Verify your users’ identity documents

Install the SDK Client-side

The Stripe iOS SDK is open source, fully documented, and compatible with apps supporting iOS 13.0 or above.

Set up camera authorization Client-side

The Stripe Identity iOS SDK requires access to the device’s camera to capture identity documents. To enable your app to request camera permissions:

1. Open your project’s Info.plist in Xcode.
2. Add the NSCameraUsageDescription key.
3. Add a string value that explains to your users why your app requires camera permissions, something such as:

This app uses the camera to take a picture of your identity documents.

See Apple’s documentation to learn more about requesting camera authorization.

Install Stripe on your server Server-side

First, register for a Stripe account.

Then install the libraries for access to the Stripe API from your application:

# Available as a gem
sudo gem install stripe

# If you use bundler, you can add this line to your Gemfile
gem 'stripe'

Create a VerificationSession

A VerificationSession is the programmatic representation of the verification. It contains details about the type of verification, such as what check to perform. You can expand the verified outputs field to see details of the data that was verified.

You need a server-side endpoint to create the VerificationSession. Creating the VerificationSession server-side prevents malicious users from overriding verification options and incurring processing charges on your account. Add authentication to this endpoint by including a user reference in the session metadata or storing the session ID in your database.

For security, don’t create a VerificationSession object that’s directly accessible from the mobile client. Instead, your server provides the SDK with an ephemeral key — a short-lived API key with restricted access to the VerificationSession. You can think of an ephemeral key as a session, authorizing the SDK to retrieve and update a specific VerificationSession object for the duration of the session.

After successfully creating a VerificationSession and ephemeral key, send the VerificationSession ID and ephemeral key secret to the client to show the document upload sheet.

// Set your secret key. Remember to switch to your live secret key in production.
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys
const stripe = require('stripe')(
'sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2');

// In the route handler for /create-verification-session:
// Authenticate your user.

// Create the session.
const verificationSession = await stripe.identity.verificationSessions.create({
  type: 'document',
  provided_details: {
    email: 'user@example.com',
  },
  metadata: {
    user_id: '{{USER_ID}}',
  },
});

// Create an ephemeral key for the VerificationSession
const ephemeralKey = await stripe.ephemeralKeys.create(
  {verification_session: verificationSession.id},
  {apiVersion: '2025-02-24.acacia'}
);

// Return only the ID and ephemeral key secret to the frontend.
const verficationSessionId = verificationSession.id;
const ephemeralKeySecret = ephemeralKey.secret;

Test your endpoint by starting your web server (for example, localhost:4242) and sending a POST request with curl to create a VerificationSession:

curl -X POST -is "http://localhost:4242/create-verification-session" -d ""

The response in your terminal looks like this:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{ id: "vs_QdfQQ6xfGNJR7ogV6", ephemeral_key_secret: "ek_YWNjdF8xRm..." }

Set up a button to present a verification sheet. After tapping the button, your user can capture and upload a picture of their passport, driver’s license, or national ID.

Before getting started, your verification page should:

• Explain to the user why they need to verify their identity.
• Include a verify identity button to present Stripe’s UI.

Add a button

Start by creating a view controller with a button that has a tap action and a loading indicator:

import UIKit

class VerifyViewController: UIViewController {
  @IBOutlet weak var verifyButton: UIButton!
  @IBOutlet weak var activityIndicator: UIActivityIndicatorView!
}

Import the StripeIdentity SDK

Import StripeIdentity to your view controller:

import UIKit
import StripeIdentity

class VerifyViewController: UIViewController {
  @IBOutlet weak var verifyButton: UIButton!
  @IBOutlet weak var activityIndicator: UIActivityIndicatorView!
}

Add an action to the Verify button

Now that you have a button and an endpoint to create a VerificationSession, modify the button so that it presents the document upload sheet when tapped the document upload sheet when tapped.

Add a call to:

• Fetch the VerificationSession ID and ephemeral key secret from your endpoint.
• Instantiate an IdentityVerificationSheet with your brand logo and present it to the user.
• Handle the VerificationResult to know if the user completed the verification flow.

import UIKit
import StripeIdentity

class VerifyViewController: UIViewController {
  @IBOutlet weak var verifyButton: UIButton!
  @IBOutlet weak var activityIndicator: UIActivityIndicatorView!

  override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    verifyButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(didTapVerifyButton), for: .touchUpInside)
  }

  @objc
  func didTapVerifyButton() {
    // Disable the button while the request is made
    verifyButton.isEnabled = false
    activityIndicator.startAnimating()

    // Make request to your verification endpoint
    var urlRequest = URLRequest(url: URL(string: "https://{{YOUR_SERVER_BASE_URL}}/create-verification-session")!)
    urlRequest.httpMethod = "POST"

    let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: urlRequest) { [weak self] data, response, error in
      DispatchQueue.main.async { [weak self] in
        // Re-enable button
        self?.verifyButton.isEnabled = true
        self?.activityIndicator.stopAnimating()

        guard error == nil,
              let data = data,
              let responseJson = try? JSONDecoder().decode([String: String].self, from: data),
              let verificationSessionId = responseJson["id"],
              let ephemeralKeySecret = responseJson["ephemeral_key_secret"] else {
          // Handle error
          print(error as Any)
          return
        }

        self?.presentVerificationSheet(verificationSessionId: verificationSessionId, ephemeralKeySecret: ephemeralKeySecret)
      }
    }
    task.resume()
  }

  func presentVerificationSheet(verificationSessionId: String, ephemeralKeySecret: String) {
    // Configure a square brand logo. Recommended image size is 32 x 32 points.
    let configuration = IdentityVerificationSheet.Configuration(
        brandLogo: UIImage(named: "{{YOUR_BRAND_LOGO}}")!
    )
    // Instantiate and present the sheet
    let verificationSheet = IdentityVerificationSheet(
      verificationSessionId: verificationSessionId,
      ephemeralKeySecret: ephemeralKeySecret,
      configuration: configuration
    )
    verificationSheet.present(from: self, completion: { result in
      switch result {
      case .flowCompleted:
        // The user has completed uploading their documents.
        // Let them know that the verification is processing.
        print("Verification Completed!")
      case .flowCanceled:
        // The user did not complete uploading their documents.
        // You should allow them to try again.
        print("Verification Canceled!")
      case .flowFailed(let error):
        // If the flow fails, you should display the localized error
        // message to your user using error.localizedDescription
        print("Verification Failed!")
        print(error.localizedDescription)
      }
    })
  }
}

Test the verification sheet

Test that the verify button presents a document upload sheet:

• Tap the Verify Identity button.
• Ensure no error messages are shown.

If your integration isn’t working:

1. Put a breakpoint where you fetch the VerificationSession ID and ephemeral key secret.
2. Verify that no network errors exist and that the endpoint is returning a VerificationSession ID and ephemeral key secret.

Document checks are typically completed as soon as the user redirects back to your site and you can retrieve the result from the API immediately. In some rare cases, the document verification isn’t ready yet and must continue asynchronously. In these cases, you’re notified through webhooks when the verification result is ready. After the processing completes, the VerificationSession status changes from processing to verified.

Stripe sends the following events when the session status changes:

Use a webhook handler to receive these events and automate actions like sending a confirmation email, updating the verification results in your database, or completing an onboarding step. You can also view verification events in the Dashboard.

Receive events and run business actions

With code

Build a webhook handler to listen for events and build custom asynchronous verification flows. Test and debug your webhook integration locally with the Stripe CLI.

Build a custom webhook

Without code

Use the Dashboard to view all your verifications, inspect collected data, and understand verification failures.

View your test verifications in the Dashboard