A Turkey-based entrepreneur with a UK Ltd company had their Shopify Payments account disabled after failing document verification. Despite submitting proof of address and Companies House extract, Shopify rejected the application citing lack of substantial UK operations.
Core Issue:
Shopify Payments requires evidence of physical business operations in the country of registration—not just a registered address. This includes:
Warehouse/office lease agreements
UK utility bills
Employee payroll records
Proof of UK-based shipping
Original Question:
Would having a legal business address (vs. just registered/service address) have prevented the account closure?
Answer:
No. Even with a virtual office or business address service (like through 1stFormations), the account would likely still be disabled without proof of actual UK operations.
Suggested Alternative:
A commenter recommends WallidPay as a payment solution specifically designed for international sellers with UK companies, requiring no UK residency or utility bills.
Status: The discussion remains open with the original poster considering purchasing a business address service, though this approach may not resolve the underlying compliance requirements.
Summarized with AI on October 28.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
Couple of months ago I set up Shopify Payments for my shop and made some sells.But I couldn’t receive the payout and after I reported the issue to the help center,they wanted some documents,after I had submitted they didn’t approved them and then they disabled my Shopify Payments account.
The documents they wanted were Proof of Address of mine and Companies House Extract of my company.Even though I uploaded the documents, they didn’t approved the documents and they explained the reason of they didn’t approved as ’
’ If you are a Sole Proprietor, the business owner must personally live in the country.’
'If you are a Company, LLC, or similar business type, you must be registered with the government of that country, and also be able to provide evidence of substantial operations physically happening there. ’
Now my question is :
I didn’t submit a ‘business adress’ for my company.I just submit a registered adress and a service adress.I mean I don’t have a virtual office or a legal business adress for my company.
If I had a legal business adress for my company,would Shopify Payment account have still disabled?
I am not able to establish a physical business in UK.Now my plan is to buy a Business Adress Service for my business via 1stformations and set up Shopify Payments for a new shop that I will create.
Do you think it will really work? Please keep in mind that I live in Turkey.
Thanks for explaining your situation clearly — you’re not alone in facing this issue.
To answer your question:
Even if you had a legal business address (like a virtual office), Shopify Payments likely still would have been disabled unless you could also provide proof of actual business operations in the UK, such as:
A warehouse or office lease agreement
Utility bills in your name
UK employee payroll records
Proof of shipping from a UK address
Shopify Payments (and Stripe, which powers it) requires evidence of substantial operations within the UK, not just a registered address. Since you’re based in Turkey and dropshipping, this is very difficult to meet.
What’s the alternative?
A great alternative is WallidPay – it’s a payment solution made for international sellers with UK LTDs.