Identity Verification When Forming a Company (2026)

Since 18 November 2025, you cannot form a UK company until every director has verified their identity with Companies House. The incorporation application must include each director’s 11-character personal code. People with significant control (PSCs) must verify too, but they can do it at incorporation or within 14 days afterwards. This guide covers identity verification to form a company: who verifies, when, how long it takes, and what to do if one founder gets stuck.

Being appointed to a company that already exists works differently. That is covered in our guide for new directors joining an existing company.

Who Must Verify Before a Company Is Formed

A PSC is anyone holding more than 25% of the shares or voting rights, or with the right to appoint or remove most of the directors. In a small company, the founders are usually both directors and PSCs, so in practice most founders verify before filing.

Personal Codes: How They Fit Into the Application

When you verify, Companies House issues an 11-character personal code. It belongs to you, not the company, and works for every role you hold. If you are already a verified director of another company, you use the same code. You do not verify again.

The application asks for each director’s personal code and their name. The name must match the verified identity. A missing middle name, a different spelling or a different name order is a common reason for an application being held up. Check it before filing.

Your Two Routes to Verify

GOV.UK One Login

Free. It works well if you have a biometric (chipped) passport or UK photo driving licence, a phone that can read the chip, and an app check that passes. The bank-details and Post Office routes are only for people in the UK.

An Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP)

An ACSP checks your documents to the Companies House standard and confirms the result to Companies House, which then emails you your personal code. This is the reliable route when:

• your passport has no chip, or the app cannot read it;
• your name is written in a non-Latin script or differs between documents;
• you live outside the UK and the app check keeps failing;
• you are forming the company with an agent who can arrange everyone’s checks in one go.

GOV.UK’s guidance is here: verify your identity for Companies House. Our ACSP vs GOV.UK One Login comparison covers the differences in detail.

A Realistic Timeline for Forming a Company

1. Choose a name and check it against the register: minutes.
2. Prepare the details: registered office, SIC codes, shares, directors and PSCs. Under an hour.
3. Every director verifies. Minutes on One Login if it works first time. Through an ACSP, from the same day to a few business days. This is the step that most often delays a formation.
4. File the application. Companies House usually registers online applications within 24 hours.
5. PSCs who are not directors finish their verification within 14 days if they did not do it at incorporation.

Most “24-hour company formation” promises only count step 4. If a director has not verified, the clock has not started.

If One Co-Founder Fails or Is Slow

The application can only be filed once every director on it has a personal code. If one founder’s check fails, or they have not started, you have two options:

• Wait until they are verified, and form the company with everyone at once.
• Form now with the verified directors, then appoint the other person as a director once they have their personal code. Shares can still be issued to them at incorporation, but a shareholder with more than 25% is a PSC and must verify within the PSC deadline.

If the problem is a failed app check, read what to do when verification fails. Switching to an ACSP usually solves it.

Forming Your Company With CorpAssist

CorpAssist builds identity verification into the formation order. You tell us who the directors and shareholders are, and each person who still needs to verify gets a secure link. Their verification is submitted through our Companies House-registered ACSP partner. Anyone already verified just gives us their personal code. A person checks that every name matches the verified identity before the company is filed.

Company formation packages start at £159.99, including the £100 Companies House fee. Each director or PSC who still needs verifying is £35.99. Founders living abroad can choose the International package (£249.99), which includes verification for one director and London addresses for 12 months. See company formation for non-residents.

Frequently Asked Questions

Verification is the first step of forming a company. For every other step, from the name to the shares, see how to set up a limited company.

CorpAssist is an independent commercial service and is not Companies House or GOV.UK. Filings and identity verification are submitted through a Companies House-registered ACSP partner. Rules are based on GOV.UK guidance.