some experience for education benefit pass of verification

[wpforest]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Product Feedback

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Verification Help & Guidance

Hi everyone,

Hi,

I’d like to share my experience with GitHub Education verification — it took me about 20 days and 6 failed attempts. I’ve seen many similar cases in this channel, but no effective solutions came up when I searched for answers.

My supporting document is an official letter from my school that includes my full name, student ID, enrollment period (dates), school name, and address. It fully satisfies GitHub Education’s requirements. However, when I uploaded it, I received the rejection :

“You are unlikely to be verified until you have completed your GitHub user profile with your full name exactly as it appears...”

In fact, my profile name already matched the name on the letter exactly.

Here’s what I tried:

1st attempt: Uploaded a new photo from my PC → failed.
2nd: Changed my GitHub display name to match my real name → failed.
3rd: Uploaded again from PC → failed.
4th: Switched to a different computer and submitted → failed; also opened a support issue.
5th: Supporter suggested uploading via phone camera. I used an Android phone → failed, with the reason: “Cannot read the text on your document.”
6th: Scanned the letter and uploaded the img → failed.
7th: I checked the photo taken through the GitHub Education portal — it was extremely blurry, even though the original letter is perfectly clear. The blurriness only occurred when capturing the image inside the verification flow.It is clear if I take a shot only .
I realized the issue likely lies in GitHub’s in-app camera interface, which seems outdated and produces low-quality captures. From my experience, using your phone’s camera directly (not within the browser flow) and keeping your phone steady to get a sharp, well-lit photo were the key to finally passing verification.

By the way, after my education benefits were renewed, GitHub Copilot still hasn’t been restored.

[github-actions[bot]]

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[VivienneKathrynHarries-Faye]

1. The photos I take with my phone are all too large apparently (even with live off) and when I use my computer to reduce the file size then it says " Please use your device camera to submit academic affiliation documents". Its also keeps saying that my names don't match and I wonder if its because of the hyphen in my last name. Somebody please help I'm going crazy.