To verify your identity with Companies House we will need to follow these steps.

Step 1: Information about you
  • Full name and any former names
  • Date of birth
  • Home address
  • Address history for the last 12 months
  • Email address (this must be a personal email address unique to you and not a company email address such as “info@… / accounts@…)
Step 2: Verification process

We will need you to attend one of our offices in person to enable us to carry out the verification process

Step 3: Evidence to verify your identity

We will need to ask to see documents as evidence to verify your identity.

Documents that can be used as evidence

There are 2 options for checking identity documents. The documents Companies House can use as evidence will depend on which option is used.

We cannot use as evidence:

  • Documents that have expired (we specify where there are exceptions to this)
  • A foreign equivalent of a document, if we’ve specified an issuing country or authority

We will not need to verify again if a document expires after we have completed the identity checks.

Option 1

You will need to provide one of the following documents:

  • A biometric or machine-readable passport, or an Irish passport card – these can be up to 6 months expired if identity checking technology can still validate the cryptographic features
  • A UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and EU photocard driving licence (full or provisional)
  • An identity card with biometric information from the EU, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein
  • A UK biometric residence permit (BRP) – these can be up to 18 months expired
  • A UK biometric residence card (BRC)
  • A UK Frontier Worker permit

Option 1 documents will be valid if we can use identification document validation technology (IDVT) that can validate the cryptographic features of the document.

Option 2

We must use option 2 if the documents are being checked by a person, either remotely or in person. We must be satisfied that the process we use is sufficient to validate the documents provided.

You will need to provide 2 documents in total. They must provide either:

  • Two documents from group A
  • One document from group A, and 1 document from group B

If you do not live in the UK, you must provide at least one government issued document.

Group A documents you can provide are:

  • Passport or Irish passport card – these can be up to 18 months expired
  • Identity card with biometric information from the EU, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein
  • UK biometric residence permit (BRP) – these can be up to 18 months expired
  • UK biometric residence card (BRC)
  • UK accredited PASS card
  • UK or EU driver digital tachograph card
  • UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and EU photocard driving licence (full or provisional)
  • UK HM Forces ID Card
  • UK HM Armed Forces Veteran Card
  • UK Frontier Worker permit
  • Photographic work permit (government issued)
  • Photographic immigration document
  • Photographic visa
  • UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man firearms licence
  • Another type of photographic ID listed on PRADO (opens in a new tab) – such as a National Identity Card (Pakistan), crew member certificate (South Africa), or Permanent Resident Card (USA)

Group B documents you can provide are:

  • Birth or adoption certificate
  • Marriage or civil partnership certificate
  • Non-photographic immigration document
  • Non-photographic visa
  • Non-photographic work permit
  • Bank or building society statement
  • Uk local authority or social housing rental agreement – this must be for the person’s current address
  • Mortgage statement – this must be for the person’s current address
  • Uk council tax statement – this must be for the person’s current address
  • Utility bill – this must be for the person’s current address
Step 4: Once the verification is confirmed

Companies House will email to your email address provided a unique identifier.

Moore Thompson will need to have details of this unique identifier in order to continue to file relevant documents for your related company/companies.