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Why can’t I change the jurisdiction during my company formation?

Profile picture of Mathew Aitken.

Senior Content Writer

Last Updated: | 1 min read

If you’re completing a company formation with us, you may have noticed that you can’t change the ‘Jurisdiction’ of your company. In this blog post we’re going to explain why this is.

What is the jurisdiction?

The jurisdiction is informed by the location of a company’s registered office address.

There are four possible jurisdiction options for a UK limited company:

  • England & Wales
  • Wales
  • Scotland
  • Northern Ireland

The jurisdiction of a company defines who is registering the company (this is always Companies House but the branch differs) and the laws and regulations a company will be subject to.

Once a company has been formed, the jurisdiction is locked in. This means that whilst a company can change its registered office, it can’t move its registered office between jurisdictions.

Location of registered office Jurisdiction Location of Companies House
England England & Wales Cardiff
Wales England & Wales or Wales Cardiff
Scotland Scotland Edinburgh
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland Belfast

 

Changing the jurisdiction during the company formation

The ‘Particulars’ section of the company formation process has a dropdown menu dedicated to ‘Jurisdiction’. 

If you are forming your company with our Digital Package you will be able to choose between the four jurisdictions. 

If you submit your application with a jurisdiction that doesn’t match your registered office location, your incorporation request will be rejected (if you pick up our Pre-Submission Review, our team of experts will spot and correct this error).

However, if you are forming via our Privacy, Professional, Prestige or All Inclusive packages, the dropdown will be locked with the England & Wales option pre-selected.

This is for a very simple reason. All of these packages include our Registered Office Address Service. Therefore the system knows that you will be using our address, based in England, as the registered office – so the option to change the jurisdiction is removed. 

And that’s why you may not be able to change the jurisdiction during the company formation.

Thanks for reading. We hope you have found this blog post helpful. If you have any questions, please do leave a comment and we’ll be happy to help.

About The Author

Profile picture of Mathew Aitken.

Mathew is a Senior Content Writer at 1st Formations, responsible for creating articles and advice-driven content. He has 20+ years of industry experience and is an expert on the entire company formation process. Mathew believes in empowering business owners with clear and valuable information that simplifies the company formation process and enables founders to complete their real-world responsibilities.

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