How to Verify Your Identity for Companies House From Abroad: A Practical Guide for Non-Resident Directors

If you run a UK LTD from outside the United Kingdom, identity verification is now part of your compliance life. Since 18 November 2025, verifying your identity with Companies House is a legal requirement, and a 12-month transition period is rolling through to November 2026. Your personal due date is tied to your company's next confirmation statement — and many non-resident directors are only now discovering they need to act.

The rules on who must verify and by when have been widely covered. What trips people up in practice is a different question: how do you actually complete verification when you live in Algiers, Dubai, Istanbul or anywhere else outside the UK, with no UK documents and no way to walk into a Post Office? This guide walks through the process step by step, based on the official Companies House guidance.

The Good News: You Can Verify From Anywhere

Companies House offers a free, fully online route through GOV.UK One Login, and it explicitly accepts a biometric passport from any country. You do not need to be in the UK, you do not need a UK address history check, and you do not need to pay anyone. Most people complete the document and face scan in a few minutes using the GOV.UK One Login app on a smartphone.

Which Documents Work — and Which Do Not

According to the official guidance, you can verify online with GOV.UK One Login if you have one of the following: a biometric passport from any country, a UK photo driving licence (full or provisional), a UK biometric residence permit (BRP), a UK biometric residence card (BRC), or a UK Frontier Worker permit.

Notice what is missing from that list: foreign driving licences and national identity cards are not accepted. For most non-resident directors, this means one thing in practice — your biometric passport is your route in.

How do you know if your passport is biometric? Look for the small rectangular chip symbol on the front cover. Biometric passports are the ones you can use at electronic gates in airports. Most passports issued in the last decade are biometric, but it is worth checking before you start.

Expired Documents: The Detail That Catches People

You cannot use an expired passport to verify with the GOV.UK One Login app — no exceptions. If your passport has expired, renew it before attempting verification, and factor renewal time into your deadline planning. (For completeness: a UK driving licence that expired within the last 90 days, or a BRP/BRC/Frontier Worker permit that expired within the last 18 months, can still be used — but these are UK documents most non-residents will not hold.)

Step by Step: Verifying With GOV.UK One Login

First, create a GOV.UK One Login using your own email address. One important rule: an email address can only be used once to verify an identity. If you share an inbox with a business partner or spouse, each person needs their own email and their own One Login.

Second, have two pieces of information ready: your current home address and the year you moved in.

Third, follow the verification flow and use the One Login app to scan the chip in your biometric passport and complete a short face scan. The system matches your face to the passport chip.

Finally, once verified, you will receive a Companies House personal code. Treat this code like a password — you will need it for your filings, and it is personal to you, not to your company.

What the Personal Code Is Actually For

As a director, you provide your personal code as part of your company's next confirmation statement. If you are a director of more than one company, you must provide it for each company. If you are forming a new company, every director's personal code is now requested as part of the registration filing itself.

If you are also a person with significant control (PSC) of the same company — which is the typical setup for a non-resident founder who owns 100% of their LTD — you must provide the code separately for each role. As a PSC, you provide it through the dedicated PSC verification service within a 14-day window that starts the day after your company's confirmation statement date. PSCs who are not directors instead have a window in the first 14 days of their birth month.

No Biometric Passport? Your Realistic Option Is an ACSP

The alternative routes Companies House offers — verifying with bank details and a National Insurance number, or in person at a Post Office — are designed for people living in the UK. If you are abroad without a biometric passport, the practical route is to verify through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP): an accountant, solicitor or formation agent registered with Companies House as an authorised agent. Many ACSPs verify clients fully remotely. Companies House publishes an official list of registered ACSPs on GOV.UK, so you can check that whoever you use is actually authorised.

Three Mistakes to Avoid

Do not wait until your confirmation statement is due. Verification itself is quick, but passport renewals, app issues or name mismatches take time to resolve, and your confirmation statement cannot be completed without the codes.

Do not assume verifying once covers everything. You verify your identity once, but you provide your personal code for every company and every role you hold.

And never share or "lend" your verified identity. Companies House warns plainly: letting others use your identity to set up or run a company can leave you legally responsible for debts taken out in your name.

Have Questions About Your Own Situation?

Every founder's setup is slightly different — multiple companies, joint ownership, expired documents, or a confirmation statement date that is closer than you would like. If you want to talk it through, the MP Partner team is happy to help: no pressure, no hard sell, just clear answers.

Book a free consultation with our experts →