Verify My Certificate Request (Extended Validation)

After you request an Extended Validation (EV) certificate, we verify your:

• Control of the domain name in your request
• Identity, address, and telephone number
• Extended registration eligibility

Domain control verification

We verify that you control the domain name in your request by checking your GoWebsite account and publicly available records in the WHOIS database.

We also request some customers manually verify that they control their domain names. For information on that process, see Verify domain ownership (HTML or DNS).

How long does the process take?

Usually the verification process takes less than 1 business day. However, manual verification processes are dependent on the user completing the task.

Identity verification

We verify you are or represent the entity we issue the certificate to by having you send us documents containing the following information:

• Yours or the organization's name
• Address
• Telephone number (which we call before issuing your certificate)

Which kind of documents we accept depends on whether the certificate is being issued to an individual or an organization.

Individuals

• Government-issued photo ID
• Utility bill, or bank or credit card statement that displays address and phone number

Organizations

• Business license
• Sales & Use Tax certificate (neither the number or the FEIN alone are acceptable)
• "Doing Business As" (DBA) documentation
• Fictitious-name documentation
• Occupational Tax Certificate/License
• Non-profit organization tax exemption certificate
• Articles of Incorporation
• Utility bill, or bank or credit card statement that displays address and phone number
• A letter of attestation from an attorney or CPA

How long does the process take?

After receiving your documentation, we process the request within 3 business days.

Extended registration verification

Because Extended Validations offer the highest level of assurance, we require a thorough verification process for your request. This requires documents such as:

• Certificate request signed by certificate requestor and certificate approver
• Signed contact agreement for all initial requests and changes to authorized signer
• Notarized personal statement attestation (for non-LLC or Inc. businesses)
• Notarized face-to-face attestation statement (for non-LLC or Inc. businesses)
• Notarized copy of the photo ID used for identity validation (for non-LLC or Inc. businesses)
• Verified legal opinion or certified public accountant letter, depending on results from other validation methods

How long does the process take?

The entire process of verifying your business registration can take a few weeks.

Need help?

If you're looking for help understanding what we need you to do next, you can find our support number in your SSL control panel. It displays on the right under the progress indicator.

Next step

After verifying you control the domain name, your next step depends on where you're using the certificate: