# Verification checks

Learn about the different verification checks supported by Stripe Identity.

Stripe Identity currently supports five types of verification checks: document, selfie, ID number, address, and phone.

Each verification check requires different information from your user, has different coverage, and has a different verification flow. After you’ve integrated one check, you can add another with minimal changes to your integration.

# Selfie


While document checks provide a defense against the use of fraudulent identity documents, it’s possible for fraudsters to get access to legitimate stolen documents. To prevent this, Stripe Identity can perform selfie checks on your users.

Selfie checks look for distinguishing biological traits, such as face geometry, from a government-issued photo ID and a picture of your user’s face. Stripe then uses advanced machine learning algorithms to ensure the face pictures belong to the same person.

In some places, such as the EU, there are privacy laws that require you to justify your use of biometric technology or offer an alternative, non-biometric means of verification. We recommend you offer an alternative verification option or consult with your legal counsel.

### Availability 

Selfie checks are available for government issued photo IDs from the following countries:

- AE
- AL
- AM
- AR
- AT
- AU
- AZ
- BD
- BE
- BG
- BH
- BJ
- BO
- BR
- BS
- BY
- CA
- CH
- CI
- CL
- CM
- CN
- CO
- CR
- CY
- CZ
- DE
- DK
- DO
- DZ
- EC
- EE
- EG
- ES
- FI
- FR
- GB
- GE
- GH
- GR
- GT
- HK
- HN
- HR
- HT
- HU
- ID
- IE
- IL
- IN
- IQ
- IT
- JE
- JM
- JO
- JP
- KE
- KR
- KW
- KZ
- LB
- LI
- LK
- LT
- LU
- LV
- MA
- MD
- MK
- MM
- MN
- MT
- MU
- MX
- MY
- NG
- NL
- NO
- NP
- NZ
- PA
- PE
- PH
- PK
- PL
- PR
- PS
- PT
- PY
- RO
- RS
- RU
- SA
- SE
- SG
- SI
- SK
- SV
- TH
- TN
- TR
- TW
- UA
- UG
- US
- UY
- UZ
- VE
- VN
- ZA

## Adding selfie checks

To add selfie checks to your application, first follow the guide to [collect and verify identity documents](https://docs.stripe.com/identity/verify-identity-documents.md).

## Adding selfie checks to VerificationSessions 

When [creating a VerificationSession](https://docs.stripe.com/api/identity/verification_sessions/create.md), use the [options.document.require_matching_selfie](https://docs.stripe.com/api/identity/verification_sessions/create.md#create_identity_verification_session-options-document-require_matching_selfie) parameter to enable selfie checks.

```curl
curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/identity/verification_sessions \
  -u "<<YOUR_SECRET_KEY>>:" \
  -d type=document \
  -d "options[document][require_matching_selfie]=true"
```

This configures the verification flow to require a government-issued photo ID and a selfie from your user.

## Accessing selfie check results 

After it’s submitted and processed, the VerificationSession status changes depending on the result of the checks:

- `verified` — Both the document and selfie checks were successful. The session [verified_outputs](https://docs.stripe.com/api/identity/verification_sessions/object.md#identity_verification_session_object-verified_outputs) contains extracted information from the document.
- `requires_input` — At least one of the document or the selfie checks failed.

To access the captured selfie and document images, you’ll need to retrieve the associated [VerificationReport](https://docs.stripe.com/api/identity/verification_reports.md), you can do this by [expanding](https://docs.stripe.com/api/expanding_objects.md) the [last_verification_report](https://docs.stripe.com/api/identity/verification_sessions/object.md#identity_verification_session_object-last_verification_report) field in the session:

#### Node.js

```javascript

// Don't put any keys in code. See https://docs.stripe.com/keys-best-practices.
// Find your keys at https://dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys.
const stripe = require('stripe')('<<YOUR_SECRET_KEY>>');
const verificationSession = await stripe.identity.verificationSessions.retrieve(
  '{{SESSION_ID}}',
  {
    expand: ['last_verification_report'],
  }
);
const verificationReport = verificationSession.last_verification_report;
```

The VerificationReport has [document](https://docs.stripe.com/api/identity/verification_reports/object.md#identity_verification_report_object-document) and [selfie](https://docs.stripe.com/api/identity/verification_reports/object.md#identity_verification_report_object-selfie) fields holding the results of the document and selfie checks. Here’s an example VerificationReport with successful document and selfie checks:

```json
{
  "id": "vr_orWziM4j7CiRL8J4vQmXgW2w",
  "object": "identity.verification_report",
  "type": "document",
  "verification_session": "vs_orWziM4j7CiRL8J4vQmXgW2w",
  "created": 1611776872,
  "livemode": true,
  "options": {
    "document": {
      "require_matching_selfie": true
    }
  },
  "document": {
    "status": "verified",
    "error": null,
    "first_name": "Jenny",
    "last_name": "Rosen",
    "address": {
      "line1": "1234 Main St.",
      "city": "San Francisco",
      "state": "CA",
      "postal_code": "94111",
      "country": "US"
    },
    "document_type": "id_card",
    "expiration_date": {
      "day": 17,
      "month": 7,
      "year": 2024
    },
    "files": ["file_orWziM4j7CiRL8J4vQmXgW2w", "file_orWziM4j7CiRL8J4vQmXgW2w"],
    "issued_date": {
      "day": 4,
      "month": 27,
      "year": 2021
    },
    "issuing_country": "US"
  },
  "selfie": {
    "status": "verified",
    "error": null,
    "document": "file_orWziM4j7CiRL8J4vQmXgW2w",
    "selfie": "file_orWziM4j7CiRL8J4vQmXgW2w",
  }
}
```

To access the collected document and face images, see [Accessing verification results](https://docs.stripe.com/identity/access-verification-results.md).

## Understanding selfie check failures 

The [document](https://docs.stripe.com/api/identity/verification_reports/object.md#identity_verification_report_object-document) and [selfie](https://docs.stripe.com/api/identity/verification_reports/object.md#identity_verification_report_object-selfie) VerificationReport fields contain the collected data as well as a `status` and `error` fields to help you understand whether the check is successful or not.

The `status` field tells you whether each check is successful or not. The possible values are:

- `verified` - The verification check is successful and the collected data is verified.
- `unverified` - The verification check failed. You can check the `error` hash for more information.

When the verification check fails, the `error` field contains `code` and `reason` values to explain the verification failure. The `error.code` field can be used to programmatically handle verification failures. The `reason` field contains a descriptive message explaining the failure reason and can be shown to your user.

### Document check failures 

Failure details are available in the report [document.error](https://docs.stripe.com/api/identity/verification_reports/object.md#identity_verification_report_object-document-error) field.

| Error code                    | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `document_expired`            | The provided identity document has expired.                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| `document_unverified_other`   | Stripe couldn’t verify the provided identity document. [See list of supported document types](https://docs.stripe.com/identity/verification-checks.md?type=document).                                                                |
| `document_type_not_supported` | The provided identity document isn’t one of the session’s [allowed document types](https://docs.stripe.com/api/identity/verification_sessions/create.md#create_identity_verification_session-options-document-allow_document_types). |

### Selfie check failures 

Failure details are available in the report [selfie.error](https://docs.stripe.com/api/identity/verification_reports/object.md#identity_verification_report_object-selfie-error) field.

| Error code                      | Description                                                         |
| ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `selfie_document_missing_photo` | The provided identity document did not contain a picture of a face. |
| `selfie_face_mismatch`          | The captured face image didn’t match with the document’s face.      |
| `selfie_unverified_other`       | Stripe couldn’t verify the provided selfie.                         |
| `selfie_manipulated`            | The captured face image was manipulated.                            |


## See also

- [Verify your users’ identity documents](https://docs.stripe.com/identity/verify-identity-documents.md)
- [The Verification Sessions API](https://docs.stripe.com/identity/verification-sessions.md#create)