Appointing Non-UK Residents as Directors

There are no restrictions on where a director of a UK limited company is resident. Many companies are formed with non-UK residents as the company directors.

UK companies are deemed to be UK companies due to the location of the registered office, not where the officers of the company live. You can appoint as many overseas directors and shareholders as you need to.

Whilst there are no legal restrictions preventing you from appointing directors from outside the UK, there are a few points to consider.

Will you be able to open a UK bank account? If the banks cannot run credit checks on the company directors they may not be able to open an account quickly. You may need to contact a local bank for assistance with business bank accounts.

Being a company director does not mean you will be given a visa to enter or work in the UK. We recommend you contact UK Visa and Immigration Service for advice regarding this.

If you register a company in the UK, you must maintain a UK address for the company at all times. It is important to note that once you have registered a company in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can move the address within that territory but cannot move outside of it. For example, you can register the company in Edinburgh and then move to Glasgow, or a company in London could move address to Liverpool, but you cannot move from Belfast (Northern Ireland) to Cardiff (Wales).

The rest of the requirements for registering a company are the same. You will need to register the company with Companies House. To do so, you will require at least one director and one shareholder. It is possible for just one person to fill both of these positions, or you can have many different directors and shareholders.

There are three different ways in which a limited company can be registered in the UK:

  • Online through a company formation agent
  • Online via Companies House Web Incorporation Service
  • By post using Companies House paper application

The quickest and easiest way to set up a company in the UK is to use the services of an online company formation agent. Typically, applications are approved in just a few working hours because everything is done online. There is no need to travel to the UK, speak to anyone on the telephone, post any documents or sign any paperwork in person.

The UK is a popular location for international companies to be registered due to the simplicity for incorporation and low start-up costs. You can register your company online today using Simple Formations.