Companies House identity verification for overseas directors
Every director and every person with significant control must verify their identity with Companies House, wherever they live. A director with no UK passport, UK address or National Insurance number still has two ways to do it, and a company that gets the timing wrong finds its confirmation statement will not file.
Every director and every person with significant control must verify their identity with Companies House, wherever they live. A director with no UK passport, UK address or National Insurance number still has two ways to do it, and a company that gets the timing wrong finds its confirmation statement will not file.
The four things to know
- New directors and PSCs verify before Companies House accepts the appointment
- Existing directors verify before the company's next confirmation statement
- Two routes: GOV.UK One Login directly, or an Authorised Corporate Service Provider
- A PSC who is not a director verifies within the first 14 days of their birth month
Companies House identity verification became mandatory on 18 November 2025, for every director and every person with significant control of a UK company, wherever they live. A director in Austin or Bengaluru has no UK photo ID, no National Insurance number and often no UK address, and the check does not ask for any of them. It asks for a passport, and it can be completed directly with Companies House or through an accountant registered to do it on a client's behalf. The timing differs by role and by whether the appointment came before or after 18 November 2025, and a subsidiary that gets the order wrong finds out when its confirmation statement will not file.
Who has to verify
Two groups of people have to verify: directors, and people with significant control, commonly called PSCs. A PSC is anyone who holds more than 25% of the company's shares or voting rights, or who otherwise controls it, including someone who controls the company indirectly through a holding company further up the chain. For a subsidiary with an overseas parent, the people on both lists are often the same individuals: the founders who direct the parent and who are also named as directors of the UK company. Overlap does not merge the deadlines. A person who is both a director and a PSC verifies once, but which deadline governs that single verification depends on which role is being checked, covered below.
The two ways to verify
There are two ways to complete the check, and either produces the same result: a personal code recording that Companies House has confirmed the person's identity, reusable for every future filing. The first is GOV.UK One Login, used directly with Companies House. It accepts a passport from any country, asks for a short facial photo match, and does not ask for a UK address or a National Insurance number anywhere in the process. Companies House's own figures put the identity check itself at under two and a half minutes once the document and the photo have been uploaded. The second is through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider, an accountant, solicitor or company formation agent that Companies House has itself registered to verify clients and file on their behalf. Becoming one costs a one-off £63 and requires the firm to already be supervised by a recognised anti-money-laundering body. A director who hands a passport to their accountant and gets back a personal code by email within a few hours has used this route without ever creating a GOV.UK account.
New directors and new PSCs
Anyone appointed as a director, or added to the ownership register as a PSC, on or after 18 November 2025, verifies before Companies House will accept the appointment. For a company being incorporated now this sits inside the incorporation filing itself: the identity check for each director and each individual PSC goes in alongside the incorporation form, and the company is not formed until every one of them has a personal code attached to the application. The incorporation guide covers where this step sits against the registered office and the tax registrations that follow. A later appointment, for example a country manager added to the board eighteen months after incorporation, follows the same rule on its own timetable: verify first, then file the appointment.
Existing directors
A director already in post before 18 November 2025 verifies before the company files its first confirmation statement due after that date. Companies House will not accept that confirmation statement until every director named on it has a personal code on file. The practical deadline is whichever date the company's own next confirmation statement falls on, which varies from one subsidiary to the next depending on when it last filed one.
PSCs who are not directors
A PSC who is not also a director verifies within the first 14 days of their own birth month. That date is personal to the individual and recurs every year the requirement stays in force. A PSC who is also a director has a 14-day window set by the company instead: it runs from the day after the confirmation statement date, the same filing that fixes their director deadline. The two roles converge onto one clock for that person, and the confirmation statement date governs both.
Missing the deadline
Acting as a director without verifying by the relevant deadline is a criminal offence carrying a financial penalty, and a company that allows an unverified person to go on acting as a director commits a separate offence of its own. The practical consequence usually lands first: the confirmation statement will not file while any director named on it is unverified, and an overdue confirmation statement gives Companies House the power to move toward striking the company off the register. Keeping the confirmation statement current day to day is covered in full in registered office and company secretarial.
A worked example
A software company in Austin incorporates a UK subsidiary in March 2026 with two directors, both based in Texas, and asks its UK accountant to act as the company's Authorised Corporate Service Provider. Each director sends a passport scan and sits a short video call with the accountant, who verifies both and submits the identity checks alongside the incorporation form, so the company is formed with both directors already holding a personal code. Eighteen months later the group promotes its Austin operations lead onto the UK board. Her appointment falls after 18 November 2025, so she verifies before Companies House accepts the appointment, using the same accountant as her Authorised Corporate Service Provider.
A different group incorporated its UK subsidiary in 2022, three years before the rule existed. Its two original directors, a finance director holding 30% of the shares and a managing director with no shareholding, have never verified anything with Companies House. The company's next confirmation statement is due on 10 June 2027, so both directors need a personal code on file before that date or the confirmation statement will not file. The finance director's 30% shareholding also makes her a PSC, but because she is already covered by the confirmation statement deadline as a director, that single verification satisfies both roles. A separate investor who holds 26% of the shares but sits on no board verifies on a different clock: the first 14 days of their birth month, in this case September, independently of whatever date the confirmation statement falls on.
What to do this week
- List every director and every individual PSC of the UK company, and mark which were appointed before 18 November 2025 and which after.
- For each PSC who is not a director, write down their birth month. The first 14 days of that month is their recurring deadline each year the requirement is in force.
- Find the company's next confirmation statement date and set a reminder a month ahead of it, since every director and every director-PSC needs to have verified before that filing can be accepted.
- Decide the route for each person: GOV.UK One Login taken directly by the individual, or an Authorised Corporate Service Provider acting on their behalf. Brief whichever accountant or agent is handling it early, so passports and video calls happen with time to spare across time zones.
Common questions
Does a director without a UK passport or UK address still have to verify?
Yes, and nothing about the check requires a UK document. GOV.UK One Login accepts a passport from any country and does not ask for a UK address or a National Insurance number at any point. A director based outside the UK completes the same check as a UK-resident one: upload the passport, complete a short facial photo match, and receive a personal code. The only decision is whether to do this directly through GOV.UK One Login or through an accountant acting as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider, and that choice affects convenience across time zones more than it affects eligibility.
Our company was incorporated in 2021. When exactly do our directors have to verify?
Before the company files its first confirmation statement due after 18 November 2025. Companies House will not accept that confirmation statement until every director named on it has a personal code on file, so the date to work from is the company's own confirmation statement date. Find that date on the public record or in the company's own filing diary, and get each director's identity check done well ahead of it, because collecting passports and arranging video calls across time zones takes longer than the check itself.
Can one of our directors verify through GOV.UK One Login and another through our accountant?
Yes. The two routes are independent of each other and a company can mix them freely between its directors and PSCs. A UK-based director might find it quicker to complete GOV.UK One Login personally, while a director overseas hands a passport to the company's accountant and lets them handle it as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider. Both routes end in the same place: a personal code on file at Companies House against that individual's name, and the company's confirmation statement treats the two exactly alike.
What does an Authorised Corporate Service Provider need from a director to verify them?
A copy of a valid passport and, in most cases, a short video call or in-person meeting to check the document against the person holding it. The accountant or agent acting as the company's Authorised Corporate Service Provider has to be supervised by a recognised anti-money-laundering body, which is why they ask for the same identity evidence they would collect for any other anti-money-laundering check. Once satisfied, they submit the verification to Companies House and the director receives their personal code by email, typically within a few hours.
Our PSC lives abroad and has no involvement in running the company. Does the 14-day birth-month rule still apply to them?
Yes. The 14-day window tied to the first 14 days of a person's birth month applies to any existing PSC who is not also a director, wherever they live and however little day-to-day involvement they have. Residency and involvement are not part of the test: holding more than 25% of the shares, or otherwise controlling the company, is what makes someone a PSC, and that status carries the verification deadline with it regardless of where they are based or whether they attend board meetings.
What happens if a director misses their verification deadline?
Two offences can arise, one personal and one corporate. It becomes a criminal offence for that person to go on acting as a director once their deadline has passed, and a separate offence for the company to allow them to do so. The first consequence to land is usually procedural: the company's confirmation statement will not file while an unverified director remains named on it, and a confirmation statement left outstanding gives Companies House grounds to move toward striking the company off the register.
Does a parent company's own directors, who never sit on the UK subsidiary's board, need to verify anything?
Not for identity verification, unless they are also named as a director or PSC of the UK company itself. The requirement attaches to roles on the UK company's own record at Companies House: its directors and the individuals who appear on its PSC register, which for a wholly owned subsidiary usually traces back to whoever ultimately controls the parent. A parent-company director with no UK appointment and no personal entry on the UK PSC register has nothing to verify on this company's account.
Is the £63 Authorised Corporate Service Provider fee paid once, or for each client verified?
Once. The £63 is what a firm pays Companies House to register as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider in the first place. Once registered, the firm can verify any number of clients under that registration, and any fee it charges its own clients for doing so is set by the firm itself; Companies House does not regulate it. A client using an accountant who is already registered as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider for other reasons may find the verification itself carries no separate charge at all.
Related guides
Changing a UK subsidiary's year end to match the parent
Companies House sets a new company's first year end automatically, independent of the parent's. Shortening it is unlimited; lengthening it is capped at once every 5 years and 18 months, except where the company is aligning with a parent or subsidiary, which is a stated exception to both limits.
Do you already have a UK tax presence?
A UK taxable presence can exist, and corporation tax accrue, for two years before anything is registered. A UK taxable presence is created by what people do here, not by what has been registered.
Employer of record or your own UK company
An employer of record puts one person on a UK payroll in days without an entity. It does not give the group a UK company, and it does not settle whether the parent has a UK taxable presence.
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