# Verifying your identity

What the ID check is, what it does with your documents, what to do when it fails, and why you only ever do it once.

Updated: 2026-09-12

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Every lender has to know who is behind a business before funding it. The ID check is how that
happens, and it takes about thirty seconds.

## What you need

One of:

- a driver's licence
- a passport
- a provincial or state ID card

And a camera. If the device you are applying on does not have one, finish this step on your
phone — it is the same account and the same application, so nothing else has to move with you.

## What happens

The step hands you to our identity provider, in a window we do not get to read. That is the
point: the photograph of your licence and the liveness check never touch Spark, and the only
thing that comes back to us is a decision.

<Shot src="step-identity" alt="The verify your identity step showing a scan frame, three document types — driver's licence, passport, provincial ID — and a Verify my identity button." caption="Bank-level encryption, about thirty seconds, and we never store your ID images." />

When it passes, the step says so and the application carries on.

<Shot src="step-identity-done" alt="The identity step after a successful check, showing a green tick and the words identity verified, nothing more to do here." />

## Once, not every time

A passed check is permanent. You will not be asked again — not on this application and not on any
future one.

## If it does not pass

**"That check didn't go through."** The check ran and could not confirm you. Try again in good
light, with the whole document in the frame and no glare across it. A licence in a plastic
sleeve, a dark kitchen at 11pm and a cracked phone screen are the three usual culprits.

**"We couldn't start the ID check just then."** Different thing entirely: nothing was checked and
nothing is wrong with your licence — the provider did not answer. Try again in a moment, or carry
on and call us and we will do it with you.

**"Being checked."** Your ID is with a human reviewer, which usually takes a few minutes. You can
carry on with the rest of the application; we will email you if anything else is needed.

## On the web

The step sits between Owners and Review. It is one of the three steps the wizard will not let you
walk past — the other two are the bank statements and adding at least one owner — and it is one
of the two things the send button checks. Until it has passed, Continue stays put and greys out
with **Verify your ID to continue** beside it.

## In the app

The same hosted check, opened in a Safari window the app does not get to read, and the same
decision comes back the same way. When you return to the app, it asks our server for the result
rather than waiting for a notification — a missed message must never strand you on the one step
you cannot skip.

The app words the two failures slightly differently from the website, and one of them offers a
different way out:

- **"That check did not go through. Try again, or call us and we will sort it out another way."**
- **"We couldn't open the ID check just now. Carry on, and your specialist will send you a
  link."** Nothing was checked and nothing is wrong with your licence — carry on with the rest of
  the application and the link will arrive.