New Zealand business owners are struggling to verify their businesses for Shopify Payments due to documentation format issues. The core problem: NZ business registration exists only as online records through the NZBN/Companies Office website, with no physical documents or export options available.
Initial Issue (2022):
Accepted Documents:
Shopify requires NZ Business Number Registration Extract or Companies Office Company Extract for entity verification, plus standard identity and address documents (driver’s license front/back, utility bills under 6 months old).
Current Situation (2025):
Potential Solution:
One user shared a link to the Companies Office help center for obtaining official company information copies, which may provide acceptable documentation formats beyond screenshots.
The discussion remains unresolved, with users expressing frustration over the verification-support gap.
The dashboard states that my identification hasn’t been accepted. I’m in NZL, and have submitted a screengrab of the NZ Companies office, my driver’s licence, and a photograph of a utilities bill.
I can’t work out if I’m submitting the wrong material, or if the admins have no idea was a legit NZL form of ID looks like.
Any suggestions welcome - it’s been almost two weeks of trying different types of IDs and waiting for the alert to come off.
Hi @GOR-497 !
Great question! I believe that you’re trying to submit verification documents for signing up to Shopify Payments, is that right? Check out the accepted documents listed below. Hopefully I can clear things up for you.
Identity documents:
Address documents:
Company/entity documents:
You mentioned you’re uploading photos of your driver’s license, please ensure you are uploading photos of the back and front. In addition to that, the utilities bill must be dated, and cannot be older than 6 months. If the alert is still appearing, then I would suggest getting in touch with live support here so that they can escalate this to the right team for you.
Aside from that, how is business going for you? Are you just starting out?
Hi Maz,
Sales are slow through Shopify, but we’re ironing out the kinks in the site to really get it optimised. Good things take time.
For the ID, it specified company registration. Here in NZ it’s all online or e-documentation. I’ve tried taking a screen grab and submitting it, but no luck. I’ll contact the live support, see if I get any joy.
Thanks.
This was great in 2022, but in 2025 they have no support by phone or e-mail for the lowest tier policy and they ONLY offer an AI bot support. Which says “I can’t help you with that”.
I’ve submitted screenshots of my NZBN to them, but that got declined. So, I’m pretty snookered as in NZ, as a self-employed entity, I have nothing else I can provide. As mentioned everything is done online in NZ and there is no further documentation to show them (you) that I am in business.
Nice work Shopify, completely and utterly about to lose a customer - and they (you) can not even provide a functional platform to contact a human on. Great system! 
Have you tried submitting the actual documents and photos instead of screenshots?
There is no documents & photos, it is all done online via the website (nzbn.govt.nz). Additionally there is no export option or anything on the site, the only thing you can do is to take screenshots of it.
And there is no one to talk to, just a useless that AI bot that says “I can’t help you with that”. That’s it, that is there support - nonexistent!