How to Register a CIC Online: Step-by-Step

Before you open the service, you want:

• A checked, compliant name, available on the register, ending “CIC” or “community interest company”, with no unapproved sensitive words. See the name rules.
• Your structure decision: limited by guarantee (most CICs) or limited by shares. Both can be registered online.
• Form CIC36, completed and signed by every proposed director, as a PDF. The number of signatures must match the number of directors. See what the Regulator accepts.
• Articles of Association containing all statutory CIC clauses, as a PDF. Missing clauses are an automatic rejection, with the fee refunded.
• A registered office address and a registered email address for the company.
• Details for every director and PSC (people with significant control, broadly anyone with more than 25% of shares or voting rights, or significant influence). See PSCs for CICs.
• Each director's Companies House personal code from identity verification (below).
• A SIC code describing what the company does.

This is the part people overcomplicate. Per the official step-by-step guidance, the online CIC application involves exactly two uploaded documents:

• One identical name, everywhere. The official checklist requires the company name, including the ending, to match exactly across the application, CIC36, Articles and generated memorandum. Any mismatch is a rejection.
• Complete documents. All statutory clauses in the Articles, all four sections (A to D) in the CIC36, and every director's signature. Official guidance specifically warns about AI-drafted documents missing required content: “applications will be rejected and incorporation fees refunded”.
• Consistent communities. The community described in your CIC36 Section A must match the community in your Articles' objects clause.

Your application goes to Companies House, which refers it to the CIC Regulator, the extra approval step that makes a CIC a CIC. The Regulator assesses your community interest statement against the community interest test. There is no same-day service. Clean applications usually come back within a few working days, longer if the Regulator has questions (see realistic timelines).

Once approved, your certificate of incorporation arrives by email, showing your company number and date of formation. Incorporation also registers the company for Corporation Tax with HMRC. From there: bank account, policies, and your first compliance calendar.

When you cannot use the online route

Converting an existing limited company into a CIC is a separate paper process (£45 Companies House fee). For a brand-new private CIC, limited by guarantee or by shares, online is the standard path.

The whole online application hinges on two PDFs: a compliant CIC36 and compliant Articles. CIC Tools writes both from plain-English answers, statutory clauses included, the name identical everywhere and the surplus wording correct, ready to sign and upload. Free to start; £29 when you download. You submit to Companies House yourself and pay their £115 fee.