Verifying your identity with Companies House when you have no UK address history

If you have never lived in the UK, or left years ago, you can still verify your identity for Companies House, but only one of GOV.UK One Login's three routes can work for you. The app route reads the chip in a biometric passport with an NFC phone and runs a face match, and that works from anywhere. The two fall-backs, security questions drawn from a UK credit file and an in-person check at a Post Office, both need a UK footprint. One Login cannot always be used from abroad. If the app does not work for you, the other legal route is an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP), which verifies you from your passport and a proof of address from the country where you live. Companies House does not need a UK address at any point. Vaulex Group does this for £149.99 per person, three working days from when everything is in.

Who this applies to

The identity duty covers every director and PSC of a UK company, wherever they live. Companies House's figures at 30 June 2026 showed 55% of directors and 42% of PSCs had verified, and the people furthest behind are the ones outside the UK. Three groups keep coming to us:

• People who have never lived in the UK. A non-resident founder, a parent company's nominee, a PSC in Dubai or Singapore who holds shares in a UK trading company.
• British nationals who left years ago. Address history, bank accounts and credit all moved abroad, and the UK file went quiet.
• People who arrived recently. A UK address, but a credit file too thin for the questions to be generated.

All three share the same problem: the free route's fall-backs assume a UK footprint.

Why the security questions cannot work

GOV.UK is specific about what the questions are. The financial ones are checked against the information Experian holds on your credit file: mobile phone contracts, mortgages, loans, bank accounts. Questions about Personal Independence Payment are checked against DWP records. You also need details from a UK passport, a UK photocard driving licence or a current account with a UK bank or building society.

If you have never had a UK mobile contract, mortgage, loan or bank account, there is no credit file, so there are no questions. If you had those things fifteen years ago, the file may exist but be too thin to generate anything. And the route has no second go: GOV.UK says that if you get an answer wrong "you cannot try this method again". There is also an exact-match requirement on your name, including middle names and initials, against what Experian holds. A name that changed after marriage, or is written differently abroad, stops the route before any question is asked.

The Post Office route is simpler to rule out. You enter your photo ID details online, receive a customer letter, and take it to a Post Office offering in-branch verification. The Post Office is in the UK. If you are not, the route is closed.

What the app route needs from abroad

The app can work from outside the UK, and if your passport has the small rectangular chip symbol on the front cover and your phone has NFC, it is worth one proper attempt first. GOV.UK says the app runs on an iPhone 8 or newer with iOS 16.7 or higher, or an Android phone on Android 10 or higher, and accepts a UK passport or a non-UK passport with a biometric chip. An expired passport cannot be used. Companies House asks for your current address and the year you moved in, and it can be anywhere.

Where it stops for people abroad is usually one of four things: a passport without a chip, a phone without NFC, a face match that will not pass against an old photo, or a name that differs between the passport and the Companies House register. If the app has failed twice, a third go rarely changes the answer. There is no manual route at Companies House and nobody there can override the check.

What an ACSP needs instead

An ACSP is an agent registered with Companies House and supervised for anti-money laundering. It checks your identity to the Companies House standard, confirms the verification to Companies House, and Companies House emails you your 11-character personal code. You then provide the code for each role on each company: in the confirmation statement for a directorship, and through the PSC verification service for a PSC role. Nothing in that chain needs a UK address.

For Vaulex Group you need two things:

• A current passport. We verify British passport holders; the passport does not have to have a chip. The data page needs to be legible and the passport must be in date.
• A proof of address dated within the last three months, in your name, at the address where you live now. A bank or card statement, a utility bill, a government or tax letter, or a tenancy agreement. It can be in the local language.

You upload both on our order page and complete a short biometric check on your phone, which captures your face and the passport data page. That check runs on our own identity tool, not on One Login, so none of the One Login failures carry over.

How the review works for complex cases

Every file is reviewed by an AML-qualified person, not by software alone. That matters most for the cases that do not fit a template:

• Older or non-chip passports. We check the document's security features from the images and may ask for a second photo at an angle.
• Name differences. If the passport and the register show different names (a marriage, a transliteration, a middle name on one and not the other), we tell you which to fix and in what order, because Companies House rejects a code against a record whose name does not match.
• Address formats. Some countries do not use street addresses, some bills carry only a PO box. We look at what you have and say what will pass before you pay.
• Enhanced due diligence. Where our checks or your circumstances require it, we ask for more, explain why, and keep the file for seven years.

If a document will not do, we say so before the clock starts. The standard service is £149.99 per person, three working days from when everything is in. The fast track is £349 per person, 24 hours counted on working days, and the timer starts once you have completed the biometric check and we have everything we need. This guide is information, not legal or tax advice.

The deadline is the same wherever you are

Verification became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025. An existing director provides the code in the company's next confirmation statement, and the transition period ends on 18 November 2026. Companies House will not accept a confirmation statement until every director has verified, and it can fine a company up to £5,000 and strike it off for not filing. A PSC who is not a director has the first 14 days of their birth month. A PSC who is also a director has 14 days from the day after the confirmation statement date. Distance does not move any of those dates, so allow time for a proof of address to be found and a review to be done.

Start when you are ready

Upload your passport and proof of address at https://my.vaulex.co.uk/verify, or choose the fast track at https://my.vaulex.co.uk/verify?plan=idv_24h. To see who in your company must verify and the date for each person, use the free checker at https://guides.vaulex.co.uk/am-i-affected.