| Chamber of Commerce (OCCI) | Register the membership and settle the grade | Inside the 4-6 weeks to fully operational |
| Tax card | Register with the Tax Authority | Within 60 days of the CR |
| Municipal licence and signboard | File the baladiya licence for the premises | Inside the 4-6 weeks to fully operational |
| Corporate bank account | Prepare the file and attend the branch with you | 2-3 weeks Omani-owned, 4-8 weeks foreign-owned |
| Investor visa and resident card | File at the Royal Oman Police, medical fitness, then the card | 6-12 weeks, and the decision is the ROP's |
Add it up honestly and the answer is roughly two to three months from a standing start to a resident card, in normal circumstances. The CR is days. The long pole is almost always the bank account, and the police file after it. Anyone quoting you two weeks end to end is pricing the CR and leaving the rest out.
Oman is fast at the thing people worry about and slow at the thing they do not. The CR takes 3 to 7 days once the documents are ready, and 4 to 6 weeks gets you to a fully operational company.
The corporate bank account takes 2 to 3 weeks for an Omani-owned company and 4 to 8 weeks for a foreign-owned one, and the resident card is 6 to 12 weeks. Neither is ours to speed up, and both sit on the critical path if you need to trade and live here.
What we need from you
We send you the list for your case in writing before anything starts, because it changes with the legal form, the activity and the nationality of each shareholder. In outline, it is this.
- Passports for every shareholder and for the manager named on the CR.
- Trade names you would accept, in order of preference, so that a rejection does not cost you a week.
- The activity you intend, described in plain words. We turn it into activity codes; getting this wrong is one of the documented reasons applications fail.
- A premises address or lease for the municipal licence, once you have one.
- Attested documents where a shareholder is a company registered abroad — see below.
- Your signature, and your presence where the rules require you in person rather than by power of attorney.
Foreign shareholders and attestation
If a shareholder is a company registered outside Oman, its constitutional documents and board resolution have to be attested before they are any use here: notarised at home, legalised through the chain that ends at an Omani mission, then translated. This is the step people start too late. It runs on other countries' timetables, in other countries' offices, and nothing we do in Muscat shortens it. Start it the week you decide, not the week you file.
What it costs
These are the government-side figures this site publishes, each with the guide that sources it. They are the ones we will stand behind.
| Item | Published figure | Source on this site |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum capital, LLC or SPC | None | Commercial registration |
| OCCI membership, first year | OMR 33 | OCCI membership |
| OCCI renewal, excellent grade | OMR 279 | OCCI membership |
| Tax card | OMR 10, valid 2 years | Tax card |
| Investor visa at the ROP, classic | OMR 50 | Investor visa |
| Medical fitness form | OMR 30, or OMR 40 for a food handler | Health card |
| Bank account minimum balance | Typically from OMR 200 | Corporate bank account |
Two things are deliberately missing from that table. The CR fee itself and the municipal licence fee both move with the activity, the legal form and the premises, and what it costs to set up a company in Oman sets out what is published and what is not. We do not publish our own fee either, because a single-shareholder SPC with one open activity is not the same job as a foreign-owned LLC with a restricted activity, shareholder documents to attest abroad and two residence applications. What moves our quote:
- The legal form, and whether any shareholder is a company rather than a person.
- The activity, and whether it is open to foreign ownership or on the restricted list.
- How many shareholders there are, and how many need documents attested abroad.
- Whether you want the bank file, the tax card, the municipal licence and the visa handled too, or the CR alone.
- How many residence applications follow, and whether any applicant is from one of the 11 nationalities that must produce a medical certificate.
You get the scope and the price together, in writing, before anything starts.
The three things that actually delay people
The bank account
This is the long pole, and it is a bank's decision rather than a government one. Expect 2 to 3 weeks for an Omani-owned company and 4 to 8 weeks for a foreign-owned one, plus a minimum balance that typically starts from OMR 200. We prepare the file the way the bank asks for it and we go to the branch with you, which removes the rounds of missing paperwork. It does not remove the bank's discretion. How corporate bank accounts work in Oman.
Attestation of foreign documents
Covered above, and worth repeating because it is the one delay that sits entirely with you. Every week you wait to start the attestation chain is a week added to the end.
An activity that turns out to be closed
123 activities are closed to foreign ownership. People discover this after they have chosen a name, signed a lease and told their family they are moving. We check the activity against the list before anything is filed, and if it is closed we tell you at the start, while you still have options. Activities restricted from foreign ownership.
Our guide sets out 8 documented reasons CR applications are rejected in Oman. None of them is chance: activity codes that do not match the intent, names that collide with existing ones, documents that were never attested, and shareholder paperwork that does not match the passports.
We check for all of them before filing, because a rejection costs you the calendar rather than just the fee. Why CR applications get rejected.
What we cannot promise
This is the section other company-formation pages leave out.
- We do not issue residence. The Royal Oman Police issues the investor visa and the resident card, and the decision is theirs. We prepare and file the application, and 6 to 12 weeks is the realistic time to a card. We cannot shorten that and we cannot guarantee it.
- We do not open bank accounts. A bank decides whether to open an account for your company, on its own criteria. We can make sure the file is complete and correct. We cannot make a bank say yes.
- We do not pass the medical for you. The medical fitness test is pass or fail, and 11 nationalities have to produce a medical certificate. The form costs OMR 30, or OMR 40 for a food handler, and it is valid for 30 days, so it has to be timed against the rest of the file rather than taken early.
If another office promises you any of those three, ask them which authority they think signs it.
After the company exists
The CR is not the finish line. These are the obligations that start the day it issues, and we can either carry them for you or hand them over cleanly.
- Tax card within 60 days of the CR. It costs OMR 10 and is valid for 2 years. Tax card in Oman.
- OCCI membership, OMR 33 to join and OMR 279 a year to renew at the excellent grade. Chamber membership.
- The municipal licence, whose annual fee includes a signboard of up to 5 m². Trading without one carries a fine of OMR 300. Municipal licence and signboard.
- One Omani employee in year one, now required on the investor visa route. Plan it into the first year rather than discovering it at renewal. Investor visa for your own company.
The two most commonly missed are the tax card window and the municipal licence. Both are ordinary filings, and both are cheaper to do on time than to explain afterwards.
Why buy this from a Sanad office
Most people setting up here end up with three suppliers: a formation agent for the CR, someone else for the visa, and an accountant who appears at the end. This office is a licensed Sanad centre, so the CR, the tax card, the municipal licence and the visa file are transactions we do ourselves, in the same systems, often on the same day.
- The same office that chose your activity code files the commercial registration built on it.
- The same office that filed the CR knows what the bank will ask to see in the account file.
- The tax card, the chamber membership and the municipal licence are one visit, not three appointments with three people.
- One WhatsApp thread and one person who answers, in Arabic, English or Persian.
And the framing stays the same at every stage: we tell you what we control, what we do not, and where your file is sitting right now.