Overseas Anti-Money Laundering Policy and Information

UK law requires company service providers (which includes virtual office providers) to comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations and gather certain information about new clients before services begin.

We are really proud of our adherence to the AML regulations, and we take our responsibilities seriously, all whilst maintaining a straightforward set-up process. All of our customers are subject to the same standard checks, however businesses incorporated overseas and overseas residents do need to provide additional information. Our packages are pretty flexible, but our rules don’t bend. This ensures we retain a high reputation at all of our Virtual Office addresses, which, in turn, protects the integrity of your business.

We have a team dedicated to our compliance functions, who streamline the process and are there to help at every step. They’re efficient – we aim to activate your account within 24-48 hours of receiving the completed form. We’ve outlined the specific requirements for overseas businesses and individuals below, when you have gathered the relevant information, click the form below to submit!

Overseas Client Form

The process, simply put…

What information do you require?

Our New Client Form covers a few questions about your business to help us understand what you do, the business ownership structure, and your reason for requiring a virtual office. The questions themselves will only take 5 minutes to complete, but it is important you aren’t too brief, and all your answers are accurate.

Alongside the questions, we require you to identify the owners of your business and provide their photo ID and proof of address in order for us to verify their identity. The individuals who we require information for are often referred to as the ‘Ultimate Beneficial Owners’ (UBOs) or ‘Persons with Significant Control’ (PwSC) of the business. If you’re a sole trader, as the owner of the business this would be you. For LTD/LLC/SE companies, this is usually those individuals who have 25% or more shares/voting rights in the company. This beneficial ownership can be held directly or indirectly (via another entity).

You may have a company structure without shareholders, or have no identifiable shareholders with 25% or more ownership in which case we may instead require information for the individuals who hold the most senior management positions in the company (often this includes the Directors) – contact us if you’re unsure.

If you’re a charity, we normally require information on your Chair, and two other trustees.

What documentation do you need for my company?

If your company is registered outside of the UK, we will require you to submit a copy of your company incorporation certificate, as well as proof of the current company structure. This will usually be via company documents specifying the shareholder breakdown and/or management positions.

What documentation do you need for the identified UBOs?

We ask you to supply two documents, a copy of their photo ID and residential proof of address (POA), as well as appropriate contact details for them. The ID and POA can’t be the same document, and there are certain guidelines of what we can and can’t accept so please ensure you read on to check if your gathered documents meet the requirements.

Individual(s) resides overseas documents will need to be certified by a professional or notarised by a notary (depending on the country they are resident in). Further information on this is found below.

Say cheese! To verify identity information, we would request you for a selfie holding the ID you have supplied to us.

Acting on behalf of the customer?

If you are supplying documentation on behalf of the named customer, we will need to be satisfied that you are a properly authorised representative. In some instances, we may require the following from you;

Photo ID
Proof of residential address
Selfie holding your ID
The relationship to the customer

These documents will need to be certified by a professional or notarised by a notary, details below.

Additional supporting documents

Occasionally, we may be unable to verify some of your information, or the details presented require further information to complete our checks. Please don’t be alarmed if we need to complete additional verification, it is not an indication of wrongdoing. It could be as simple as you’ve only recently moved house, or there is a slight discrepancy with your documentation. We may need to have a quick chat to satisfy our checks, where you can let us know anything you think might be relevant!

If we are unable to verify you at the address you have provided, we may issue a letter to you containing a unique code, which once received you will need to confirm to us along with supplying an additional proof of address document. This provides us with a link to your home address and allows us to activate your account!

The instances above are rare, but we like to be transparent about all eventualities!

We’re pretty flexible, but our rules don’t bend!

Photo ID

We can accept one of the following:

Passport
National ID cards

You must ensure:

The ID has at least 3 months remaining until expiry
All four corners of the document are visible
The photo or scan has no glare/distortion
All information is legible
The document copy has been appropriately certified/notarised (details below)

We can’t accept:

Provisional driving licences
Expired documents

Proof of address

Acceptable documents include:

Utility bill dated within the last 3 months (gas, electricity, water, broadband, landline telephone or satellite TV)

Current account/Building society bank statement dated within the last 3 months
Current year’s Mortgage statement issued by a recognised lender or current signed tenancy agreement.
The document copy has been appropriately certified/notarised and is accompanied by an English translation by an official sworn translator (if applicable)

Take note

You must ensure:

All four corners of the document are visible
The document displays the full name of the individual and their residential address
If you reside at more than one address, documents are supplied for both addresses
The document copy has been appropriately certified/notarised and is accompanied by an English translation by an official sworn translator (if applicable)

We can’t accept:

Credit card statements
Mobile phone bills
Payslips
Undated documents

Non-UK residents requirements

EU Residents

If you are an EU resident, your photo ID and proof of address documents must either be notarised by a notary, or certified by one of our specified accepted professionals.

Who can certify documents for residents in the EU?

Bank or Building Society Official
Chartered Accountant
Solicitor/ Lawyer or Notary
Law Enforcement (police officer or judge)
Local council/mayor

The person you ask should not be related to you, living at the same address or in a relationship with you. We may not be able to accept certification from owners/employees of the company applying for the virtual office with us.

Non-EU Residents

If you are a non-UK, non-EU resident, your photo ID and proof of address documents must either be notarised by a notary, or certified by one of our specified accepted professionals.

Who can certify documents for residents outside the EU?

Bank or Building Society Official
UK Embassy or Consulate
Solicitor/ Lawyer or Notary
Law Enforcement (police officer or judge)

The person you ask must be from your country of residence, and should not be related to you, living at the same address or in a relationship with you. We may not be able to accept certification from owners/employees of the company applying for the virtual office with us.

What should a certified document look like?

Upon viewing the original and photocopied documents, the individual should complete the following steps on the copy of each document:

Writing: “Certified to be a true copy of the original seen by me” on the document
Signing and dating the document
Printing their name under the signature
Adding their occupation, address and telephone number
Stamping the document with their personal or professional stamp

Translation requirements

If your document is not written in English, and isn’t easily identifiable, in most cases we will require you to provide a translated copy.

The translation must be completed by a sworn translator, and they should provide their details and stamp confirming this.

Non-refundable sign-up fees – why do we charge?

On your first invoice will be a one-off non-refundable £30 + VAT sign-up fee and here’s why.

As we have already mentioned, we are really proud of our adherence to the UK Anti-Money Laundering laws which require us to obtain certain information about you and your company. We use advanced systems to verify all clients and with our gold standard of checks, you can appreciate it costs VHQ a penny or two! Therefore, we do need to cover these costs with a set-up fee.

The £30 is worth the investment for you to know you are only sharing your address with other reputable businesses – we believe the set-up fee is ‘worth its weight in gold’.

Our work begins as soon as an order is received, we begin by analysing the company structure and background ahead of supporting documents being submitted.

Please note, submitted documentation found to be fraudulent or altered in any way will be reported to the relevant legal authority.

FATF high-risk jurisdictions

Virtual HQ prioritises compliance with international regulations to ensure secure and lawful operations. If you are a resident of, or your business is incorporated in, a jurisdiction identified by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as high-risk, additional verification may be required before we can process your order. In some cases, orders from these jurisdictions may be refused.

What are the FATF Black and Grey Lists?

The FATF maintains two categories of high-risk jurisdictions:

Black List: Countries with serious deficiencies in combating money laundering, terrorist financing, or other financial crimes, and for which FATF has called for countermeasures. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept orders from individuals or businesses based in countries on the FATF Black List.

Grey List: Countries under enhanced monitoring for strategic weaknesses in their financial systems, but actively collaborating with the FATF to resolve them, may require us to gather additional information.

Sanctions: Government sanctions may be in place against certain jurisdictions / industries which may also affect our ability to provide services in a small number of countries.

This policy ensures that we maintain compliance with international standards and safeguard the integrity of our services.

For more information or to verify whether your jurisdiction is affected, please visit the official FATF website.

Want to speak to someone?

If you want to discuss any of our virtual offices or business support services, you can quickly give us a call. A member of the team is available to help.

+44 330 223 2605