Required Documentation for Sign Up

As a regulated financial services company, Square is required to verify the identity of everyone who wishes to use our payment services—particularly for card processing. To do so, we rely on two different verification systems that verify your identity based on your name, date of birth, residential address and/or government-issued photo ID document, such as a passport.

We can accept any of the following document types:

• Australian driver's licence

• Passport 

• ID Card

• Residence Permit

• Medicare Card (not able to be used with Veriff)

Note: Any other business owners, shareholders, directors, partners, officeholders and/or business owners are also required to be verified as part of our regulatory obligations. During sign up, we will only request the full legal name, date of birth and residential address of these individuals, however, additional personal information may be requested if we are unable to successfully verify the individual. 

Note: Any employees added to the account by the Account Holder will not be required to provide additional personal information, except their full legal name.

How to Verify Your Documents

After entering your personal and business information as part of our registration, individuals and sole traders may be directed to the start of our document verification process with our partner Veriff.

Note: We recommend using a smartphone to complete this step. If you don’t have a smartphone, try using a tablet or borrowing a smartphone from someone you know. To begin, you can either scan the QR code to open the verification flow on your phone, or you can enter your mobile phone number to receive an SMS text with a link to verification.

You will be required to upload a picture of a government-issued photo ID for us to verify, so make sure you have your ID nearby. We can only accept official government-issued photo IDs, such as

• Australian driver's licence

• Valid passport 

• ID Card

• Residence Permit

When uploading your documents and pictures for verification, check the following:

• Make sure that your images are clear and include the full ID or ID page. If you upload images that are blurry, have excessive glare, or crop out the edges of your ID, our verification partner may have difficulty completing the verification. For best results take a picture of your ID against a plain background, such as a clear tabletop or blank wall.

• Make sure you’re taking a new photo of your actual ID, and not a screenshot or a photo of a picture of your ID. Submitting a photo of a picture or screenshot will prevent us from being able to verify your account.

You will also be required to upload a selfie to verify your ID. For best results, take a picture of yourself straight-on in a well-lit room. Excessive shadows and blurriness in your photo will prevent us from accurately matching your photo and ID.

Verification Status

Once you have uploaded a photo of your ID and your selfie, our verification partner will work to complete their checks in the background while you complete the rest of the Square registration process.

Once you have finished signing up for your Square account, you can check your verification status by clicking the Clipboard icon to access your Setup Guide in your online Square Dashboard. Find more information about each different verification status below.

Verify Your Identity

You can still complete the Square sign up process without submitting your photo ID for verification, however, you will not be able to accept payments until this step is completed. 

If you still need to complete the verification, you will see a prompt in your Setup Guide to Verify Your Identity. Click to go back to the verification flow where you can upload your photo ID.

Pending Verification

If you upload your photo ID and selfie for verification during the signup process, you can see if your verification has been approved or if it’s still pending from the Setup Guide in your Square Dashboard.

If your verification status is Pending, we’ll let you know via email if we need anything else from you, and you’ll receive a notification in your Square Dashboard as soon as you’ve been verified. You should receive a notification within 1-2 business days.

Verification Declined - Resubmission Requested

If the photo of the document or selfie you submitted is poor quality, we may not be able to complete the verification on the first attempt. In this case, you’ll receive a notification in your Square Dashboard asking you to re-attempt verification.

As a reminder, please check the following before re-submitting your photographs:

• Make sure that your images are clear and include the full ID or ID page. Do not upload images that are blurry, have excessive glare, or crop out the edges of your ID. For best results take a picture of your ID against a plain background, such as a clear tabletop or blank wall.

• Make sure you’re taking a new photo of your actual ID, and not a screenshot or a photo of a picture of your ID. 

When taking the selfie, for best results take a picture of yourself straight-on in a well-lit room. Excessive shadows and blurriness in your photo will prevent us from accurately matching your photo and ID.

Verification Declined

In some cases we may not be able to verify your identity.

In this case, we will not be able to activate your Square account to accept card payments. However, you can still download the Square Point of Sale app to help you manage your business and record other tender types, such as cash or cheque.

Verification FAQ