Companies House identity verification for overseas directors, by country

“Registered ACSPs must be based in the UK.” GOV.UK, Using an authorised corporate service provider (ACSP) to verify your identity

That single sentence is the most useful thing an overseas director can know. GOV.UK describes an ACSP as an agent, such as an accountant or solicitor, who files on behalf of others, and requires each one to be supervised by a UK anti-money-laundering supervisory body. It follows that a notary, lawyer, chartered accountant or corporate-services firm in your own country cannot verify you for Companies House, no matter how well qualified they are or how many documents they certify. Two options remain: verify yourself through GOV.UK One Login, which is free (GOV.UK), or engage a UK-based ACSP such as us.

The official public list of ACSPs is published by Companies House and was last updated on 20 August 2026. Companies House has said that over 10,000 accountants, solicitors and formation agents have registered (Companies House blog, 11 December 2025). If you are being asked to pay a firm for this, it is entirely reasonable to check them against that list first. We are Tax and Accounting Hub Ltd, company number 08408126, supervised by the Association of Accounting Technicians for anti-money-laundering purposes.

Two features of that table are worth drawing out. The first is how top-heavy it is: China at roughly 141,300 and the Philippines at roughly 100,200 together account for more of the overseas PSC population than the next five countries combined. The second is that this measures people with significant control, not directors. Director country of residence is not published in the free Companies House bulk data at all; it is available only per company through the Public Data API. For small companies the two populations largely overlap, because the sole director is usually the sole PSC, but the true overseas director count is certainly higher than these figures.

Independent analysis puts the scale of the overseas-director population higher still: Tax Policy Associates found that 17.8% of companies in a 209,431-company sample had no UK directors at all, implying around 900,000 companies with no UK-resident director (Tax Policy Associates, 17 May 2025). Separately, the Register of Overseas Entities held 33,100 entities at 31 March 2026 (Companies House Annual Report 2025–26).

If your country is not listed above, that is not a problem and it does not mean we cannot act. Verification depends on the documents you hold rather than on where you live, and a biometric passport from any country is accepted (GOV.UK). The second wave of countries by register presence, on the same PSC snapshot, runs: Poland around 19,000; Isle of Man 18,400; Ukraine 17,300; Sweden 16,500; Netherlands 16,200; Norway 16,100; Hong Kong 14,000; South Africa 13,200; Belgium 12,600; Canada 11,400.

The accepted-document rules are the part most overseas directors get wrong, usually by assuming their national identity card behaves like a passport. It generally does not.

• A biometric passport from any country is accepted, alongside a UK photo driving licence, a UK biometric residence permit, a UK biometric residence card and the UK Frontier Worker permit (GOV.UK).
• An ACSP working to the published standard may additionally rely on EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein biometric identity cards, an eVisa and the Irish passport card (GOV.UK identity verification standard). Identity cards issued anywhere else are outside that provision, though they can still serve inside a two-document check.
• An expired passport is not accepted; a driving licence may be expired by no more than 90 days; a biometric residence permit or card by no more than 18 months (GOV.UK).
• If the person being verified does not live in the UK, they must provide at least one government issued document.
• The free Post Office route is a UK-only option and takes about 15 days, so it is not a fallback from abroad.

That last set of rules is why GOV.UK One Login, free though it is, can be impractical from overseas. If your biometric passport passes, One Login works from anywhere. If it does not, every remaining document on the One Login list is UK-issued, and there is no self-service alternative. An ACSP has the two-document route available under the published standard, and can tell you before submission whether what you hold will pass.

Nothing in the requirement turns on your nationality or your country of residence. The duty attaches to the appointment you hold in a UK company.

GOV.UK lists the people who must verify as a director, the equivalent of a director, which includes members, general partners and managing officers, a director of an overseas company registered in the UK, a person with significant control, and anyone registering as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider. People who file on behalf of a company, limited partnerships, corporate directors, corporate LLP members and officers of corporate PSCs will be required to verify at a later date.

Identity verification became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025. Companies House is explicit that this date is not a deadline in itself; it marks the start of a 12-month transition period that ends in November 2026, by the end of which Companies House expects to have verified 6 to 7 million individuals (Annual Report and Accounts 2025–26). Your own deadline sits inside that window and depends on your role:

• Existing directors: by the company's next confirmation statement date.
• New directors: before appointment, and at incorporation for a new company.
• Directors of overseas companies registered in the UK: by the anniversary of the UK establishment's registration.
• A PSC who is also a director: within the 14-day period starting the day after the confirmation statement date.
• A PSC who is not a director: within the first 14 days of their birth month.

Once you have verified, Companies House issues an 11 character personal code. It is personal to you and not to your company, and if you are a director of multiple companies you only need to verify once and then use the same code for every appointment.

These are UK consequences that follow a UK appointment, and living abroad does not soften them.

Companies House states that it is unlawful for a director to act as a director without completing identity verification, and that the offence arises under section 167M of the Companies Act. Three enforcement routes are available: criminal prosecution, referral to the Insolvency Service, and financial penalties. Prosecution may lead to criminal conviction, director disqualification and fines, and non-compliance can be annotated on the public register for anyone to see.

There is also an immediate, practical consequence that arrives long before any enforcement action. All directors need to verify before the company's next confirmation statement is filed, otherwise the filing will be rejected. The campaign guidance puts it more bluntly still: without verification you will not be able to make any filings for your company or start a new company. For most people that rejected filing, not the prospect of prosecution, is what makes this urgent.

Tax and Accounting Hub Ltd is a Companies House Authorised Corporate Service Provider, company number 08408126, supervised by the Association of Accounting Technicians for anti-money-laundering purposes and registered with the ICO. GOV.UK describes an ACSP as an agent, such as an accountant or solicitor, who files on behalf of others, and requires every ACSP to be supervised by a UK anti-money-laundering supervisory body. The official public list of ACSPs is published by Companies House and was last updated on 20 August 2026.

• You complete a short application, sign the engagement letter on screen and pay by card.
• You verify your identity: either a digital check on your own phone, which takes around ten minutes, or a scheduled appointment where two original documents are examined.
• We review the result against our compliance checklist and file it with Companies House as your authorised agent.
• Companies House emails you your own 11-character personal code, which you then give to every company where you hold an appointment.

Our fee for an applicant resident outside the UK is £175, all inclusive. There is no VAT, no per-document charge and nothing added later. You can read the full process on our step-by-step guide, or start now on the application page.

• Overseas company director? How to verify from anywhere in the world
• Overseas directors: how to get verified
• UK cities we cover
• Bulk and white-label director verification
• Who needs a Companies House personal code?
• Apply now