Identity Verification Immediately Fails – “Identity Couldn’t Be Verified”
Hi everyone,
I’m having an ongoing issue with the automatic identity verification on Shopify.
Every time I try to complete the verification, the verification page loads for about 2 seconds and then immediately displays:
“Identity couldn’t be verified.”
There is no explanation, no specific error, and no opportunity to properly complete the verification process.
I have already contacted Shopify Support about this issue. They told me that the case had been escalated to the appropriate team, but I never received any follow-up.
I have contacted support again and sent multiple emails, but I still haven’t received any concrete solution or response from the team handling the verification.
At this point, this situation is becoming extremely difficult to deal with, as I have been struggling with this verification issue for months.
Has anyone experienced the same problem where the verification immediately fails after only a couple of seconds?
Is there a concrete solution to reset the verification process or have the identity verification completed manually by Shopify?
Any help from someone who has successfully resolved this issue would be greatly appreciated.
@PAOLO2B a two-second instant fail before you even reach the document/camera screen usually means the verification widget itself is getting blocked, not your ID. Check for an ad blocker or privacy extension (uBlock, Brave shields) or a VPN, and try again in a clean browser profile with those off and camera permission granted. If that changes nothing, it’s genuinely stuck server-side and needs a manual push from Payments support - reply on your existing escalated ticket asking for a manual override rather than opening a new case, since a fresh case restarts the queue. Hope that helps.
Adding to what Ecom_swift said, since that covers the browser side well. A couple of extra things genuinely worth trying: do it on your phone rather than a laptop, opening the link directly on the device, since the mobile camera flow tends to work where the desktop one fails instantly. And ask support to send you a fresh verification link, because an old or already opened link can fail the moment it loads, which matches the two second failure you’re describing perfectly.
Keep replying inside your one existing ticket rather than opening new ones, since new cases push you back in the queue, and if it stays silent, finding someone on Shopify’s Payments or Risk team on LinkedIn and sending the same short summary does genuinely break the loop for people.
And honestly, the forum can’t reset or complete verification for you, so no answer here will fix it, only that team can. Hope it gets sorted soon, months of this is exhausting.
@PAOLO2B Two seconds, no camera screen, same result for months. Thats worth reading carefully, because it points somewhere different to a browser problem.
If it fails before you ever reach the document or selfie step, it hasnt looked at your ID at all. It failed on the data that was submitted with the request, not on anything you photographed. Thats my reading rather than something documented, but it fits what youre describing better than an extension blocking a widget would, since a blocker would behave differently across devices and youve clearly tried more than one.
So before trying another browser, go and check the details on the account itself. Settings, then Payments, then your business and personal details. Compare them character by character against the ID document you intend to use. Legal name in full including middle names, date of birth, and address. A name entered as a shortened version, a transposed DOB, or an old address will fail an automated check instantly and silently, because theres nothing to match against. Also worth confirming the country that issued your document is one Shopify supports for verification, since a valid ID from an unsupported country fails the same way.
If any of that is wrong, correct it first, then request a fresh verification link. Retrying with the same underlying data will keep producing the same two seconds however many browsers you try.
Second thing, and honestly this is the one I would act on today. Months is a long time to not be trading. If Shopify Payments is unusable for you right now, look at whether you can take payments through a third party gateway in the meantime. It costs more, Shopify adds a transaction fee on top when youre not on Shopify Payments, and its worth asking support whether it can run alongside an unverified Payments account or whether they need to disable something first. But paying a bit more per order beats taking nothing while you wait on a queue you cant influence.
Sort the trading first, keep the verification ticket running in the background. Right now those are two separate problems and only one of them is under your control.
Since the browser and device troubleshooting has already been covered, I’d check whether the store owner and Shopify Payments details exactly match the person being verified – including the full legal name, date of birth, address, and business representative information. Even a shortened name or outdated address can cause verification to fail without a clear explanation.
When contacting Shopify again, ask them to confirm:
Which person or business entity requires verification
Whether any submitted details are mismatched
Whether the current verification session has expired or been locked
Your escalation reference number and current case status
Avoid repeatedly changing or resubmitting information until they confirm what is mismatched, as that may complicate the review further. Unfortunately, the actual reset must still be handled internally by Shopify, but these questions may help move the case beyond another generic troubleshooting response.
Hope you finally get a clear answer soon – waiting for months without an update is understandably frustrating.
Hello @PAOLO2B
A simple problem could be browser permissions, cached verification information, or a difference in what was submitted. Please attempt to verify in a private browser window on a different device, with camera and location permissions granted. Your legal name as provided on your account, and the details on your document should match exactly.
If it fails again instantly, see if your verification session has timed out or locked out. It takes a long time, a lot of waiting and you may be tempted to submit multiple times, don’t!