Errors in evaluation of application

[dana-and-monsters]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Form Errors & Technical Issues

Hi everyone,

I am getting an automated email with the following negative evaluation of my application:

• The school you selected does not appear to have a campus location in your country. Your school-provided academic affiliation document must indicate virtual learning if you are remote. If you believe that the school you have applied for has incorrect information that affects your current application e.g. incorrect email domain, please select ‘My selected school has incorrect or incomplete information e.g. domains or campus location’ option when submitting a GitHub Education support ticket.

- I am currently on a research trip abroad and I attached the invitation letter from my host as evidence. How can I get this approved?

• The image you selected does not appear to contain your school name. Your complete school name must appear in your document, not only the school logo. You may include multiple documents together. If your official document is not in English then you may photograph the original next to an English translation.

• I attached my employment contract which is in English and it certainly contains my school name (not just the logo) however the school name is of a Finnish place name with characters that are not exclusively English. Could that be why this is getting flagged? How can I resolve this with a human and not the automatic review from a bot?

• Please ensure that your academic affiliation document contains your last name exactly as it appears in your [GitHub billing information]. If you have only a single legal name, enter it in both the first and last name fields of your GitHub billing information.

**- This is indeed the case as I updated it. I have 2 middle names that are listed as first names in my employement contract that I included as first names in my billing information, but again maybe this is something a bot would misinterpret.

I really need support from a human to review my case and I would appreciate receiving support from a GitHub employee.

Best,

Dana**

[github-actions[bot]]

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[hoangperry]

That rejection has two distinct causes, and the fix depends on which one is yours:

Case 1 — you actually study remotely (online program, or campus in another country than where you live): the sentence means literally what it says — your enrollment document must explicitly state the virtual/online modality. A standard enrollment certificate that's silent about modality fails, because the automated check sees "school in country X, applicant in country Y" and needs the document to explain it. Ask your registrar for a certificate that includes wording like "enrolled in the online/distance program" and resubmit with that.

Case 2 — the school's record is wrong (it does have a campus in your country, but GitHub's institution database doesn't know it): no document fixes this, because the check runs against their database. Report it via https://support.github.com/contact/education as an institution record correction — include the school's name as it appears in the selector, the campus address in your country, and the school's website. Once the record is corrected, a normal application goes through.

Quick way to tell which case you're in: if classmates physically attending the same campus in your country get approved, it's Case 1 (your modality needs documenting); if nobody from your country's campus can get approved, it's Case 2 (the record is missing the campus). Either way, stop resubmitting the same application in the meantime — it fails on the same check every time and the repeated rejections work against you.