Document Verification

Overview

Alongside identity verification and watchlist monitoring, Synctera’s verification solution includes document verification. As described in the verification guide, it is recommended as a step-up method for customers who cannot be verified automatically from basic CIP information (name, address, date of birth, government ID). Synctera has partnered with Socure to verify thousands of document types from over 100 countries. By capturing the front and back of a document plus a live selfie, document verification improves conversion for customers who would otherwise land in manual review, while reducing risk by further confirming the customer’s identity. Key characteristics:

Step-up — best used for verifications flagged REVIEW, to resolve issues automatically rather than routing to manual review.
Document-based — validates a government-issued document and matches it to a live selfie.
Conversion-boosting — recovers customers who fail initial automated KYC.
SDK-driven — document capture happens through Socure’s platform SDKs.

Document verification increases conversion for customers flagged for review in their initial KYC verification. To build out your document verification flow using the Socure SDK, contact your Synctera sales representative.

Socure SDKs

Socure provides SDKs for multiple platforms to simplify integration:

WebSDK
Android SDK
iOS SDK
React SDK

Prerequisites

This guide assumes you have:

You should also be familiar with:

Example: document verification as a step-up

This example creates a customer who is flagged for REVIEW on initial verification, then uses Socure’s document verification to resolve the issue automatically — decreasing manual review time and increasing conversion.

Create a personal customer

Create a record for the customer with POST /v0/persons:

curl \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $apikey" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  https://api.synctera.com/v0/persons \
  --data-binary '
  {
    "first_name": "Christopher",
    "middle_name": "James",
    "last_name": "Albertson",
    "dob": "1985-06-14",
    "email": "chris@example.com",
    "phone_number": "+16045551212",
    "ssn": "456-78-9999",
    "legal_address": {
      "address_line_1": "123 Main St.",
      "city": "Beverly Hills",
      "state": "CA",
      "postal_code": "99999",
      "country_code": "US"
    },
    "is_customer": true,
    "status": "ACTIVE"
  }'

See the Create a Personal Customer guide for details.

Record a KYC data collection disclosure

Display a disclosure informing the customer that you are collecting personal data to be shared with a third party for identity verification, then record it with POST /v0/disclosures:

curl \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $apikey" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  https://api.synctera.com/v0/disclosures \
  --data-binary '
  {
    "person_id": "7ef75751-e372-4c12-9b02-b9e4b1faaac9",
    "type": "KYC_DATA_COLLECTION",
    "version": "1.0",
    "event_type": "ACKNOWLEDGED",
    "disclosure_date": "2022-03-17T17:04:34Z"
  }'

See the Record Disclosure Acceptance guide for details.

Verify the customer

With the customer created and consent captured, run verification with POST /v0/verifications/verify:

curl \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $apikey" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  https://api.synctera.com/v0/verifications/verify \
  --data-binary '
  {
    "person_id": "7ef75751-e372-4c12-9b02-b9e4b1faaac9",
    "customer_ip_address": "184.233.47.237",
    "customer_consent": true
  }'

Consent must come directly from the customer.

The response returns a verification for each check run:

{
  "verification_status": "REVIEW",
  "verifications": [
    {
      "id": "05e2ddf3-d172-450e-9cf3-7a34f76a414f",
      "person_id": "7ef75751-e372-4c12-9b02-b9e4b1faaac9",
      "verification_type": "IDENTITY",
      "result": "REVIEW",
      "details": [
        {
          "description": "Address cannot be resolved to the individual",
          "label": "Address",
          "result": "WARN",
          "vendor_code": "R705"
        },
        {
          "description": "Email address can be resolved to the individual",
          "label": "Email",
          "result": "PASS",
          "vendor_code": "I556"
        }
      ],
      "verification_time": "2022-03-14T18:34:59.91272Z",
      "creation_time": "2022-03-14T18:34:59.918188Z",
      "last_updated_time": "2022-03-14T18:34:59.918188Z"
    },
    {
      "id": "a24a16a2-4711-4486-8049-787462c61ffc",
      "person_id": "7ef75751-e372-4c12-9b02-b9e4b1faaac9",
      "verification_type": "WATCHLIST",
      "result": "ACCEPTED",
      "details": [
        {
          "description": "Global Watchlist sources selected are not correlated with the input identifiers",
          "label": "Watchlist",
          "result": "PASS"
        }
      ],
      "verification_time": "2022-03-14T18:34:59.91272Z",
      "creation_time": "2022-03-14T18:34:59.918188Z",
      "last_updated_time": "2022-03-14T18:34:59.918188Z"
    }
  ]
}

Note the issue flagged on the IDENTITY verification: Address cannot be resolved to the individual. This warning marks the customer’s verification status as REVIEW. Document verification, run next, can resolve it automatically.

Collect the customer's documents

Begin a document verification session with POST /v0/verifications/docv_session, passing the person_id:

curl \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $apikey" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  https://api.synctera.com/v0/verifications/docv_session \
  --data-binary '
  {
    "person_id": "7ef75751-e372-4c12-9b02-b9e4b1faaac9"
  }'

The response contains a session_token to provide to the Socure SDK and a url the customer can use to upload their documents via Socure’s web portal:

{
  "session_token": "907ce33a-c564-454e-a538-804efe31e6ac",
  "url": "https://verify.socure.com/session/907ce33a-c564-454e-a538-804efe31e6ac"
}

To build out your document verification flow using the Socure SDK, contact your Synctera sales representative.

Verify the customer using document verification

Once the customer has uploaded their documents, send another verification request (as in step 3), using the session_token to populate the document_id:

curl \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $apikey" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  https://api.synctera.com/v0/verifications/verify \
  --data-binary '
  {
    "person_id": "7ef75751-e372-4c12-9b02-b9e4b1faaac9",
    "customer_ip_address": "184.233.47.237",
    "document_id": "907ce33a-c564-454e-a538-804efe31e6ac",
    "customer_consent": true
  }'

Providing a document_id runs a KYC verification using the documents supplied to the Socure SDK:

{
  "verification_status": "ACCEPTED",
  "verifications": [
    {
      "id": "05e2ddf3-d172-450e-9cf3-7a34f76a414f",
      "person_id": "7ef75751-e372-4c12-9b02-b9e4b1faaac9",
      "verification_type": "DOCUMENT_VERIFICATION",
      "result": "ACCEPTED",
      "details": [
        {
          "description": "Minimum required information extracted from document Barcode",
          "label": "Document Verification",
          "result": "PASS",
          "vendor_code": "I831"
        },
        {
          "description": "Document image correlates with self-portrait",
          "label": "Document Verification",
          "result": "PASS",
          "vendor_code": "I836"
        },
        {
          "description": "Socure's document verification model recommends accepting the individual",
          "label": "Document Verification",
          "result": "PASS"
        }
      ],
      "verification_time": "2022-03-14T18:34:59.91272Z",
      "creation_time": "2022-03-14T18:34:59.918188Z",
      "last_updated_time": "2022-03-14T18:34:59.918188Z"
    }
  ]
}

The DOCUMENT_VERIFICATION response confirms the document image correlates with the selfie and that Socure recommends accepting the individual. A customer initially flagged for manual review is now verified automatically.

Once verified, the customer is ready for the account creation guide.

Best practices

Reserve it for REVIEW — use document verification as a step-up for customers flagged for review, not as the default path for everyone.
Capture consent first — record the KYC data collection disclosure and send customer_consent on every verification request.
Start a session per customer — call docv_session to obtain the session_token and url, then reuse the session_token as the document_id on the verify call to resolve the outstanding review.
Track the outcome — check verification_status after the document verification to confirm the customer moved to ACCEPTED.

KYC/KYB Verification

Understand the initial verification that document verification steps up.

Create a Personal Customer

Onboard the customer to be verified.

Record Disclosure Acceptance

Capture the KYC data collection disclosure.

Create Accounts

Open accounts once the customer is verified.

Overview

Onboard a personal customer

Onboard a business customer

Create Accounts

Link External Accounts

Link External Cards

Issue Cards

Move Money

Get Transactions

Platform Tools

Document Verification

Overview

Socure SDKs

Prerequisites

Example: document verification as a step-up

Best practices

KYC/KYB Verification

Create a Personal Customer

Record Disclosure Acceptance

Create Accounts

API reference

​Overview

​Socure SDKs

​Prerequisites

​Example: document verification as a step-up

​Best practices

​Related guides

KYC/KYB Verification

Create a Personal Customer

Record Disclosure Acceptance

Create Accounts

​API reference

Overview

Socure SDKs

Prerequisites

Example: document verification as a step-up

Best practices

Related guides

API reference