Companies House identity verification for UAE residents: the director and PSC playbook.

The legal requirement is identical — the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 makes no distinction based on where a director or PSC lives. What differs in practice is document availability and the failure points: a UAE resident is more likely to be verifying from a home-country passport and Emirates ID rather than a UK passport and driving licence, and is doing the whole process remotely, often across a four-hour time difference from the UK.

Yes. Both routes — direct verification via GOV.UK One Login and verification through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider — are designed to be completed remotely using a smartphone or webcam, a passport, and in most cases a facial-matching selfie step. Neither route requires physical presence in the UK.

Generally no. Companies House verification is built around passports as the primary document, alongside specific national identity documents accepted by GOV.UK's identity-checking standard. A UAE driving licence is not typically an accepted primary identity document for this purpose; check the current GOV.UK list before relying on it, and default to your home-country passport.

The Emirates ID is not on the standard list of documents Companies House and GOV.UK One Login accept for identity verification, which is built primarily around passports. It can still be useful supporting evidence if an ACSP is compiling a wider know-your-customer file, but you should plan around your passport as the primary document.

This is one of the most frequent real-world snags for UAE-based founders. Transliteration variance — a name spelled 'Mohammed' on one document and 'Muhammad' on another, or given-name and family-name order reversed between an Arabic-issued document and a Western one — can cause an automated match to fail. Where this happens, an ACSP can usually apply manual judgement and request a supporting document; a purely automated One Login check is less forgiving of this kind of mismatch.

You can incorporate first, but every director and PSC named on that company must complete identity verification, and Companies House will not accept certain filings — such as confirming a new director's appointment — from an unverified individual once the requirement is live for that filing type. The efficient sequence is: verify identity, then incorporate or file the appointment, so the personal code is ready to attach without a second round trip.

It is a unique reference issued once your identity is successfully verified, linking your verified identity to Companies House. You obtain it once and reuse the same code for every company where you are a director, PSC or filer — you do not re-verify for each new company you are involved with, unless Companies House specifically asks you to re-verify.

Companies House's identity verification requirement is narrow: confirm you are who you say you are, to the standard set under ECCTA 2023, and issue a personal code. An ACSP, because it is a UK-regulated business under the Money Laundering Regulations, must additionally run its own client due diligence — proof of address, source of funds questions in some cases, sanctions and PEP screening — that goes beyond what Companies House itself asks for. UK Company Experts, when acting as your ACSP, separates these two elements clearly in what we collect from you.

Yes, provided you have a stable internet connection and your identity document to hand. The process is not tied to a physical UAE location; it is tied to having the right document and a working camera.

Companies House identity verification itself does not require a valid UAE visa — it verifies your personal identity via passport, not your immigration status. However, if an ACSP is separately collecting proof of UAE residential address for its own AML file, an expired visa can complicate that address evidence, and you may need a tenancy contract or utility bill dated within the last three months instead.

For Companies House identity verification specifically, no — Companies House does not require proof of address as part of the identity check itself. If an ACSP needs address evidence for its own AML file, a document issued in a company's name rather than the individual's is generally not accepted as personal proof of address; a DEWA or ADDC bill, bank statement or Ejari showing your own name is preferred.

The verification step itself is typically ten to twenty minutes once your document is ready and photographs correctly. The variable is turnaround: One Login's automated check can return a result within minutes if everything matches cleanly, while an ACSP-assisted route may take a working day or two if a document needs re-submission or manual review — which is common on a first attempt from overseas.

An unverified individual cannot be validly appointed as a new director, cannot file certain documents on a company's behalf once the relevant enforcement date applies, and a company risks having its filings rejected or, in persistent cases, the company itself flagged for non-compliance. Individual officers who act while required to verify and have not done so can commit an offence under ECCTA 2023.

It sits alongside it. Companies House itself does not charge a fee for identity verification. Our £74 fee covers us acting as your Authorised Corporate Service Provider — guiding document selection for a UAE-based applicant, checking documents before submission to reduce the risk of rejection, and completing the ACSP verification and reporting step on your behalf.

Yes. Members of limited liability partnerships fall within the same ECCTA 2023 identity verification requirement as company directors and PSCs, and the same route choice — direct via GOV.UK One Login or through an ACSP — applies to them.