First you get permission to build
Initial approval is granted on four things: who owns the business, what it will be called, where it will be, and what the floor plan looks like. You give the authority the owner’s Emirates ID and passport, a layout plan, a proposal letter, the trade name reservation and an affection plan from town planning - plus a power of attorney if someone is acting for the owner. Back comes an approval letter and a stamped layout plan, valid for one year.
This is the stage where a good decision is cheap and a bad one is not. If the unit you have your eye on will not meet requirements, you want to know before the lease is signed, not after the walls are up.
Then you get permission to open
The operating licence is a different animal. Now the authority wants the stamped layout, your trade licence, your medical director’s registration, a building completion certificate, an equipment list, waste management registration with WEQAYA, an approved Emergency Operation Plan, and a FANR licence if you are using radiation. An inspector visits. If it passes, you are licensed for a year, renewable.
Where the months actually go
Both stages carry an eight working day turnaround at the authority. Almost nobody experiences opening as sixteen working days, and the reason is simple: four items on that second list are issued by other bodies, each on its own timetable. Waste management registration, emergency plan approval, building completion and radiation licensing do not care that your health authority file is ready.
Start those four during your fit-out and you will barely notice them. Start them when the inspector is due and they become your opening date. That single change of sequence is worth more than any amount of chasing later.