You can become a director of a UK company in an afternoon, from anywhere in the world. You need to be 16 or over, not disqualified, not an undischarged bankrupt — and, since the rules changed, you need to verify your identity with Companies House. There is no requirement to live in the UK.
That last point surprises people. A UK limited company is one of the few credible structures a non-resident can run end to end without ever setting foot in the country. But the obligations attached to the role are real, and Companies House has just tightened the rules on who can hold it. Here’s exactly what it takes.
Who can be a director
The bar is low, but it’s specific. You qualify if you meet all of these.
Every private limited company must have at least one director who is a natural person — a human being, not another company. You can add corporate directors on top of that, but the human-director rule means you can’t run a UK Ltd through companies alone. Most non-resident founders are simply the sole director and shareholder, which is perfectly normal.
Companies House and the courts maintain a register of disqualified directors. Acting as a director while disqualified is a criminal offence and can make you personally liable for the company’s debts. If you’ve ever been disqualified in any jurisdiction, get advice before you accept an appointment.
The new identity verification requirement
This is the biggest change to UK company law in a generation, and it’s why becoming a director is no longer just a form.
Under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA), every director — and every person with significant control, and anyone filing on a company’s behalf — must verify their identity with Companies House. The point is to stop fraudulent and fictitious people being named on the register. It’s rolling out through 2025 and 2026, and identity verification is now a hard requirement for new appointments.
You can verify in one of two ways.
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Directly through GOV.UK One Login
You prove who you are using the government’s One Login service — the same identity system used across GOV.UK. You confirm your details against a photo ID such as a passport, usually through an app that checks the document and matches it to your face. Once verified you get a personal code that ties your identity to your Companies House filings.
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Through an authorised agent (ACSP)
An Authorised Corporate Service Provider — a regulated formation agent, accountant, or law firm supervised for anti-money-laundering — verifies your identity and confirms it to Companies House on your behalf. This is the route most non-residents use, because the agent absorbs the document checks and the cross-border friction.
Once the requirement is fully in force, you cannot be validly appointed as a director until your identity is verified. Existing directors verify on their next confirmation statement during the transition window. Filing for an unverified director is an offence, so don’t treat this as optional paperwork — it gates the whole appointment.
For the full picture on forming the company around this, see our walkthrough on setting up a UK Ltd from abroad.
Your legal duties as a director
Becoming a director means taking on the seven general duties in the Companies Act 2006, sections 171 to 177. They sound abstract until something goes wrong, at which point they’re the standard you’re judged against.
You owe these duties to the company, not to yourself, even when you own 100% of it. The duty under s.174 — reasonable care, skill and diligence — is measured against what a reasonably diligent person with your actual knowledge and experience would do, so a director who genuinely understands the business is held to a higher bar. On top of the general duties, you’re responsible for filing the company’s confirmation statement and accounts on time. Those filing failures are the ones that catch most small companies, and the director carries the can.
Service address vs residential address
You give Companies House two addresses, and they’re treated very differently.
| Service address | Residential address | |
|---|---|---|
| Shown on the public register | ||
| Where official mail is sent | ||
| Can be the company's office or an agent's | ||
| Must be an appropriate address | ||
| Visible to the public |
Your service address is the correspondence address that appears next to your name on the public register. Your residential address is held privately by Companies House and isn’t published. You must supply both, even if they’re the same place. Most non-resident founders use their formation agent’s UK address as the service address so their home address never goes on the public record — the same way they use a UK registered office address for the company.
ECCTA introduced “appropriate address” rules: any address given to Companies House — registered office and director service address alike — must be a place where a document delivered there would be expected to come to someone’s attention, and where delivery can be acknowledged. PO boxes used as a registered office no longer cut it. A monitored agent address does.
What you actually file
The mechanics come down to a couple of forms, depending on timing.
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On incorporation — IN01
The first directors are named on form IN01, the application to register the company. You give each director’s name, date of birth, nationality, occupation, service address and residential address, and complete their identity verification.
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To appoint a director later — AP01
Once the company exists, you appoint a new human director with form AP01 (use AP02 for a corporate director). It’s a short filing, but the appointee must be identity-verified first.
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To change details or resign — CH01 and TM01
Update a director’s details with CH01. Record a resignation or removal with TM01. Keep these current — an out-of-date register is the kind of thing that surfaces on your confirmation statement.
None of this requires you to be in the UK. It requires accurate information, a verified identity, and a real UK address for the company and for service. Get those three right and the appointment itself is straightforward.
We handle the whole appointment for cross-border founders — the IN01 or AP01, your identity verification through our authorised-agent route, and a UK service and registered office address that keeps your home address off the public register.
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