Official Korean Faculty Employment Certificate Repeatedly Rejected — No Manual Review Available

[cybereun]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Verification Help & Guidance

Hi everyone,

Title: Official Korean Faculty Employment Certificate Repeatedly Rejected — No Manual Review Available

I am a faculty member currently employed at a secondary school in the Republic of Korea, and I have repeatedly encountered problems with GitHub Education's faculty verification process.

I submitted an official Certificate of Employment issued by my school as proof of my academic affiliation.

The official document clearly includes:

• My legal name
• The full official name of the educational institution
• My employment/faculty status
• Confirmation that I am currently employed by the institution

Because the original document is issued in Korean, I also provided an English translation so that the information could be properly reviewed.

However, my application continues to be rejected with messages stating that:

The document does not appear to contain the school name.

and

The document does not appear to indicate that I am a faculty member.

This is particularly difficult to understand because both pieces of information are explicitly included in the official employment document.

I am concerned that the automated verification system may not be correctly recognizing official academic employment documents issued outside the United States, particularly documents from South Korea.

Korean educational institutions have their own official administrative document formats. An official Certificate of Employment issued by a Korean school may not visually resemble employment documents issued by institutions in the United States, but that does not make the document unofficial or invalid.

Another significant concern is that the GitHub Education support page currently states that individual manual reviews are no longer provided. As a result, when an automated verification system incorrectly interprets a legitimate document, there appears to be no meaningful way for an educator to request human review.

This creates a serious problem for international educators.

I am not posting my Certificate of Employment, school name, personal email address, application details, or other identifying information publicly for privacy and security reasons. I am willing to provide the necessary documentation privately to an authorized GitHub representative if a secure verification channel is available.

I am not asking the community to approve my application.

I would like GitHub Education to clarify the following:

1. How should faculty members in South Korea submit an official Certificate of Employment so that it can be correctly recognized?

2. If the automated verification system incorrectly rejects a legitimate document, what secure process is available for requesting human review?

3. Does GitHub Education's verification system take into account differences in official academic and employment documentation between countries?

4. If official employment verification documents are accepted as evidence of faculty affiliation, why would a document explicitly containing the institution name and faculty employment status repeatedly fail verification?

This issue is not simply about receiving Education benefits. It concerns whether GitHub's international verification process can fairly and accurately recognize legitimate educational documents issued outside the United States.

I hope GitHub Education can review this verification process and provide a secure method for international educators to resolve false rejections.

For security reasons, I will provide personally identifiable information or official documents only through a private and verified GitHub support channel, not in this public discussion.

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[ahmeds-machine]

Hi! I completely understand the frustration here. Unfortunately, GitHub suspended manual reviews for Education benefits due to overwhelming volume, meaning everyone must pass the automated system.

Since the automated scanner struggles heavily with non-English documents, here are the most successful workarounds the community has found for international faculty/students:

English Translation: If your university portal allows you to generate the employment certificate in English, use that version. It has a significantly higher automated acceptance rate.

The Dual-Photo Trick: Take a live webcam photo of your official Korean document placed right next to a certified English translation (so both are in the same frame).

Location Data: Ensure you are physically on campus (or using the campus network/Wi-Fi, no VPNs) when applying. The system strictly checks if your browser's location data matches the university's registered location.

Live Capture: Do not upload a saved PDF or screenshot. The system highly prefers a live photo taken with your webcam where the dates and your faculty status are clearly visible.

We just have to play by the strict rules of the automated bot right now. Good luck, I hope tweaking one of these gets you approved on the next try!

[AltairOnTheLake]

Currently I'm experiencing same issue. I'm currently undergraduate from university at Korea, Seoul. As my project goes on and being more complicated, I decided to apply the program.

But I can't. Even if I issued enrollment paper at KICA(which is PAID - it costs 3500 won) but it seems Github dosen't recognize correctly. I even have original PDF file with validation, but It only receives photo taken directly.

I tried 4 times but nothing changed - even if 'Issue to address'. I'm willing to giving up student program. I can send enrollment letter, official transcript from last semester if there's some way to send directly.

(한국어)
현재 대한민국 서울 소재 대학교 학부생으로 재학 중입니다. Github 학생 프로그램에 신청했으나 어떠한 방법으로도 승인이 되지 않습니다.

한국정보인증 웹사이트에서 영문 재학증명서를 발급(유료, 수수료 3500원)받아 제출하려 했습니다. Github에서 바로 찍은 사진만 제출받아 최선을 다해 찍어보았으나 어떻게 해서도 승인을 받지 못하고 있습니다.

4번 시도했으나 거절 사유마저 변동이 되지 않아 포기할지 고민하고 있는 중입니다. 진위 검증 정보가 있는 재학증명서 PDF 파일 원본을 가지고 있으며, 지난 학기 성적표 역시 제출할 의향이 있습니다.

[ahmeds-machine]

since you paid for the official KICA document!

To answer your main question, unfortunately, there is absolutely no way to send documents directly to GitHub staff right now. They have completely disabled all manual reviews and email submissions. If you try to open a support ticket, it will just auto lose and tell you to use the application portal.