Exactly which documents you need to form a UK company from abroad

Incorporation stalls for boring reasons: a blurry passport photo, a proof of address six months old, a company name already taken. Here is the complete list, and what makes each item pass first time.

For every director and shareholder

Photo identity document

A passport is best. A national ID card works in most cases. What matters is that it is in colour, all four corners are visible, nothing is cropped, there is no glare across the photo or machine-readable zone, and the document is not expired. A photo taken on a phone in good light is fine; a photocopy scanned in black and white is not.

Proof of residential address

Issued within the last three months, showing your full name and full address: a utility bill, bank statement, government letter or tax notice. Mobile phone bills are frequently rejected. Screenshots of online banking are usually accepted if they show the bank's name, your name, your address and a date.

Personal details

• Full legal name, exactly as it appears on the ID
• Date of birth
• Nationality
• Residential address (this goes to Companies House but is not published if you use a service address)
• Occupation

For the company itself

• Three company name options in order of preference, because names too similar to an existing company are rejected, and some words are restricted
• A description of what the business does, which we convert into the right SIC codes
• Share structure: how many shares, at what nominal value, split between whom
• A UK registered office address (included in all our packages)

Extra items for payment accounts

• A live website or storefront URL, or a written description of your products and pricing
• Expected monthly volume and average transaction size, realistic figures rather than conservative ones
• The countries you sell to and buy from
• Refund, terms and privacy pages published on the site
• Payout destination details once your Wise or bank account exists
• For resellers and dropshippers: supplier invoices or agreements, which processors often request after early sales

Common reasons documents get rejected

• Address on the proof does not match the address entered in the form
• Document older than three months
• Cropped edges or glare obscuring text
• Name spelled differently across two documents (middle names are a frequent culprit)
• Expired identity document

Get these right at the start and incorporation typically completes within 24 to 48 hours. Get them wrong and each round trip adds days.