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

If you are a British director or person with significant control (PSC) of a UK company living in Ireland, you must verify your identity with Companies House, and you can do it from where you are. 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 Ireland

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 Cork as it would in Cardiff. An older passport, a phone without NFC or a failed face match can stop it, and the fall-backs need a UK footprint, which the Common Travel Area does not supply: the credit file fades after years of Irish bills, and the Post Office means a UK Post Office, so the nearest branch is over the border. 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 Ireland: 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. If you hold Irish and British passports, send us the British one; if the name on it differs from the register, tell us when you upload.

Proof of address in Ireland

Irish documents are in English, so the question is whose name is on them. Any of these in your own name, recent and showing your address, will do: a utility bill from Electric Ireland, Bord Gáis Energy or SSE Airtricity, a bank statement from AIB, Bank of Ireland or PTSB, a letter from Revenue such as your Statement of Liability, a letter from the Department of Social Protection, or a tenancy agreement. The reviewer needs to read your name, your address and a recent date.

An Irish driving licence shows your address and is a government document, so it helps alongside a bill or statement. If every bill is in your partner's name, it proves where they live, not where you live; a bank statement in your own name is the quickest fix.

Rural addresses often have no house number: write the address exactly as the document shows it and include the Eircode. Where you pay tax is a separate matter; the proof of address is simply where you live.

Timing it from Ireland

Ireland keeps the same time as the UK all year. An upload at 10am in Dublin is on a desk in Penarth at 10am. Working days are UK working days: St Patrick's Day does not change the count, and a UK bank holiday pauses it even when Ireland is working. Due next week? Upload early and choose the fast track.

The letter that went to a house in the UK

Many people in Ireland 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, use it. If not, start at https://my.vaulex.co.uk/verify with your British passport, an Irish bill or statement in your name and your phone. Check who in your company still needs to verify, free: https://guides.vaulex.co.uk/am-i-affected.