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

If you are a British director or person with significant control (PSC) of a UK company living in the Netherlands, 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 has to verify, and by when

The duty covers every director and individual PSC, once, for every role. 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 the Netherlands

The app route needs a passport with a chip, an NFC phone to read it and a face match that passes. Your British passport's chip reads in Utrecht as it would in Uxbridge. 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 abroad, or a Post Office that is a ferry away. 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 the Netherlands: 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 abroad has a new chip, so One Login's app route may now work. If the name differs from the register, tell us when you upload.

Proof of address: the uittreksel BRP and the bills

Everyone in the Netherlands is registered in the Basisregistratie Personen, and the uittreksel BRP your gemeente issues is an official extract showing your name, date of birth and address. Most municipalities let you download it with DigiD for a small fee, and it is dated the day you request it, which is exactly what a reviewer wants.

The everyday documents also work: an energy bill from Vattenfall, Eneco or Essent, a water bill from Vitens or Waternet, a bank statement from ING, ABN AMRO or Rabobank, a gemeentelijke belastingen or WOZ letter, a Belastingdienst letter, or your huurcontract. A document in Dutch is reviewed like any other.

Two snags. The name: a bill in your partner's name proves where they live, not where you live, and the energy contract is often in one name; the uittreksel BRP solves it because it is in yours. The address: Dutch addresses are keyed on the postcode and house number, so include any toevoeging ("-2", "A", "bis") exactly as the document shows it. Tax residence is a separate matter; the proof of address is simply where you live.

Timing it from the Netherlands

The Netherlands is one hour ahead of the UK all year. An upload at 10am in Amsterdam 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; Koningsdag does not change the count. Due next week? Choose the fast track.

The letter that went to a house in the UK

Many people in the Netherlands 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, your uittreksel BRP or a bill in your name, and your phone. Check who in your company still needs to verify, free: https://guides.vaulex.co.uk/am-i-affected.