The Verification Process is Severely Flawed - What can I do?

[camerondawkins0]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Verification Help & Guidance

Hi everyone,

I have tried multiple different documents to verify my student status. Everything is clearly in the image that should result in my verification being approve, yet it is rejected every time. The lack of actual support on this issue is insulting given that there are volumes of posts in this community with people having the same issues and no actual answers being given.

So please, enlighten me as to what I can do when I have tried multiple forms of identification when it comes to verifying my student status for GitHub Education benefits.

Things I have already confirmed:

• My name matches exactly what is on my student documents
• My account and email is verified.
• I have my school email attached to this GitHub account

[camerondawkins0]

Also, every time I take a photo with my phone, the submission modal degrades the quality of the photo and makes it extremely difficult to see.

[blazee14]

Hi @Cameronawkins0,
I get how frustrating this is when everything looks correct and it still gets rejected. This is very common because the automated system fails for reasons that aren't obvious. Here are some things worth checking before escalating:

1. Document quality and format

Make sure it's a sharp photo or scan, with no glare or cropped edges.
The full page should be visible, not cropped.
Upload an image (JPG/PNG) instead of a PDF if possible.

2. Visible expiration/validity date

The document must show a future expiration date or the current academic term. Many student IDs don't show a date, which causes automatic rejection even when the name matches.

3. Try a different document type

Instead of your student ID, try an official enrollment certificate or proof of enrollment, with letterhead, stamp/signature, and date. This tends to have a higher approval rate.

4. About the degraded photo issue you mentioned
   That's a known problem: the submission form's viewer compresses the image quite a bit when the photo is taken from the mobile browser, which prevents the system from reading the data properly. To avoid it:

Take the photo with your phone's native camera app (not inside the form or browser), save it to your gallery, then upload it as an already-saved file instead of using the live camera option.
If possible, try uploading the document from a computer instead of your phone.

5. If none of this works
   This is something the community can't resolve directly, since there's no official staff responding here. I'd recommend opening a direct support ticket with GitHub:
   👉 https://support.github.com/contact
   In the ticket, explain that:

The automated system rejects the document despite the data matching.
The upload form degrades the photo quality when taken from a mobile phone (possible client-side bug).
Attach screenshots of the original documents and how they look after uploading, so the technical team can compare.

Hope this helps, let us know if any of these work for you.

[camerondawkins0]

I literally cannot do any of those things.

I cannot upload a file, that option is not available

When I attempt to submit a ticket regarding issues with GitHub Education, it blocks out the ability to fill out the text box with any information

[blazee14]

That's frustrating, but this sounds like it might be a browser-side issue rather than the form itself being permanently broken. Here's a full path to try, from most likely fix to backup options:

1. Try a different browser or incognito/private window
   Browser extensions (ad blockers, privacy tools, form-fillers) are a common cause of support forms silently blocking text input or file uploads. Try:

• Opening the support page in an incognito/private window (extensions are usually disabled there by default).
• Or trying a completely different browser (e.g. if you're on Chrome, try Firefox or Edge).

2. Disable extensions temporarily
   If incognito works, the issue is confirmed to be an extension. You can then just disable ad blockers/script blockers only for support.github.com and try again in your normal browser.
3. Clear cookies/cache for github.com
   Sometimes a corrupted local session causes form fields to become unresponsive. Clearing cookies for github.com (or just doing a hard refresh with Ctrl+Shift+R / Cmd+Shift+R) can fix it.
4. Try from your phone using mobile data (not wifi), in a private tab
   This is the fastest all-in-one test, it eliminates browser extensions, cached cookies, and network-level blockers at the same time. If the form works there, the issue is confirmed to be local to your main device/browser.
5. If the text box is still blocked everywhere
   At that point it's likely a genuine bug on GitHub's side, not something you're doing wrong. Use one of these alternate channels instead of the broken form:

• Twitter/X: @githubsupport — post something concise like:

"Unable to submit a GitHub Education support ticket, the text box is unresponsive/blocked on the form. Can someone help?"
This is a legitimate, commonly used backup channel, and they can either fix the issue or open the ticket on their end for you.

• GitHub Status page: check https://www.githubstatus.com/ in case there's a known outage affecting the support form specifically, if so, it's just a matter of retrying later.

Between all these, the mobile data + private browsing test is usually the quickest way to identify the fix, and the Twitter/X route is the most reliable backup if the form stays broken no matter what you try.

[blazee14]

checking in, did any of the suggestions above help with the verification or the support form issue? If something worked, marking the answer as the accepted solution helps others who land on this thread with the same problem.