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

If you are a British director or person with significant control (PSC) of a UK company living in Hong Kong, you must verify your identity with Companies House, and you can do it from there. 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 must verify, and the date that applies to you

Every director, every LLP member and every individual PSC of a UK company must verify, once, for every role. Since 18 November 2025 a new director verifies before appointment and a new PSC within 14 days of registration. An existing director's deadline is the company's confirmation statement due date; the statement cannot be filed until every director has verified. An existing PSC has a 14-day window set out in a Companies House letter. The transition year ends on 18 November 2026.

Why One Login cannot always be used from Hong Kong

If One Login works for you, use it. The chip in a British passport reads in Hong Kong as it does in Hull. What stops people is the fall-back: an older passport without a chip, a phone without NFC, a failed face match or a changed name sends One Login to security questions drawn from a UK credit file, or to a Post Office counter. After years in Hong Kong you may have neither. Guidance: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/verifying-your-identity-for-companies-house.

Verifying through an ACSP from Hong Kong

An ACSP checks your documents to the Companies House standard and tells Companies House, which issues your personal code. Vaulex Group Ltd is an ACSP, number AP021384. 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. £149.99 per person, three working days from when everything is in. Fast track is £349 per person: 24 hours on working days once the biometric checks are complete and we have everything we need.

Proof of address in Hong Kong

Hong Kong documents are good for this: a bank statement from a Hong Kong bank, an electricity, Water Supplies Department, Towngas or phone bill, a rates and government rent demand from the Rating and Valuation Department, a tax demand note from the Inland Revenue Department, or a tenancy agreement stamped by the Inland Revenue Department. Send one dated within the last three months, in your own name, for the flat where you live.

Two local points. The HKID card is a good second document but not a proof of address, because no address is printed on it. And a Chinese-only document is reviewed like any other as long as your name, your address and the date can be read; type the address in English when you upload. If the flat is in your employer's name, send your bank statement instead.

Your passport: the British one

We check a British passport. If you hold more than one, upload the British citizen passport and tell us if the name on it differs from the register. Close to expiry: use it now, while it is in date. Away being renewed: wait for the new one; a photocopy is not a passport.

Timing it from Hong Kong

Hong Kong is eight hours ahead of the UK in the British winter and seven in the British summer, because Hong Kong does not change its clocks. An upload made by 4pm in Hong Kong is waiting when the UK working day begins, so your afternoon is our morning and the same date counts. Working days are UK working days, less UK bank holidays: Lunar New Year does not pause the clock; an English bank holiday does.

The registered office back in the UK

Many people in Hong Kong keep the registered office at a relative's house in the UK, where Companies House letters can sit unopened past the date. Since 4 March 2024 a registered office must be an "appropriate address", one where a delivered document would come to the attention of someone acting for the company. Switch - Business Pro moves it to Vaulex House in Penarth for £39.99 a month, every letter scanned: https://vaulex.co.uk/switch/.

If the date passes

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." The first convictions came on 16 September 2026, with fines of £80 to £307 plus costs. A PSC can request an extension within the window. This is information, not legal advice; we are not solicitors or accountants.

Start when you are ready

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 Hong Kong, use it. If not, start at https://my.vaulex.co.uk/verify this afternoon with your British passport, a proof of address and your phone. Check who in your company still has to verify at https://guides.vaulex.co.uk/am-i-affected.