Does my passport have a biometric chip?

Look at the front cover for a small rectangle with a circle inside it, near the top or the bottom. That symbol is an international standard and it is compulsory: a passport with a chip must carry it, and a passport without one must not. If you have walked through the automatic gates at an airport rather than queuing at a desk, your passport has a chip.

Which countries' passports are supported for Companies House identity verification?

No such list has ever been published. The government's rule is that the GOV.UK app accepts a biometric passport from any country, so what decides it is whether your passport has a chip, not which country issued it. The phrase 'supported countries' appears once in the Registrars' Rules 2025, applying only to passports without a chip at the Post Office, and it is defined nowhere.

Can I verify for Companies House from outside the UK for free?

Yes, if your passport has a biometric chip and your phone can read it. That is the only free route open to someone who has never lived in the UK. The Post Office route requires a UK home address and attending in person, and the remaining free route requires a UK bank account and a National Insurance number.

What if my passport has no chip?

The GOV.UK app cannot verify you. A Post Office can accept a passport without a chip, but only if you have a UK home address and can attend in person. Otherwise an authorised agent can verify you with a passport that has no chip plus one other document, with no UK address required.

How many people cannot use the free GOV.UK identity check?

Companies House estimated that 117,639 people already on the register, holding the nationality of 112 countries and living overseas, fall outside the free service because their country does not issue documents it accepts. It counted those 112 countries and has never named them.

Does your passport have a chip? Check if you can verify free

Three questions, about thirty seconds. Your nationality does not decide this and we will not ask it: the government's rule is whether your passport has a chip, not which country issued it.

Why we do not ask your nationality

Some sites will tell you that your country's passports are not supported. Be careful with those lists. The government has never published one. The rule it does publish is plain: the GOV.UK app takes a biometric passport from any country. What decides it is whether your passport has a chip, not where it was issued.

There is one exception, and it is worth knowing precisely. The rules that govern the Post Office route allow a passport without a chip from supported countries only. That phrase appears once in the whole rulebook and is defined nowhere in it. So when a website tells you your country is on a list, ask them which list.

How many people this affects

Companies House assessed this itself. It found 117,639 people already on the register, holding the nationality of 112 countries and living overseas, who cannot use the free GOV.UK service because their country does not issue the documents it accepts. It counted those 112 countries. It has never named them. Separately, One Login succeeds about 75 per cent of the time, and the government's own survey found only 49 per cent of people could use the app at all.

The Post Office catch

The Post Office route looks like the answer, because it is the one free route that accepts a passport without a chip. There is a catch that the public guidance pages do not mention. The rules require a UK home address and that you attend a Post Office in person. So the route built to help people whose documents fall short is out of reach of most people whose documents fall short.

There is a fourth route, but you cannot ask for it

Companies House keeps a further free route for harder cases, where its own staff examine documents and may ask you to join a video call. It accepts national identity cards, which none of the other free routes do. You cannot choose it. It is offered by invitation, and only after you have already tried and been asked to take extra steps.

Where this comes from

Every statement on this page comes from published government material. The links go to the originals so you can check us.

Can you verify for Companies House free?

Look at the front cover of your passport. Is this symbol on it?

Why we do not ask your nationality

How many people this affects

The Post Office catch

There is a fourth route, but you cannot ask for it

Where this comes from