Yes. A foreigner can register a company in Saudi Arabia. Under the New Investment Law, effective February 2025, foreign investors can establish and fully own a business across most sectors without a local partner. The process requires two authorisations: Investment Registration with MISA (the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia, which regulates and facilitates foreign investment in the Kingdom), followed by a Commercial Registration (CR) from the Ministry of Commerce.
Saudi Arabia made its first-ever top-10 entry in the AT Kearney 2026 FDI Confidence Index. The legal access question has largely been answered for UK and US businesses. What remains is the process.
Yes, and that hasn't always been the case. Saudi Arabia's New Investment Law, issued under Royal Decree M/19 and in force since February 2025, opened full foreign ownership to most sectors, with no Saudi partner or sponsor needed. It's a significant departure from the old framework, which required majority-local ownership in most structures.
The New Investment Law is Saudi Arabia's core legislative instrument for foreign investment; it scrapped a discretionary licensing regime and replaced it with a straightforward registration process run through MISA. Foreign investors now stand on broadly equal legal footing with domestic companies. That means the same property rights, the same ability to move profits out of the Kingdom freely, and the same contract protections.
Sectors where foreign investors can own 100% include technology and digital services, professional services, manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, real estate and construction, tourism, and education.
Some activities remain restricted. Saudi Arabia's negative list, the official register of activities closed to foreign investment or carrying additional conditions, has been reduced from 43 restricted activities in 2016 to fewer than 20 as of 2025. MISA reviews the list annually; recent revisions have consistently opened additional activities.
Activities currently restricted or closed to full foreign ownership include:
Some sectors permit full ownership but carry additional capital thresholds. Wholesale and retail trade, for instance, requires a minimum paid-up capital of SAR 30 million (approximately USD 8 million) and documented operational presence in at least three international markets.
Foreign investors need a MISA Investment Registration, the mandatory authorisation that clears the way for company incorporation in the Kingdom. Without it, a foreign entity cannot proceed to Commercial Registration or begin operating legally.
Commonly called a "MISA license," the correct term under the 2025 framework is an Investment Registration Certificate. It specifies permitted business activities using ISIC codes (the International Standard Industrial Classification system used to categorise what a company is authorised to do), the ownership structure, and whether the entity is an LLC, a branch, or a joint venture.
Documents required typically include:
All foreign documents must be officially translated into Arabic inside Saudi Arabia before submission.
The MISA registration step itself is relatively fast once the paperwork is ready. The real time goes into what comes before submission: notarisation in the country of origin, Saudi Embassy legalisation, and Arabic translation are all sequential steps, not parallel ones, and each adds days to the clock.
With documentation correctly prepared, the full company formation process in Saudi Arabia typically takes 45 days. Incorrect ISIC activity classification at the application stage is the most common cause of delays.
Foreign company registration in Saudi Arabia follows a fixed sequence. Each stage depends on completing the one before it.
With documentation correctly prepared and experienced advisers in place, the full sequence is achievable in 45 days.
Three structures are available to foreign investors in Saudi Arabia.
Yes, and this is one of the obligations that catches new entrants off guard. Every private sector business in Saudi Arabia must comply with Nitaqat, the mandatory workforce nationalisation programme that sets Saudi national hiring quotas by company size and industry. There is no single universal percentage; the Ministry of Human Resources publishes sector-specific matrices through the Qiwa platform, and the targets have been rising.
Companies are colour-banded by compliance level. Red band status restricts hiring, blocks visa renewals, and can affect MISA license validations. Green or Platinum status opens up faster processing and access to government services. New mandates issued in late 2025 and early 2026 cover procurement (70%), sales and marketing (60%), accounting (40%), and engineering (30%).
It does. UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Ownership) disclosure is the requirement to identify the real individuals who ultimately own or control a company, regardless of how many holding layers sit above the Saudi entity. MISA requires this at registration, and it forms part of ongoing compliance obligations for all businesses in the Kingdom, foreign-owned ones included.
Government fees for MISA registration and Commercial Registration combined typically fall between SAR 1,200 and SAR 5,000. The MISA license itself carries an annual fee ranging from SAR 10,000 to SAR 60,000 depending on the business activity, with energy and manufacturing at the higher end and most service-sector activities toward the lower end.
One meaningful change under the 2025 reforms: most LLC formations in common service sectors no longer require a minimum share capital deposit. Regulated sectors retain their own thresholds, and wholesale and retail trade remains the most capital-intensive entry point at SAR 30 million.
Beyond government fees, the costs to plan for include:
Total outlay varies considerably by structure and sector. A straightforward service-sector LLC with no specialist licensing requirements sits comfortably at the lower end of that range.
Peninsula is a corporate services firm specialising in helping UK and US businesses establish legal entities in Saudi Arabia. With 15 years of in-Kingdom experience and more than 1,500 company formations completed, the team manages the full process: MISA registration, CR, tax registration, and ongoing compliance. Peninsula's Riyadh office is based at KAFD, the Kingdom's primary financial district.
To register a company in Saudi Arabia, Peninsula handles the process end-to-end.
No. Under the New Investment Law (effective February 2025), foreign investors can own 100% of a company in most sectors without a Saudi national partner or sponsor.
Yes. Once MISA registration and the CR are in place, a foreign-owned company can open a corporate bank account with a Saudi bank. Standard requirements include the CR, MISA certificate, Articles of Association, and authorised signatory details.
The core documents for MISA registration include the parent company's notarised commercial registration (legalised by the Saudi Embassy), audited financial statements, shareholder passport copies, a business plan, and a board resolution authorising the Saudi entity. All foreign documents must be Arabic-translated by an approved in-Kingdom translator before submission.
The New Investment Law (Royal Decree M/19, effective February 2025) replaced the former Foreign Investment Law and removed the local partner requirement in most sectors. It replaced a discretionary licensing process with a direct MISA registration pathway through a single-window portal.
Getting the setup sequence right matters for both speed and cost. If you're ready to take the next step, contact us and Peninsula's team will guide you through.
