Identity verification for government services

What public services ask of identity checks

This page describes tasks. A public service that opens a benefit claim, renews a permit or gives access to a personal record has to connect the request to one real person, once. Applicants are many, they arrive on phones, they speak different languages and they hold different documents. Cases that a machine cannot settle go to a caseworker, who needs the evidence in one place. Whether the person is entitled to the service is a separate question from who the person is.

• Show the service in the applicant's language.
• Accept the documents applicants hold, including residence permits and visas.
• Establish that the applicant is one person who has not been verified under another record.
• Confirm the document is valid and that the applicant is its holder.
• Give caseworkers the session and the result, and keep a log.

The flow

1. Collect. The applicant enters name, birth date, contacts and the custom fields the service needs before the KYC starts, then photographs a passport, national ID card, driver's licence, residence permit or visa. A utility bill, bank statement or lease can be added as proof of address.
2. Resolve. Repeat-user search looks for the same face among earlier verified users, and the service's own person lists and blocklists are checked in the same flow.
3. Validate. The document is read, with the MRZ read with checksum, and checked for screen photos, photocopies, printouts, glued photos and edited images.
4. Verify. The selfie is matched to the document portrait, and active liveness confirms a live person.
5. Casework. Cases that the rules do not settle go to a caseworker with the right role, who decides manually in the dashboard. The session log can be exported.
6. Hand-over. The service reads the session status or receives a webhook. Entitlement stays the service's own decision.
7. Data. Retention is a setting you choose per scenario, within the minimum periods and privacy obligations that apply to you, with erasure on request by API, a confirmation webhook and an erasure log.

Modules used

• Web SDK and widget: 29 interface languages, your colours and logo, desktop and mobile browsers.
• Document verification, face verification and liveness.
• Repeat-user search and person lists, described on the face verification page.
• Dashboard and scenario editor: roles, session log, export and manual decision.
• Deployment: in the cloud, or installed on your own servers by our engineers.

Regulatory frame

One primary text, written for federal agencies, credential service providers and other organizations that provide or use identity proofing services: Special Publication 800-63A-4, identity proofing and enrollment, published by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. It states that it supersedes Special Publication 800-63A.

• The publication provides requirements for the identity proofing of individuals at each identity assurance level, for the purposes of enrolling them into an identity service or providing them access to online resources.
• It lists accessing sensitive government services among the situations in which it is important to reliably establish an association with a real-life subject.
• It presents a three-step process: identity resolution, which determines whether the applicant is a unique identity in the population served and a real-life person, identity validation, which confirms the authenticity, accuracy and validity of the evidence and attribute information, and identity verification, which confirms that the applicant presenting the evidence is the same individual to whom it was issued.
• It states that identity proofing can be part of the business processes that determine suitability or entitlement to a benefit or service, but that such determinations are outside its scope.

This block describes the text, not our service. For information; not legal advice.

Sources

• National Institute of Standards and Technology, Special Publication 800-63A-4, identity proofing and enrollment, online edition, fetched 26 October 2026.

Next

Try the interactive tour, read the quick start or talk to us.