Verifying your identity with Companies House from France: a guide for British directors

If you are a British director or person with significant control (PSC) of a UK company living in France, you must verify your identity with Companies House, and you can do it from France. 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. One Login 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 and supervised for anti-money laundering, 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 duty covers every director and every individual PSC, once, for every role at every company. An existing director's deadline is the company's confirmation statement due date, and the statement cannot be filed until every director has verified. An existing PSC who is also a director has 14 days from that date; one who is not has the first 14 days of their birth month, in the transition year to 18 November 2026. By 30 June 2026 only 55% of directors and 42% of PSCs had verified.

Why One Login cannot always be used from France

The app route needs a passport with a chip, a phone that can read it (NFC) and a face match that passes. Your British passport's chip reads in Lyon as it would in Kent. An older passport, a phone without NFC or a failed face match can stop it, and the fall-backs need a UK footprint: a credit file that may be thin after years in France, or a Post Office across the water. There is no manual route at Companies House and nobody there can override the check.

The other route: an ACSP

Vaulex Group Ltd is an ACSP. From France: upload your British passport and a proof of address at https://my.vaulex.co.uk/verify, complete the biometric checks on your phone, and an AML-qualified reviewer checks everything; we tell Companies House; your personal code arrives by email from Companies House. £149.99 per person, standard, three working days from when everything is in. Fast track £349 per person: 24 hours counted on working days, from the point your biometric checks are complete and we have everything we need.

Use your passport while it is in date; one renewed from France has a new chip, so One Login's app route may now work. If the name on it differs from the register, tell us when you upload.

Proof of address: the justificatif de domicile

Most people in France have a justificatif de domicile to hand. Any of these in your own name, recent and showing your address, will do: an electricity or gas bill from EDF, Engie or another supplier, a water bill, a telephone or internet bill, a quittance de loyer, an attestation d'assurance habitation, or a relevé de compte from your French bank. A document in French is reviewed like any other; your name, your address and a recent date must be readable.

Two French habits cause snags. The name: if every bill is in your spouse's name, it proves where they live, not where you live, and an attestation d'hébergement does not help here; send something in your own name. The nom d'usage: a French bill may show your married name, your birth name or both ("née"), while your passport shows one. Tell us when you upload.

Your carte de séjour proves your right to live in France, not your address, and where you pay tax is a separate matter; the proof of address is simply where you live.

Timing it from France

France is one hour ahead of the UK all year. An upload at 10am in Paris is on a desk in Penarth at 9am, as the UK working day starts; a Friday-evening upload waits until Monday. Working days are UK working days; French jours fériés do not change the count. Due next week? Upload early and choose the fast track.

The letter that went to a house in the UK

Many people in France keep the registered office at a relative's house in the UK, where the date can pass unopened. Since 4 March 2024 a registered office must be an "appropriate address", and a relative's house meets that only while someone there opens the mail and tells you the same day. Switch Business Pro moves it to Vaulex House in Penarth for £39.99 a month, every letter scanned the day it arrives: https://vaulex.co.uk/switch/.

If the date has passed

Companies House's letters say you may be committing an offence and may face prosecution, a fine or a financial penalty. On 16 September 2026 three directors were convicted after Insolvency Service prosecutions; "There is no option to opt out", the Insolvency Service said. Not filing a confirmation statement is itself an offence and can lead to strike-off. This is information, not legal advice; we are not solicitors or accountants.

Start when you are ready

Your personal code goes in the confirmation statement for a director, or through the PSC verification service for a PSC. If you already have one, you do not verify again.

If One Login works for you from France, use it. If not, start at https://my.vaulex.co.uk/verify with your British passport, a justificatif de domicile in your name and your phone. Check who in your company still needs to verify, free: https://guides.vaulex.co.uk/am-i-affected.