Jersey business licence

The permission, not the paperwork

Incorporating a Jersey company is quick, inexpensive relative to the rest of a move, and well served by local providers. It tells you nothing about whether your business may operate here.

The permission to trade is the business licence, issued under the Control of Housing and Work (Jersey) Law 2012 and administered by the Business Hub. It is where the substantive questions live and it is where an incoming plan most often meets its real constraint.

What the licence decides

Whether you may trade at all, in the activity described.

How many people you may employ, and in which status categories. The licence does not simply say “you may hire” — it specifies the permissions, and licensed permissions are the scarce ones. Since 14 September 2026 each staffing permission also carries a salary test. How licensed status works.

Who may run the business. Resident business licences are issued to people holding Permanent Entitled, Entitled or Entitled for Work status. Holders of Standard, Licensed or Licensed for Lease Only status are considered case by case, according to the gov.je Control of Housing and Work business guidance.

That last point is the one that stops the most plans. A founder relocating with their company usually arrives without one of the three statuses the licence is normally issued to. It is not an absolute bar: Locate Jersey’s relocation route lets a principal request a Licensed permission as part of the licence application. But the status question and the licence question have to be solved together, and discovering the problem after incorporating, leasing and resigning elsewhere is the expensive way to find out.

What it costs, and how long

There is no fee for a resident business licence, and the Business Hub’s customer promise is 5 working days (10 for a non-resident licence). Non-resident licences are charged. Figures checked against gov.je on 2 October 2026.

The licence is not where the money goes. The costs of a business move sit in the staffing permissions, the people and the premises, and those are worth confirming with the Business Hub before they are budgeted.

How it is assessed

Against the business case and against Jersey’s population policy, which exists to constrain growth. The Business Hub is weighing what the business contributes — economically, and in employment terms — against what it consumes in permissions and, indirectly, in housing.

Applications that read as a genuine business plan do better than applications that read as a form. Say what the business does, what it will employ locally, what it needs from off-island and why, and what it contributes.

Regulated activities are a separate question

If the business carries on a financial service business as defined by the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998 — investment business, trust company business, fund services, money service business, general insurance mediation, AIF services business — then Jersey Financial Services Commission authorisation is required as well.

Most trading businesses are nowhere near that line. Where the line falls.

The order we would run it in

1. Test whether a licence is realistic, and the principal’s status position, before money is committed.
2. Settle the structure, with tax advice in both jurisdictions, and incorporate.
3. Apply for the licence. gov.je’s own sequence has the company incorporated first; on Locate Jersey’s relocation route the formation documents go in together with the licence application.
4. Premises plan — a credible one strengthens the licence application.
5. Staff permissions.
6. Move the principals.

The full sequence, and why it is that way round.