Verifying your identity with Companies House from Australia

If you are a British director or person with significant control (PSC) of a UK company living in Australia, you must verify your identity with Companies House, and the distance is not the obstacle it looks. The free route is GOV.UK One Login: it reads the chip in a biometric passport with an NFC phone and takes a face match. It cannot always be used from abroad, because its fall-backs – security questions drawn from a UK credit file, or an in-person check at a Post Office – need a UK footprint. The other route is an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP), an agent registered with Companies House, which checks your British passport and a proof of address and tells Companies House. Either way you get one 11-character personal code that covers every company you are involved in.

Who has to verify, and by when

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 requires every director, every LLP member and every individual PSC of a UK company to verify their identity, once, for every role at every company.

• Since 18 November 2025 a new director verifies before appointment, and a new PSC within 14 days of being registered.
• An existing director's deadline is the company's confirmation statement due date, where that falls on or after 18 November 2025; the statement cannot be filed until every director has verified.
• An existing PSC who is also a director has 14 days from the confirmation statement date; one who is not has the first 14 days of their birth month, in the transition year to 18 November 2026. Companies House writes to each PSC with their window.

The last existing-director deadlines fall by 18 November 2026. Vaulex's analysis of the Companies House PSC snapshot of 17 October 2026 found 518 British nationals in Australia who are PSCs of active UK companies with a verification date still outstanding. Check your own company free at https://guides.vaulex.co.uk/am-i-affected.

Why One Login cannot always be used from Australia

If One Login works for you, use it. The app route needs a passport with a chip, a phone with NFC to read it, and a face match that passes. An older passport without a chip, a phone without NFC, a failed face match or a changed name can stop it. The fall-backs – security questions drawn from a UK credit file, or an in-person check at a Post Office – need a UK footprint. If you left the UK ten years ago, your credit file there may have little left to ask you about, and the Post Office is a long-haul flight away. Guidance: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/verifying-your-identity-for-companies-house.

Using an ACSP from the other side of the world

An ACSP is registered with Companies House and supervised for anti-money laundering by HMRC or a professional body. It checks your identity documents to the Companies House standard, keeps records for seven years and tells Companies House, which issues your personal code.

Vaulex Group Ltd is an ACSP (Companies House AP021384), an HMRC-supervised Trust or Company Service Provider (XLML00000218127) and ICO registered (ZC087196). From Australia: upload your British passport and a proof of address at https://my.vaulex.co.uk/verify; a reviewer checks them; we tell Companies House; your personal code arrives by email from Companies House. £149.99 per person. We verify British passport holders anywhere in the world.

Proof of address when the bills are in your partner's name

The language problem does not arise in Australia; your documents are in English. The name problem does. Couples who moved together often have every account in one name, and a bill in your partner's name proves where they live, not where you live. Send something in your own name: a bank statement, a letter from the tax office, a tenancy agreement or a rates notice. The reviewer needs to read your name, your address and a recent date. Not sure? Ask before you upload.

Two passports? Use the British one

We check a British passport. If you hold both British and Australian passports, upload the British one; that is what we verify. Close to expiry: use it now, while it is in date; once it has expired you have nothing to photograph. Away being renewed: if the old passport has gone off with the application, wait for the new one; a photocopy is not a passport. Renewed from Australia: it is still a British passport, with a new chip, so One Login's app route may now work; if not, upload it to us. If the name on your passport differs from the name on the register, tell us when you upload.

The time difference works in your favour

Australia is seven to eleven hours ahead of the UK, depending on the city and the season. Our working day starts as yours is ending. An upload at 8pm in Sydney or Melbourne reaches us during the UK morning on the same date; an upload at 9am your time arrives overnight, ready for the UK morning.

Standard service: three working days from the point everything is in. Fast-track: 24 hours on working days. Working days are UK working days, Monday to Friday, less UK bank holidays; Australian public holidays do not change the count. A blurred passport photo page is the quickest way to lose a day.

The registered office back in the UK

Many people abroad keep the registered office at a relative's house in the UK. Companies House letters go there, and the date can pass unopened eleven hours away. Since 4 March 2024 a registered office must be an "appropriate address", one where a document delivered would be expected to come to the attention of a person acting for the company; a relative's house meets that only while someone there opens the mail and tells you the same day.

Switch – Business Pro moves the registered office to Vaulex House in Penarth for £39.99 a month: every letter scanned the day it arrives, your home address off the register, the AD01 and CH01 filings done by us. See https://my.vaulex.co.uk/switch.

If the date has passed

Companies House's letters say: "If you do not comply, you may be committing an offence. You may face prosecution and a fine through the courts, or a financial penalty. In the future, we'll publish a note against your name on the Companies House public register." Not filing a confirmation statement is itself an offence and can lead to strike-off. A PSC can request an extension through the PSC verification service within the window. This is information, not legal advice; we are not solicitors or accountants.

Next step from Australia

Companies House calls it two things. Verify your identity and receive your personal code. Then provide the code for each role: with the confirmation statement for a director, or through the PSC verification service (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/provide-psc-verification). If you already have a personal code, you do not verify again.

If One Login works for you from Australia, use it. If not, start at https://my.vaulex.co.uk/verify this evening with your British passport, a proof of address and your phone. The service in full: https://vaulex.co.uk/identity-verification/.