Directors — all of them, including those who registered years ago and have changed nothing since. People with significant control (PSCs) — anyone holding more than 25% of the shares, more than a quarter of the votes, or otherwise controlling the company. People who file documents for a company — but that requirement comes later, on its own date. If you are both a director and a PSC, you verify once but supply the code twice — separately for each role.

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Directors have ten weeks left to verify their identity

The Companies House transition year ends on 18 November. Every director and every person with significant control must verify by their own due date. Miss it and you commit an offence, face a financial penalty, and cannot file anything for your company.

A red double-decker bus passing a stone City of London marker — The City. Directors of UK companies have ten weeks left to verify their identity at Companies House. Photo: ONLYWAY GALLERY

Identity verification at Companies House became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025. The same date opened a transition year so that everyone could get through it. That year ends on 18 November 2026 — ten weeks from now.

If you have a UK limited company — however small, however dormant, even one where you are the sole director and the only employee — this is about you.

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Who it covers

Directors — all of them, including those who registered years ago and have changed nothing since.
People with significant control (PSCs) — anyone holding more than 25% of the shares, more than a quarter of the votes, or otherwise controlling the company.
People who file documents for a company — but that requirement comes later, on its own date.

If you are both a director and a PSC, you verify once but supply the code twice — separately for each role.

When your date falls

There is no single day for everybody: each person has their own date, tied either to the company or to their birth month.

Who you are	When to supply the code
Director	with the company's next confirmation statement
Director and PSC	separately for each role, within 14 days of the confirmation statement date
PSC only	in the first 14 days of your birth month
Became a PSC after 18 November 2025	on first entry in the register, or within 14 days
New company	at incorporation

The simplest check is your company's own record on the register: find the next confirmation statement date and work back from it. There is no reason to wait for November.

How to verify

Through GOV.UK One Login — free. This is the main route. You create a One Login, answer some questions, then confirm your identity through the app with a photo of your document, through questions about your credit history, or in person at a Post Office if the app will not play. British citizenship is not required — a foreign passport works.

Through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) — an accountant, solicitor or formation agent. They check you against an approved list of documents. It is a legitimate route, but a paid one: each provider sets its own price.

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Once verified you get a Companies House personal code. It belongs to you, not to the company: it stays with you when you move between companies and is needed each time you are appointed a director. Keep it like a password and never forward it.

What happens if you miss it

The government's own wording is blunt: failing to verify on time is an offence. The consequences listed alongside it are a financial penalty, an inability to make filings for your company, and an inability to start a new one.

For a trading business the second bites harder than the first. Blocked filings mean a late confirmation statement, late accounts and, further down the chain, the risk of the company being struck off the register.

What to do today

One Login takes about fifteen minutes and costs nothing. A sensible order: do it yourself, then ask your co-director and everyone holding more than a quarter of the company to do the same, and collect their codes in advance — so that filing day does not arrive with a partner on holiday and no passport to hand.

Start from "Verify your identity for Companies House" on GOV.UK — linked in the sources below.

We do not give individual legal or accounting advice. If your ownership structure is unusual — a company or a trust holding the shares, say — check the order of play with your accountant: rules for corporate directors are being introduced separately and later.

Check whether an employer can sponsor a work visa →
Search the Home Office register on our own site: whether the company holds a sponsor licence, and for which routes.

Published 7 September 2026, 13:05 4 min read Newsroom

Sources