Verifying for Companies House from India
You do not have to come to the UK, and you do not have to hold a British passport. But plenty of valid Indian passports have no chip in them, and the free GOV.UK app works by reading the chip. That is the part worth settling first.
Overseas Verify · Last updated 11 September 2026
Your Indian passport may well not have a chip
India only began issuing passports with a chip across the country in May 2025, and at its missions abroad from November 2025. Every Indian passport issued before that stays valid until its printed expiry date, and India’s own foreign ministry expects the last of them to still be in circulation in 2035. So most Indian passports in use today have no chip in them.
So the passport in your hand today may well have no chip in it. If it does not, the GOV.UK app cannot read it, and the Post Office route needs a UK address and you there in person. That is the gap an authorised agent fills. Check yours first, because if it does have a chip the free route is open to you.
This is not our reading of the rules. GOV.UK's own guidance to the services using One Login says that people who are not British citizens and live overseas can only prove their identity with the app, and will also need a chipped passport. Read what GOV.UK tells its own services
India's own government expects this to last until 2035
You do not have to take our word for how long Indian passports without a chip will be around, because India's foreign ministry has said it. Its Secretary for consular affairs said in November 2025 that the ministry expects every Indian passport in circulation to carry a chip by May 2035, which is another way of saying chipless ones will still be in people's hands until then. Missions abroad only began issuing chipped books around 14 November 2025. Nothing was recalled, so an Indian passport issued before the change stays valid to its printed expiry.
What actually stops people
Three things, none of them your nationality. The chip is the first, and it is what this page is about. The second is the phone: the GOV.UK app needs an iPhone 8 or newer on iOS 16.7 or later, or Android 10 or later, and many cheaper Android phones cannot read a chip at all whatever version they run, because they have no reader in them. The third is the address step, which is where most of the difficulty in our own work sits. If any of the three stops you, that is when an authorised agent is worth paying for.
Your documents can stay as they are
Nothing needs translating before you send it. Most of the proof-of-address documents we assess are not in English, and any translation needed is arranged at our end at no extra cost. A bank statement is the usual one. Download it as a PDF rather than photographing your banking app, and copy the address into the form exactly as the bank prints it.
Your deadline is not in November
The date people remember, 18 November 2026, is about the end of the transition period and Companies House says plainly it is not a deadline. What matters is your company’s next confirmation statement, and for most companies that falls earlier. The statement cannot be filed until every director named on it has verified, so one unverified director holds up the whole company.
If the free route does not work for you
We verify people of any nationality, living anywhere, and file your personal code with Companies House. A person reviews every case. If we cannot verify you, you are not charged.
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