If you have registered an overseas company with Companies House, and your overseas company has changed its name with the Registrar of Companies in your home country. You are legally obliged to register your overseas company name change with Companies House in the United Kingdom.
You would be able to register the same overseas company name in the UK if the company name is still available.
Use the overseas company name checker to check if your desired overseas company name is available.
For example, you had changed your overseas company name in your home country from Bravo Limited to Awesome Limited. Your overseas company is also registered with UK Companies House. In this instance, you are obliged to register this name change with Companies House.
If Awesome Limited is available for registration in the UK, Companies House will accept your overseas company name application from Bravo Limited to Awesome Limited.
Overseas company name NOT available in the UK
However, if Awesome Limited has been registered by someone else, you would not be able to change your overseas company name to Awesome Limited in the UK.
In this situation, you have two options.
The first option is you may change your company name in your home country to a new company name that is also available in the UK. Thereafter, register that name change in the UK.
The second option is to register your overseas company name with Companies House using an alternative name under Awesome Limited. Similarly, your alternative name must not already be registered by someone else in the UK. And, it also must not be too similar to an existing company name in the UK.
For this purpose, the company name availability checker is handy. The checker will also prompt you if your proposed alternative name meets the registration requirements.
Contact our London accountants if you have any questions about your overseas company name availability.