Companies House released management information on July 30, 2026 showing that only 55% of directors, 50% of LLP members, and 42% of persons with significant control (PSCs) had completed identity verification by the end of June. That leaves a sizable share of the roughly five million people covered by the requirement with under three weeks before the transition period closes on November 18, 2026. If you hold a directorship, an LLP membership, or PSC status on a UK-registered company and haven't done this yet, the clock that started ticking on November 18, 2025 is almost out.
This isn't a UK-only curiosity. Thousands of founders based in the US, Canada, Australia, and across Europe hold directorships in UK limited companies — for e-commerce ventures, holding structures, UK subsidiaries, or because a UK Ltd was simply the cheapest, fastest entity to set up online years ago. If that's you, this requirement applies regardless of where you live. Below is exactly what changed, how to verify in the next few days, what happens if you miss the window, and how the rest of the Tier 1 world handles director identity differently.
What's Changing and Why November 18 Matters
The requirement comes from the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, and it applies to three groups tied to any UK-registered company: directors, LLP members, and PSCs (anyone who holds more than 25% of shares or voting rights, or otherwise exercises significant control). Anyone newly appointed to one of these roles on or after November 18, 2025 already had to verify before Companies House would register the appointment. Everyone who held the role before that date got a 12-month grace window, and that window closes on November 18, 2026.
There are two ways to complete it, and the right one for you depends mostly on what passport you hold.
| Route | Cost | Typical Time | Accepted ID | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GOV.UK One Login (direct) | Free | 5–10 minutes | Biometric passport from any country, UK photo driving licence, or UK biometric residence permit | Anyone with a biometric passport, UK- or non-UK-based |
| Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) | Fee varies by provider (typically charged per director) | Same day to a few days, provider-dependent | Any valid photo ID the provider accepts, including older non-biometric passports | Directors without a biometric passport, or companies verifying several people at once |
The free route only works if your passport has a biometric chip — most passports issued in the last 10–15 years do, but older documents and some non-biometric passports from smaller jurisdictions don't qualify. If One Login rejects your document, the ACSP route isn't a downgrade; your accountant, company formation agent, or solicitor can usually do it as part of routine filing work, and it's often bundled into annual compliance packages rather than billed separately.
Step-by-Step: How to Verify Your Identity
- Check your personal deadline first. Once logged into the Companies House register, directors and PSCs can see the exact due date for each of their roles rather than assuming everyone shares the same November 18 cutoff.
- Create a GOV.UK One Login using the same email address linked to your existing Companies House account, so the two records connect automatically.
- Have your biometric passport (or UK driving licence / biometric residence permit) ready, along with a smartphone with a camera for the document and facial-match scan.
- Complete the online process: answer identity questions, scan your document, and take a short selfie video the system matches against the document photo.
- If your document doesn't qualify for One Login, contact an ACSP — most UK accountants and company formation agents are already registered as one — and ask them to verify you alongside your next filing.
- Once verified, save the personal verification code Companies House issues. You'll quote this code on future filings, and it covers every current and future UK directorship you hold, so you only do this once.
- If you sit on the board of more than one UK company, confirm with your co-directors and company secretary that each of them has verified separately; one person's verification doesn't cover the company itself.
Who Needs to Verify and the Document Rules
Every individual director counts separately — a company with four directors needs four completed verifications, not one on behalf of the board. Corporate directors (a company acting as a director of another company) follow a related but separate process tied to registered officers, so don't assume a corporate entity in the structure removes the requirement for the humans behind it. LLP members and PSCs follow the identical process and the identical deadline as directors; there's no separate, later cutoff for PSCs just because they don't sign filings day to day.
On documents, biometric passports are accepted from any country, which is the detail that matters most for non-UK directors. A US, Canadian, Australian, or EU biometric passport works through One Login exactly like a UK one would. What doesn't work: expired documents, non-biometric older passports, and ID types outside the approved list (a national ID card from most countries, for instance, isn't accepted for this specific process even though it might be fine for other UK filings).
What Happens If You Miss the Deadline
Once the transition period ends, Companies House is expected to block statutory filings — including your company's next confirmation statement — from unverified directors and PSCs, and it won't register new incorporations involving them. Confirmation statements are filed annually, so even a company that isn't planning any other paperwork this year will hit this wall the next time that routine filing comes due. Reporting on enforcement after the grace period varies: some guidance describes a criminal offence with fines reportedly up to £5,000 per individual for continued non-compliance, while other summaries suggest a more gradual escalation. Treat the fine figure as reported rather than confirmed, and don't wait to find out which version applies to you — verify now rather than testing the enforcement timeline.
The more immediate, practical cost is simpler: a blocked filing can delay a funding round, a bank's due-diligence check, or a sale process at the worst possible moment, since buyers and lenders increasingly check verification status as part of their own checks on a UK counterparty.
If You Run a UK Company From Outside the UK
International founders are, anecdotally, among the least likely group to have verified so far, partly because UK compliance emails land in an inbox that doesn't feel urgent when you're not physically in the UK. If you incorporated a UK Ltd for a Shopify store, a SaaS holding structure, or simply because UK incorporation was fast and cheap, you are still a director in the eyes of Companies House and the deadline applies the same way it would to someone living in Manchester.
Two practical notes for this group: first, you don't need a UK address, UK phone number, or UK bank details to complete One Login — it works from anywhere with internet access and a compliant passport. Second, if your home country issues non-biometric passports (true for some travel documents from smaller nations, and for older passports in several countries even where new issuance is biometric), the ACSP route through a UK-based company formation agent or accountant is typically faster than waiting for a passport renewal.
How Australia, the US, and Canada Compare
Readers outside the UK should know this is not a universal Tier 1 standard — it's specifically a UK requirement, though a few countries already run something adjacent. Australia has required a Director Identification Number (DIN) since November 2021, administered by the Australian Business Registry Services; it's a lifetime number, verification happens once, and enforcement has included criminal prosecutions and civil penalties reported in the tens of thousands of dollars for directors who never applied. If you're an Australian director who already holds a DIN, you've effectively already done the UK equivalent exercise once before.
The US moved in the opposite direction. FinCEN finalized a rule on August 11, 2026 that permanently eliminated beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting for US companies and US persons; only foreign companies registered to do business in the US still have a filing obligation. There is no federal requirement for US directors to individually verify their identity with a central registry the way UK directors now must. Canada sits in between: federal corporations under the Canada Business Corporations Act have had to file beneficial ownership information with Corporations Canada since January 2024, and some of that information is publicly searchable, but it's a company-level ownership disclosure rather than an individual biometric identity check like the UK's. New Zealand's Companies Office already asks for ID at company registration but doesn't run a comparable standalone re-verification scheme for existing directors. The takeaway: don't assume your home country's rules tell you anything about your UK obligations, and don't assume the UK's approach is coming to your home registry on the same timeline, if at all.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Assuming the company secretary or one director verifying "covers" everyone — it doesn't; every individual director, LLP member, and PSC verifies separately.
- Waiting until a filing is rejected to find out you weren't verified, rather than checking your status proactively on the Companies House register.
- Trying to use a non-biometric or expired passport with One Login and giving up when it's rejected, instead of switching to the ACSP route.
- Forgetting that a new appointment made on or after November 18, 2025 needed verification before registration — if you joined a board recently and registration went through anyway, double-check nothing was missed.
- Assuming a non-UK postal address, phone number, or residency status creates an exemption; it doesn't for directors, LLP members, or PSCs of a UK-registered entity.
- Leaving it until the week of November 18, when ACSP providers and support channels are likely to be at their busiest.