Identity Document Verification
Authenticate and validate government-issued identity documents with smart capture, OCR, NFC, and X-Ray document checks.
Introduction
IDWise Identity Document Verification authenticates and validates government-issued identity documents in seconds. It combines AI-driven document classification, high-precision OCR (Optical Character Recognition), and a forensic analysis engine that performs more than 50 X-Ray checks on every document to verify that the document is genuine, unaltered, and matched to a supported template.
Document verification runs as a step within an IDWise journey. You can combine it with Facial Biometrics, Proof of Address Verification, and AML Checks in a single flow configured through the Flow Builder.
How It Works
Every document moves through four stages, from capture to decision.
1. Smart Capture
The end user captures their document through the IDWise SDK with AI-assisted guidance designed to get a high-quality submission on the first attempt:
- Automatic document detection — the document type and issuing country are identified automatically, so users do not need to select their document from a list.
- Real-time guidance — live feedback helps users correct positioning, lighting, glare, and focus.
- Auto-capture — the SDK captures the frame automatically when conditions are suitable, reducing retries and drop-off.
- NFC reading — for chip-enabled documents, such as biometric passports and modern national IDs, the SDK reads the chip directly for a higher level of assurance.
See Image Data Requirements for accepted formats and quality criteria.
Why it mattersMost onboarding drop-off happens at the capture step. Guided, automatic capture helps reduce retries, improve first-attempt success, and increase conversion.
2. Data Extraction
After capture, IDWise extracts identity data from every available source on the document.
| Capability | Details |
|---|---|
| Field extraction | Extracts full name, date of birth, document number, issue and expiry dates, nationality, and more with uniform field names across document types. See Fields Extracted by IDWise. |
| OCR | Recognizes text across a wide range of layouts, scripts, and image qualities. |
| MRZ parsing | Decodes the Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) and validates checksums. |
| NFC chip reading | Extracts chip data directly, including the high-resolution chip portrait where supported. |
| Multi-calendar support | Handles Gregorian, Hijri, Buddhist, Chinese, and other calendar systems, with all dates standardized to ISO format in Gregorian. |
| Name transliteration | Converts names in non-Latin scripts, such as Arabic, into Latin script for standardized output. See Name Transliteration from ID Document. |
When a field is present in multiple sources — VIZ (Visual Inspection Zone), MRZ, and NFC — IDWise cross-verifies the values and flags discrepancies as fraud signals.
3. X-Ray Document Analysis
Every document is subjected to more than 50 X-Ray checks. These checks provide a layered forensic analysis of the document's authenticity, integrity, and provenance.
The checks include:
- Template matching — validates the document against IDWise's database of 17,000+ certified document templates, confirming that fonts, layouts, and field positions match the official specification for the identified version.
- Security feature verification — checks watermarks, holograms, and template-specific design elements against the known document standard.
- Tampering and forgery detection — detects digital and physical manipulation, including photo substitution, altered text fields, and image splicing.
- Document liveness — distinguishes an original physical document from screen recaptures, photos of screens, printed copies, and photocopies.
- Capture integrity — protects the capture channel against injection attacks, including virtual cameras and tampered capture environments.
- MRZ and cross-source integrity — validates MRZ checksums and checks VIZ, MRZ, and NFC data for internal consistency.
- NFC cryptographic authentication — cryptographically verifies chip data for chip-enabled documents.
- Validity checks — confirms document expiry and validity.
Why it mattersModern document fraud is increasingly digital, including injected images, screen replays, and AI-generated forgeries. A forensic, multi-layered analysis catches fraud patterns that a visual template check alone cannot detect.
For the complete catalogue of X-Ray checks, contact [email protected].
4. Results and Decision
Verification results are returned in real time and contribute to the overall journey outcome:
- APIs — retrieve structured results, including extracted fields and per-check outcomes, through the Result Retrieval API.
- Webhooks — receive notifications as steps and journeys complete. See Webhooks Overview.
- SDK callbacks — react to step results directly in your app. See Getting the Journey Result.
- IDWise Studio — review cases visually with evidence and audit trails, and route borderline cases through the manual review process.
Supported Documents
IDWise supports more than 17,000+ distinct document templates from around the world, including:
- Passports
- National ID Cards
- Driver's Licenses
- Resident Permits
- Visas
- Vehicle Registration Documents
- Vaccination Cards
- Work Permits
- Birth Certificates
Document template coverage is updated continuously. For a comprehensive list of supported documents, contact [email protected].
Supported Languages
IDWise supports documents in a wide range of languages and scripts, including English, Arabic, Spanish, French, and Mandarin. Language coverage is expanded regularly to support additional regions. For a comprehensive list of supported languages, contact [email protected].
Configuration
Acceptance criteria for document verification are configured per flow in the Flow Builder, giving you control over how strict verification should be in each market:
- Document acceptance rules — control which document types and issuing countries are accepted, and how expired documents are handled. See Identity Document Module Block Configuration.
- Age verification — enforce minimum age requirements based on the date of birth extracted from the document. See Identity Document Module Block Configuration.
- Flow-level behavior — configure retries, step ordering, and decision handling. See Flow Level Configuration.