What is a UK Company House Document?
The Companies House is the UK’s official registrar of companies. All types of companies, under the Companies Act 2006, are incorporated and registered by the Companies House, and they also have to file specific reports and maintain statutory registers with the body, as per the law. This includes all registered limited companies, large and small, subsidiary companies, as well as small and inactive companies.
As it is the sole authority for incorporation and dissolving of companies, the UK Companies House can issue various types of official documents, records and certificates, pertaining to a registered company, for official use. After being registered by the Companies House, a new private company will be issued important incorporation documents, such as the certificate of incorporation, articles of association and memorandum of association. All these documents fulfil specific roles. For instance, the certificate of incorporation provides evidence that a company has been successfully registered by the UK Companies House. Third parties, such as UK banks, might ask company owners to submit this document to open corporate accounts or apply for loans.
Similarly, the Companies House might issue other types of certified documents on application, such as a Certificate of Good Standing, which certifies that the company has been in continuous operations since its inception and no action is currently being taken to remove the company off the UK Companies House Register. The body can issue confirmation statements, certifying that the company details, such as company name, type, registration number, trading status of shares and other relevant details, are up to date on the UK public register.
Companies House document legalisation is a process of imparting legal status to such official documents, so that they can be accepted in jurisdictions outside the UK. This is when any local authority of a country outside the UK demands that these documents be legalised for official use.
To be able to use these documents in any international business transactions, they have to be attached with an apostille certificate, which is issued by the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). The FCO can apostille these documents in original, only if they have verification, attestation and signature of the UK Companies House. If the originals do not have signatures of Companies House officials, they have to be certified by a UK solicitor or notary public, to authenticate them. Similarly, photocopies of these documents have to be certified by an accredited UK notary public or solicitor, to certify that they are true copies of the original.
For countries that are not part of the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention, UK-issued documents will need to be attested by the UK Companies House, followed by apostille certification by the FCO and legalisation by the Embassy of the said country in the UK.
Legalisations.org.uk is a leading agency in legalising documents for official use.
Please see the process as below that we follow:
STEP 1
Send Us the
Original Document
STEP 2
We quality check
documents internally
STEP 3
The document is
solicitor certified and then
Apostilled 24 hours.
STEP 4
If required, we take the
document to the required
embassy for legalisation
STEP 5
Documents Returned
Back to you Domestically
or Internationally
Companies house document
Legalisation
Processing Time: Please see pricing page
Pricing: Please see pricing page
Please use the dropdown menu’s for your document requirement. The pricing and document type will be generated after pressing the button below. Please note that to complete your order you will need to use the dropdown menus per document order. After the pricing table, you will then be taken to our order page. Following this you will be sent to our upload page to upload the documents which you can also complete later.
Service Inclusions:
- Solicitor Stamp
- FCO Submission and Collection
- Embassy Legalisations
- Precheck of documents
- Free Resubmissions
- Same Day Send Out
Start Legalisation Order
The button above will redirect you to our legalisation order form via our main RLS website. You will be able to select your service, your return address and method and make payment via it.
After making your order, we advise you contact our legalisation consultants by emailing your requirement to: applications@rapid-visas.co.uk.
Conclusion
The Companies House document legalisation is an important process. If you need to use documents issued by the UK Companies House in any other country, for business transactions, legal proceedings in international courts, meetings and trade conferences or employment purposes, you will need to get them legalised by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. The FCO accepts documents for legalisation only if they bear signatures of the UK Companies House officials in the original, in the absence of which, certification by a UK notary public or solicitor is required.
Legalisation.org.uk offers consultancy services, based on each document, to let you know whether they will require prior notarial services or just an apostille stamp or whether they will require further consular legalisation.
Through a detailed procedure (see process above), we will facilitate the entire process, right from collecting your documents to submitting and retrieving them from concerned authorities after legalisation.
We offer this as a paid service. Our service charges are £50.00 + VAT, for the same-day service package. The FCO office charges £75.00 as legalisation fee. Postal delivery charges will be added, based on the current charges.
Contact us at info@legalisations.org.uk or give us a call at 0845 224 9482 for any queries regarding Companies House document legalisation or apostille process in the UK. You can also fill this contact form, and one of our consultants will get in touch with you at the earliest.
The Most Common Documents We Legalise
Standard Personal Documents
- Birth, Marriage, Death Certificates
- HMRC letters
- ACPO, ACRO, Police Letters
- No Impediment Certificate
- Court Documents
Corporate Business Documents
- Incorporation Certificate
- Appointment Reports
- Mem & Arts
- Company Letters
- Companies House Certs
- Minutes & Resolutions
Educational Documents
- Degree, Masters, Diploma
- GCSE, CSE, O Level
- Professional Qualifications
- Training Certificates
- Transcripts & Reports
- School Letters
Frequently Asked Questions
Legalisations.org.uk can help you complete the entire process of Company House document legalisation by the FCO and other concerned authorities. Our agency is known for the fastest turn around times in document legalisation.
Step 1: Send us an email at info@legalisations.org.uk or call us at 0845 224 9482, regarding all your Company House document legalisation requirements and queries. We will advise you regarding the next steps. Alternatively you can place an order online through Legalisations.
Step 2: Send the required documents to us. You can either drop them off at our office or send them via courier.
Step 3: The documents will be taken by our consultants to a solicitor or notary public in the UK for verification, ratification and attestation.
Step 4: After notarisation, our consultants will submit the documents to the FCO office for the apostille stamp.
Step 5: Once all formalities have been completed, we will return your documents to you safely and in the quickest time possible.
The Foreign & Commonwealth Office charges a service fee of £75.00 for apostille legalisation of Companies House documents. Along with that, legalisations.org.uk charges a service fee of £105.00 + VAT, if you choose the standard package. The standard package enables delivery within 6 business days. The Express package enables delivery within 2 business days, for which we charge £135.00 + VAT.
Our service charges also include the fee of our in-house solicitor, who will stamp and authenticate the original version of the Companies House documents.
Legalisations.org.uk offers one of the most competitive rates in the market to its clients, so that you can complete your legalisation requirements in a cost-effective and timely manner.
If you are based in the UK, you can either choose to visit our office and personally submit the documents or send them through courier or Royal Mail special delivery to our office address. They can be returned to you using the same means.
In case, you do not reside in the UK, you can send the documents via DHL or UPS delivery to our office address.
Yes, you can send the required documents to us from anywhere in the world via DHL or UPS international delivery. After the Companies House document legalisation is completed, we will send the documents back to you through the same route.
Kindly send us a copy of the document through email beforehand, so that we can verify it with the original on receipt. This will help us avoid any issues or delays.
In case you would like to use the documents in a country that is not a member of the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention, the Companies House documents will need legalisation from the Embassy of the country in the UK, after FCO apostille certification.
If a local authority abroad has asked you to legalise your UK Companies House documents, you will first need to check whether it has a signature of a Companies House official in the original.
In case it does not, it will require certification by a solicitor or notary public in the UK, to verify its authenticity. Our in-house solicitor will complete this process before the documents are submitted for FCO legalisation.
The FCO will then issue an apostille certificate to the original document, which will make it legally acceptable in countries that are signatory members of the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention. In case the destination country is not a member of the 1961 Hague Convention, these documents will further be submitted to the Embassy of the country in the UK for consular legalisation. Please note that in both cases, the process of FCO legalisation is mandatory.
The UK apostille is a government issued certificate attached to documents, so that they are recognised for use in other countries. It confirms the authenticity of seals and signatures on the document. In member nations of the 1961 Hague Convention, the UK apostille is accepted, without the requirement of further consular legalisation.
In a UK document apostille, an approximately 15cm2 certificate is permanently glued to the document, after which a red embossed seal, called the apostille seal or apostille stamp, is used to emboss the document with a government crest. The certificate looks like this:
A typical UK apostille will have 10 sections, although not every section will be completed for all documents. This will be attached to a document and witnessed by a solicitor.
Country: This is the issuing country, which in this case is the United Kingdom
Has been signed by: Could be the solicitor or FCO official
Acting in the capacity of: Designation of the official
Bears the seal/stamp of: Could be blank if a seal is used
At: The place of issued, i.e., London
The date of issue
By “Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs”
Number: The number of apostille registration
Seal/stamp: The red embossing seal is applied here
Signature: The issuing officer will put their signature here
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