Anjouan Casino Licence in the UK 2026: What Players Actually Need to Know

Ask ten British gamblers what an Anjouan casino licence means and you’ll get a blank stare from at least eight of them. The other two have probably just read a forum post written by someone with a vested interest in selling them a “safe” non-Gamstop site. Anjouan — officially the Autonomous Island of Anjouan, part of the Union of the Comoros — issues online gambling licences through the Anjouan Gaming Authority, and a growing number of operators targeting the UK market in 2026 hold one. That fact alone should make any UK player pause before depositing a fiver.

The Anjouan casino licence UK conversation in 2026 is not really about Anjouan. It is about what happens to your money when a regulator’s complaint process amounts to sending an email into the void. This guide walks through the licence itself, how it compares with the UK Gambling Commission, why operators choose it, what protections UK players actually have when playing on such sites, and where the market stands heading into 2026. No cheerleading, no doom-mongering — just the mechanics, the numbers, and the trade-offs.

What the Anjouan Casino Licence Actually Is

Anjouan issues remote gambling licences through its Gaming Authority, a body created under the island’s offshore licensing framework. The licence covers casino games, sports betting, poker and lottery products, and it is pitched at operators who want a low-cost, relatively quick route to market. The application process is far lighter than anything the UK Gambling Commission demands: no requirement for a UK-based board, no detailed source-of-funds interrogation at licence stage, no mandatory participation in GamStop, and no direct obligation to contribute to research, education and treatment programmes for gambling harm.

Cost is where Anjouan wins the argument for operators. The initial licence fee sits in the low thousands of US dollars, with annual renewals in a similar range. Compare that with the UK Gambling Commission, where the application fee alone can run to tens of thousands of pounds depending on the type of licence, and the annual fee scales with gross gambling yield. For a startup casino or an established brand running a parallel “offshore” arm, the maths is brutally simple: an Anjouan licence costs a fraction of a UK one and can be obtained in weeks rather than months.

What the licence does not include is the part that matters to a player in Manchester or Middlesbrough. Anjouan does not operate a public register with the granularity of the UKGC’s, does not require operators to display responsible gambling tools to the standard British players expect, and does not mandate the same level of segregated player funds. When something goes wrong — a withheld withdrawal, a frozen account, a game that behaves oddly — the enforcement mechanism is thin. The authority can, in theory, revoke a licence. In practice, the process is slow, under-resourced and carries none of the regulatory weight a UK punter would assume.

None of this makes every Anjouan-licensed site a scam. Some operators hold the licence as a cost-effective supplement to a stronger one elsewhere, and the licence does provide a baseline of corporate accountability that a completely unlicensed site lacks. But treating an Anjouan licence as equivalent to a UKGC licence is like treating a certificate from a mail-order college as equivalent to a degree from a Russell Group university. Both are certificates. Only one carries weight when it matters.

Why Operators Choose Anjouan Over the UK Gambling Commission

Understanding the Anjouan casino licence UK debate in 2026 requires understanding the operator’s spreadsheet. The UK Gambling Commission has spent the last several years tightening the screws: stricter affordability checks, mandatory deposit limits for high-risk players, tighter rules on bonus offers and free spins, and a political environment that treats every gambling harm headline as an invitation to regulate further. For a lean operator with a target market spanning multiple jurisdictions, the UK licence looks expensive, slow and administratively punishing.

Anjouan offers speed. Licence applications are typically processed in a matter of weeks, not the six-to-twelve-month timeline a UKGC application can stretch to. The compliance burden after licensing is lighter: reporting requirements are less detailed, responsible gambling obligations are minimal, and there is no equivalent of the UKGC’s mandatory participation in the National Gambling Helpline network or the GamStop self-exclusion scheme. For an operator running a lean compliance team, the difference in annual overhead is not trivial — it can be the difference between a viable business model and one that does not survive its second year.

There is also the product angle. Some casino products — certain game mechanics, certain bonus structures, certain slot titles — sit in grey areas under UKGC rules. A 200% welcome bonus with a 60x wagering requirement would not survive a UKGC review in 2026. On an Anjouan-licensed site, it is perfectly permissible. The licence lets operators offer promotions that the UK market has effectively banned, and for players who chase bonuses rather than play for entertainment, that is the entire draw.

And then there is the unspoken reason. A meaningful slice of Anjouan-licensed traffic comes from UK players who have self-excluded through GamStop and are looking for a way back in. The operators know this. The licence provides just enough regulatory veneer to make the site look legitimate on a landing page, while offering none of the player protection infrastructure that would actually interfere with that traffic. It is a business decision dressed up as a regulatory one.

Anjouan vs UK Gambling Commission: A Side-by-Side Comparison

The two regulators operate on fundamentally different philosophies. The UK Gambling Commission exists to protect British consumers and is accountable to Parliament; its decisions are subject to judicial review, its data is public, and its enforcement actions are reported in the national press. The Anjouan Gaming Authority exists to generate licensing revenue for a small island economy and to offer operators a regulatory home that does not interfere with their business model. Neither description is unfair.

For a UK player, the practical differences show up in four places: player fund protection, responsible gambling tools, dispute resolution, and enforcement speed. The UKGC requires operators to either segregate player funds or clearly disclose that they do not, mandates participation in GamStop, requires the display of responsible gambling tools (deposit limits, time-outs, reality checks) on every page, and provides a complaints pathway through eCOGRA or IBAS that carries real weight. Anjouan requires none of these things at the same level. An operator licensed in Anjouan can hold player funds in the same account as operating capital, can omit responsible gambling tools entirely, and can ignore a player complaint with no meaningful consequence.

Below is a comparison of the two regimes across the criteria that matter to a UK player depositing real money in 2026.

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Criterion	Anjouan Gaming Authority	UK Gambling Commission
Licence application fee	Low thousands of USD	Up to tens of thousands of GBP, scaled by type
Processing time	Weeks	Months (six to twelve typical)
Player fund segregation	Not mandated	Mandated or disclosed
GamStop participation	Not required	Mandatory for all UKGC licensees
Responsible gambling tools	Minimal requirements	Deposit limits, time-outs, reality checks required
Dispute resolution	Informal, slow	IBAS / eCOGRA, enforceable
Public register	Basic	Detailed, searchable, updated in real time
Enforcement actions	Rare, under-reported	Regular, publicly reported

The table tells the story without editorialising. Every row favours the UKGC from a player-protection standpoint, and every row favours Anjouan from an operator-cost standpoint. That is not a coincidence. It is the entire reason the Anjouan casino licence UK market exists in 2026.

What Protection Do UK Players Actually Have on Anjouan-Licensed Sites?

Short answer: less than you think, but more than nothing. The long answer requires understanding how UK gambling law applies regardless of where the operator is licensed. Under the Gambling Act 2005, as amended, it is illegal for an operator to offer gambling services to consumers in Great Britain without a UK Gambling Commission licence. That law applies to the operator, not the player — but it means any Anjouan-licensed site offering services to UK consumers is operating outside the law, and the UKGC has been increasingly active in blocking access to such sites through ISP-level measures and payment processor pressure.

For the individual player, the practical protections are limited. If you deposit on an Anjouan-licensed site and the operator withholds your winnings, your recourse is to complain to the Anjouan Gaming Authority — a process that offers no guaranteed timeline, no enforceable outcome, and no equivalent of the UK’s Alternative Dispute Resolution framework. You cannot take the matter to IBAS. You cannot escalate to the UKGC, because the UKGC has no jurisdiction over an Anjouan licensee. And if the operator simply shuts down and disappears, the licence provides no mechanism for recovering your balance.

Card chargebacks offer a partial lifeline. If you deposited by credit card — and note that the UK banned credit card gambling for UKGC-licensed operators in April 2020 — you may be able to dispute the charge with your bank. Debit card chargebacks are possible but harder to win, because the operator can argue you authorised the transaction and received the service (the games). Bank transfers are effectively irreversible. And if you deposited by cryptocurrency, which many Anjouan-licensed sites accept, you have no chargeback mechanism at all. That is not a theoretical risk. It is the single most common way UK players lose money they cannot recover on offshore sites.

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The most honest thing a UK player can do with an Anjouan-licensed site is understand the risk before depositing, not after. Check whether the site also holds a licence from a stronger regulator. Check whether it participates in any self-exclusion scheme. Check whether it publishes its responsible gambling tools. If the answer to all three is no, you are not a customer — you are a balance sheet entry waiting to be written off.

The 2026 Market: Where Anjouan-Licensed Casinos Stand

The Anjouan-licensed segment of the online casino market has grown steadily, and 2026 shows no sign of that slowing. Several factors are at play: the increasing cost and compliance burden of UKGC licensing, the maturation of the Anjouan licensing framework itself (which has added basic due diligence requirements in recent years), and a player base that is increasingly aware of the trade-off and making deliberate choices about where to play.

Market composition in 2026 is roughly split into three categories. First, operators that hold Anjouan as their primary licence and target markets outside the UK’s regulatory perimeter — this includes significant traffic from the UK, but the sites are not marketed as UK casinos. Second, operators that hold Anjouan alongside a stronger licence (Malta Gaming Authority, Curaçao, or Gibraltar) and use the Anjouan licence for specific product lines or markets. Third, a smaller group of operators that hold only an Anjouan licence and actively target UK players, often through affiliate channels that emphasise the site’s “international” status rather than its regulatory home.

The UKGC’s response in 2026 has been to focus on the supply side rather than the demand side. Rather than penalising players who use offshore sites — which would be politically toxic — the Commission has intensified pressure on payment processors, affiliate networks and advertising platforms to cut ties with Anjouan-licensed operators targeting the UK. Some payment processors have complied. Others have not, particularly those operating outside the UK’s banking system. The result is a market that is harder to access than it was in 2022 but far from closed.

For a player comparing options in 2026, the relevant question is not whether Anjouan-licensed casinos exist — they do, and they are not going away. The question is what you are giving up by choosing one over a UKGC-licensed alternative, and whether the bonus terms, game selection or withdrawal speed on offer justify that trade-off. Sometimes they do. Often they do not. The sections below break down the specific areas where the difference bites hardest.

Bonuses, Free Spins and Wagering Requirements on Anjouan-Licensed Sites

Here is where the Anjouan casino licence UK market gets interesting, and where the marketing departments earn their keep. Anjouan-licensed sites routinely offer welcome bonuses that would be illegal under UKGC rules: 200% deposit matches, 300% “crypto bonuses”, 100 free spins with no deposit required, and wagering requirements that range from the merely steep to the frankly absurd. A 50x wagering requirement on a £100 bonus means you need to wager £5,000 before you can withdraw a penny. On some Anjouan-licensed sites, 60x or 70x is standard.

Compare that with the UKGC-licensed market in 2026, where the regulatory environment has effectively capped what operators can offer. Bonus offers must be transparent about wagering requirements, cannot use misleading language, and are subject to review if they are deemed to encourage excessive gambling. The result is that UKGC-licensed welcome bonuses in 2026 are typically more modest — a 100% match up to £50 with a 30x or 40x wagering requirement is representative — but they come with enforceable terms, a complaints pathway, and the knowledge that the operator has been vetted by a regulator that takes player protection seriously.

The “no deposit” bonus deserves special mention, because it is the single most effective marketing tool in the offshore casino arsenal. A “free” £10 or 20 free spins with no deposit required sounds like free money. It is not. The wagering requirements on no-deposit bonuses are typically higher than on deposit bonuses — 60x to 100x is common — and the maximum withdrawal from a no-deposit bonus is usually capped at £50 to £100. Casinos are not charities. Nobody gives away free money. The no-deposit bonus is a customer acquisition cost, and the maths works because a small percentage of players who claim it go on to deposit real money and lose more than the bonus was worth.

And a word on “free spins” — the gambling equivalent of a free lollipop at the dentist. You get something for nothing, the dentist gets your trust, and the next thing you know you are sitting in the chair with a drill in your mouth. Free spins on Anjouan-licensed sites are almost always tied to specific slot titles (usually ones with a high house edge), carry wagering requirements on the winnings, and expire within 24 to 72 hours. They are not a gift. They are a hook.

Payment Methods, Withdrawal Speeds and the Crypto Question

Payment flexibility is one of the genuine advantages Anjouan-licensed sites offer over their UKGC-licensed counterparts, and it is the reason a non-trivial number of UK players use them. UKGC-licensed operators in 2026 are restricted to payment methods that comply with the Commission’s rules: no credit cards (banned since April 2020), no cryptocurrency (not recognised as a valid payment method under UKGC licensing), and strict verification requirements that can delay first withdrawals by days. Anjouan-licensed sites face none of these restrictions.

The typical Anjouan-licensed casino in 2026 accepts a wider range of payment methods than a UKGC-licensed site: major debit cards, bank transfers, e-wallets (Skrill, Neteller, ecoPayz), prepaid vouchers, and — most significantly — a range of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and various stablecoins. Crypto deposits are typically processed within minutes, and withdrawals to crypto wallets can be near-instant. That is a meaningful advantage over the UKGC-licensed market, where a first withdrawal can take three to five working days due to verification checks, and subsequent withdrawals typically take one to two working days.

But speed comes with a cost, and the cost is reversibility. A bank transfer to a UKGC-licensed operator is protected by the UK’s banking regulations and, in many cases, by the Financial Ombudsman Service if something goes wrong. A crypto transaction to an Anjouan-licensed site is final. There is no bank to call, no ombudsman to complain to, no chargeback to request. If the operator decides not to process your withdrawal — and on some offshore sites, this happens with depressing regularity — your options are to complain to a regulator on a small island in the Indian Ocean and hope for the best.

The table below sets out the typical payment landscape across the two regulatory environments, using representative figures rather than brand-specific claims (specific terms vary by operator and change frequently).

Payment method	Typical deposit time (Anjouan-licensed)	Typical withdrawal time (Anjouan-licensed)	Typical withdrawal time (UKGC-licensed)	Reversibility
Debit card	Instant	1–3 days	1–2 days	Partial (chargeback possible)
Credit card	Instant	1–3 days	Not available (banned 2020)	Partial (chargeback possible)
Bank transfer	1–3 days	2–5 days	1–3 days	Partial (via bank dispute)
E-wallet (Skrill, Neteller)	Instant	Within 24 hours	Within 24 hours	Minimal
Cryptocurrency	Minutes	Minutes to 1 hour	Not available	None
Prepaid voucher	Instant	Not typically available	Not typically available	None

The pattern is clear. Anjouan-licensed sites are faster and more flexible on deposits, and they offer crypto as an option that simply does not exist in the UKGC-licensed market. But the speed and flexibility come at the cost of consumer protection, and the crypto option — the one that most differentiates the two markets — is also the one that leaves a UK player with the fewest remedies if something goes wrong. Fast money in, potentially no money out. That is the trade.

How to Evaluate an Anjouan-Licensed Casino Before You Deposit

Not every Anjouan-licensed site is a disaster waiting to happen, and not every UKGC-licensed site is a model of corporate responsibility. The regulator matters, but it is not the only variable. A UK player considering an Anjouan-licensed casino in 2026 should run through a checklist before depositing — not because the checklist guarantees safety, but because it filters out the worst offenders quickly.

Start with the licence itself. Does the site display its Anjouan licence number and link to the Gaming Authority’s register? If it does not, that is a red flag regardless of what other licences the site claims to hold. Then check for secondary licences: does the operator also hold a Malta Gaming Authority, Curaçao or Gibraltar licence? An operator that holds Anjouan alongside a stronger regulator is a fundamentally different proposition from one that holds Anjouan alone. The secondary licence does not protect you under UK law, but it does mean the operator is subject to at least one regulatory body with a functioning enforcement mechanism.

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Next, examine the site’s responsible gambling provisions. Does it offer deposit limits? Time-outs? Self-exclusion? A reality check feature that interrupts play at regular intervals? Anjouan does not require any of these, so their presence is a voluntary signal that the operator takes player welfare seriously — or at least takes the appearance of taking it seriously. Their absence is a signal that the operator has no interest in anything beyond your deposit.

Then look at the bonus terms with the cynicism they deserve. Read the wagering requirements, the maximum bet limits during bonus play, the game contribution percentages (slots usually count 100%, table games often count 10% or less), and the maximum withdrawal cap on bonus winnings. A bonus with a 70x wagering requirement, a £5 maximum bet limit and a £100 withdrawal cap is not a bonus. It is a mathematical impossibility dressed up as a welcome gift. And read the terms in full — the fine print on offshore sites tends to be where the operator reserves the right to void winnings for reasons that would not survive scrutiny under UK law.

Finally, check the site’s track record. Forums, review sites and player communities are not perfect — they are full of bad-faith reviews, both positive and negative — but a pattern of withdrawal complaints across multiple independent sources is a signal worth taking seriously. One complaint might be a disgruntled player. Fifty complaints describing the same pattern — withdrawal requests stalled, support unresponsive, account suddenly flagged for “verification” after a big win — that is a business model, not a coincidence.

New Anjouan-Licensed Casinos Entering the UK Market in 2026

The pipeline of new Anjouan-licensed casinos targeting UK players shows no signs of drying up in 2026. The economics are too favourable: low licensing costs, light compliance requirements, and a player base that is large enough to sustain operators even after the UKGC’s access-blocking measures. Several new brands have launched in the first half of 2026, and the pattern is consistent — aggressive bonus offers, crypto-first payment processing, and marketing that emphasises “freedom” and “choice” rather than the regulatory details.

For a player, the arrival of a new Anjouan-licensed casino is a double-edged proposition. On one hand, new operators need to attract customers, and they do so through generous welcome offers, faster-than-average withdrawal processing (at least initially) and responsive customer support. On the other hand, new operators have no track record, no established dispute resolution history, and — in many cases — corporate structures that are deliberately opaque. The company behind the site might be registered in the Comoros, Cyprus, or a jurisdiction with minimal corporate transparency requirements. When things go wrong, knowing who to complain to matters, and “a shell company on a small island” is not a satisfying answer.

The affiliate ecosystem around new Anjouan-licensed casinos is worth understanding too. Many of the sites that rank these casinos in search results are compensated by the operators they recommend, through revenue share or cost-per-acquisition deals. This does not automatically make their recommendations dishonest, but it does mean the incentive structure favours operators that pay the most, not operators that treat players the best. A “top 10 Anjouan casinos” list on an affiliate site is a commercial product, not a consumer service. The distinction matters when the list is the thing convincing you to deposit £200 on a site you had never heard of yesterday.

Some new entrants in 2026 are trying to differentiate on responsible gambling — offering voluntary deposit limits, publishing their game fairness audits, and even participating in third-party self-exclusion schemes that are not GamStop. These operators are responding to a market reality: UK players are more informed than they were five years ago, and the ones willing to play offshore are not the ones who need convincing that casinos are safe. They are the ones who want the best terms and are willing to accept the regulatory trade-off. Giving them responsible gambling tools is a competitive advantage, not a compliance burden.

Responsible Gambling When Playing on Anjouan-Licensed Sites

The responsible gambling conversation takes on a different character when the operator is not required to provide responsible gambling tools by law. On a UKGC-licensed site, deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion and reality checks are mandatory — you can set them, and the operator must enforce them. On an Anjouan-licensed site, every one of those tools is optional, and many operators skip them entirely. The responsibility for managing your gambling falls almost entirely on you, which is a significant shift from the UKGC-licensed market.

Practical steps for a UK player using Anjouan-licensed sites start with the basics: set a deposit limit before you start playing, not after you have already lost more than you intended. Use the site’s tools if they exist — most reputable Anjouan-licensed operators do offer deposit limits, even if they are not legally required to. If the site does not offer any responsible gambling tools, treat that as a signal about the operator’s priorities, and consider whether you want to deposit on a site that has made a deliberate choice not to provide them.

Self-exclusion is the thorniest issue. GamStop, the UK’s national self-exclusion scheme, covers UKGC-licensed operators only. If you have self-excluded through GamStop and then play on an Anjouan-licensed site, your self-exclusion does not apply — the operator has no obligation to check, and most do not. This is not a loophole in the system so much as a fundamental limitation: GamStop can only regulate the operators that choose to participate, and Anjouan-licensed sites targeting UK players have made a commercial decision not to. For a player in recovery, this is the single most dangerous aspect of the offshore market, and it is not one that individual operators or regulators are likely to fix.

Third-party tools offer partial solutions. Services like Gamban and NetNanny can block gambling sites at the device level, regardless of which regulator licenses them. They are not perfect — determined players can find workarounds — but they add a layer of friction that can be the difference between a moment of weakness and a deposit you cannot afford. For UK players who have chosen to use Anjouan-licensed sites, combining site-level deposit limits with device-level blocking tools is the most robust approach available, even if it is not as comprehensive as the UKGC-licensed ecosystem would provide.

The uncomfortable truth is that the Anjouan casino licence UK market exists, in part, because it offers less protection. That is the product. Operators choose the licence because it lets them offer terms, bonuses and access that the UKGC-licensed market has regulated away, and players choose those operators because they want what the UKGC-licensed market no longer provides. Both sides are making rational decisions within their own frameworks. The risk is that the player’s framework — “I am an adult making a free choice” — does not account for the structural asymmetry: the operator knows the odds, the operator knows the regulatory gap, and the operator has designed the product to exploit both. The player, meanwhile, is making a decision based on a bonus offer and a withdrawal speed comparison, without full visibility into what happens when things go wrong. That gap between what the player knows and what the operator knows is where the money is lost. And it is lost in ways that no amount of “responsible gambling” messaging from the operator will ever fully address, because the messaging itself is part of the product — a coat of paint on a building that was never designed to keep you safe in the first place.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it legal for UK players to use Anjouan-licensed casinos?

It is not illegal for a UK player to gamble on an Anjouan-licensed site — the Gambling Act 2005 targets operators, not consumers. But the site itself is operating illegally in the UK without a UKGC licence, which means you have no UK regulatory protection if something goes wrong with your account or your withdrawals.

What happens if an Anjouan-licensed casino refuses to pay my winnings?

Your recourse is to complain to the Anjouan Gaming Authority directly, a process with no guaranteed timeline or enforceable outcome. You cannot escalate to IBAS or the UKGC, and if the operator shuts down, the licence provides no mechanism for recovering your balance. Card chargebacks are your only realistic fallback, and they do not exist for crypto deposits.

Do Anjouan-licensed casinos have to follow UK responsible gambling rules?

No. Anjouan does not require participation in GamStop, mandatory deposit limits, or the responsible gambling tools that UKGC-licensed operators must provide. Any such tools on an Anjouan-licensed site are voluntary, and their absence is entirely legal under the licence the operator holds.

Can I use cryptocurrency to deposit at an Anjouan-licensed casino?

Most Anjouan-licensed casinos accept cryptocurrency, and it is one of the main reasons UK players use them — the UKGC does not recognise crypto as a valid payment method for licensed operators. Deposits and withdrawals via crypto are typically near-instant, but they are irreversible, leaving you with no chargeback option if the operator withholds your funds.

How can I check if a casino holds a valid Anjouan licence?

The Anjouan Gaming Authority maintains a basic public register where licence numbers can be verified. Check that the licence number displayed on the casino’s site matches the register entry, and look for any secondary licences from stronger regulators like the Malta Gaming Authority — an operator holding both is a different proposition from one holding Anjouan alone.

Are the bonuses on Anjouan-licensed casinos better than UKGC-licensed ones?

They are larger on paper — 200% or 300% deposit matches are common, versus the more modest offers under UKGC rules — but the wagering requirements are correspondingly steeper, often 50x to 70x compared to 30x or 40x on the UKGC-licensed market. The headline number is bigger; the realistic value of the bonus is frequently smaller.

And the Anjouan licence application form still asks for a notarised copy of the director’s passport, which apparently needs to be certified by a Comorian notary — as if finding a notary on a small island in the Indian Ocean were the kind of thing a Tuesday afternoon in Birmingham is built for.

Which brings us to the paperwork. The Anjouan licence application requires certified corporate documents, proof of address for every director and beneficial owner, and a detailed business plan — all of which must be notarised and, in some cases, apostilled. For an operator incorporated in Cyprus with directors in Malta and a server in Latvia, assembling that package is a logistical exercise in its own right, and it explains why the “low-cost, quick licence” narrative is only half the story. The licence fee is low. The compliance infrastructure around it is not free, and operators who skip it tend to be the ones whose sites disappear after eighteen months, taking player balances with them.

For a UK player, the practical takeaway from the 2026 market is narrower than the headlines suggest. Anjouan-licensed casinos are not going away, because the economics of the licence make them viable and the UKGC’s enforcement reach, while growing, is not absolute. What has changed is the quality of information available to players: forums, review sites and regulatory databases now make it possible to check an operator’s licence status, complaint history and corporate structure before depositing — information that was genuinely scarce five years ago. The player who uses that information is in a fundamentally different position from the one who clicks the first “top 10 Anjouan casinos” result and deposits on instinct.

And the licence application form still requires a notarised copy of the director’s passport certified by a Comorian notary — as if finding a notary on a small island in the Indian Ocean were the kind of thing a Tuesday afternoon in Birmingham is built for.