By error message
Verification keeps getting rejected
Work from the exact wording of the message you got, not from guesswork. Five categories below, each with the actual cause and the specific fix — and one situation where resubmitting is the wrong move.
Rejections are not generic. The platform tells you which category it fell into, and each category has a different fix. Resubmitting the same thing without knowing which one you hit is how people end up on their fifth attempt.
Find your message below. If the wording differs slightly, match on meaning.
1. “Document unclear” / “unreadable” / “image quality”#
The most common category by a wide margin. It is about the photograph, not about you or your document.
Actual causes, in rough order of frequency:
- Glare. A lamp or a camera flash bouncing off the laminate wipes out a strip of text. The automated check cannot read what it cannot see.
- A cropped corner. Many checks require all four corners visible to confirm the document is whole and unaltered.
- Blur. Usually motion blur from holding both the phone and the document.
- Shadow. Your own hand or head casting a shadow across the document.
- A photo of a screen or a photocopy. Rejected on principle, not on quality.
The fix is in photographing it properly below. This category resolves on the next attempt in most cases.
2. “Information does not match”#
What you typed and what is printed on the document are not identical. The check is stricter than people expect.
| Trips people up | What to do |
|---|---|
| Middle names | If the document shows one, include it. If it does not, do not add one |
| Name order | Enter given name and family name in the fields as they map to the document, not as you would say them aloud |
| Accents and special characters | Match the document. If the form will not accept a character, use the machine-readable strip at the bottom of a passport as the reference |
| Hyphens and spaces | A double-barrelled name written with a hyphen on the document should be typed with the hyphen |
| Date format | Check whether the field wants DD/MM or MM/DD. A date like 05/06 is valid in both and silently wrong in one |
| Address | Should match your proof-of-address document if one was requested, not merely where you live |
The document is the source of truth. Change what you typed to match it — never the other way round, and never a name that is not the one on the document. See what never to try.
3. “Document expired” / “type not accepted”#
Two separate situations behind similar wording.
Expired: straightforward — the document is out of date. Some platforms also reject documents expiring within the next few months. Use a different one or renew it.
Type not accepted: which document types are accepted depends on your country, and it is not always obvious. A driving licence accepted in one jurisdiction may not be in another. A passport is accepted most widely, so if you have one and something else was rejected, try the passport.
4. Liveness or face check failed#
This is the short selfie video where you turn your head or blink. It confirms a real person is present rather than a photograph being held up to the camera.
-
Light your face from the front, evenly
A window in front of you is ideal. A window behind you turns you into a silhouette and reliably fails.
-
Remove anything covering your face
Glasses, hat, mask, hood. Also tie back hair that falls across your face.
-
Move slowly and follow the prompts exactly
Moving faster than instructed is a common failure. If it says turn slowly, turn slower than feels natural.
-
Hold the phone steady at eye level
Prop it against something if you can. A moving camera plus a moving head fails more often than either alone.
-
Use a plain background
Busy backgrounds, and other people in frame, both cause problems.
5. Stuck “under review” for a long time#
This one is different from the others, because the correct action is to do nothing.
Most checks are automatic and finish in minutes. When something needs a human, it goes into a manual queue, and that can take a day or two — longer at busy times.
Cancelling and starting again does not speed anything up. It usually discards your place and starts the wait over. If the status says under review, wait.
If it has been longer than a few days, contact the platform’s own support through the site — never through anyone who messages you. Being stuck at this exact step is precisely when fake “support” appears.
Photographing it so it passes first time#
| Do | Do not |
|---|---|
| Put the document flat on a table | Hold it in your hand |
| Use indirect daylight — near a window, not in direct sun | Use flash, or an overhead lamp directly above |
| Shoot straight down, parallel to the document | Shoot at an angle |
| Fill most of the frame | Stand back and crop later |
| Use a plain, dark, non-reflective surface | Use a glass table or a patterned cloth |
| Check the photo is readable before submitting | Submit without looking at it |
| Use the original document | Use a photocopy, scan, or photo of a screen |
One extra trick that solves most glare: tilt the document slightly rather than the camera. Glare is a reflection of the light source, so moving the document a few degrees moves the reflection off the text without introducing perspective distortion.
What never to try#
Editing the document image. Brightening is one thing; anything that alters content is detected and typically results in the account being blocked rather than the submission being rejected.
Using somebody else’s documents. The account is then legally not yours. This surfaces when you try to withdraw a meaningful amount, and at that point you have no standing to recover anything.
Paying a service to “get you verified”. They are selling you either a stolen identity or your own documents handed to a stranger. Both outcomes are worse than not having an account.
Declaring a region you do not live in. It creates a mismatch that surfaces here, and unpicking it needs a support ticket. See the region prompt.
Common questions#
How many times can I retry?
Platforms usually allow several attempts, sometimes with a cooling-off period after a few failures. This is another reason to fix the actual cause rather than resubmitting the same thing repeatedly.
It failed and now I cannot try again for 24 hours.
That is a standard rate limit after repeated failures. Use the time to prepare properly — get the lighting right and check your typed details against the document character by character — so the next attempt is the last one.
Can I verify with a different document than the one I started with?
Usually yes, and it is often the fastest fix when a document type is the problem. Your typed details must then match the new document.
My legal name changed recently.
Use the document that reflects your current legal name. If your documents disagree with each other, that needs the platform’s support rather than another submission attempt.
Does a rejection affect my credit or get recorded somewhere?
A failed photograph is not a credit event and is not a black mark. It is an automated image check that did not pass.
Last updated: 25 August 2026. Accepted document types and review times differ by platform and country and change over time. Where this page and your screen disagree, trust your screen. Not legal advice.
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