We are currently submitting company incorporation filings via the XML Gateway, and in a recent submission the XML request was accepted successfully by the Gateway without any validation errors; however, when we later checked the submission status, the filing was rejected with a message stating that the personal code is incorrect. Could you please clarify why the request is initially accepted by the XML Gateway if the personal code is invalid, and at what stage the personal code validation is actually performed during the incorporation process?
There is a dedicated XML forum here: https://xmlforum.companieshouse.gov.uk/ (it’s not particularly active but worth knowing about as XML related updates and notices are posted there).
My understanding of the process is that the initial check on submission just covers some basic validation, mostly related to the format of the data/XML. These are rejected immediately and the submissions never enter CH internal systems (we call these “envelXpe errors”). (where X = o because the filter doesn’t like it for some reason!)
After this point the data contained in the submission itself is checked, this includes a combination of automated and manual checks. If the submission fails at this point, it will be returned as rejected, with a reason given (and can be resubmitted after this is resolved).
Based on the above your submission passed basic automated validation, but then failed at the point the data was being checked. Completely standard and normal. I think the entire rejection process should be explained in the documentation for the Gateway (TIS), but I can’t find a link to it any more.