We know that security is important to you when using Upwork and trust is the foundation of any great working relationship.
To build trust, we may ask you to upload a government-issued ID to confirm your identity. In most cases, we’ll be able to verify your identity within minutes. In other cases, we may need more information from you, or ask you to briefly video chat with an Upwork agent. We aim to respond to all inquiries within one business day.
Documents Required
You will need to take a picture of your government-issued ID in order to verify your identity. The acceptable forms of ID vary by country and will be listed on the form.
- This ID must include your picture, signature, name, date of birth, and address, with the exception of passports, which don't need your address.
- The documents we accept include passport, national ID card (NIC/CNIC), driver's license, NBI Clearance (Philippines only), tax ID, voter ID, postal ID, or any other valid government-issued photo ID that meets these criteria.
Note that we cannot accept:
- Student IDs, employee IDs, library cards, handwritten IDs, temporary IDs, photocopied IDs, military IDs, and health cards.
Don't crop, rotate, touch up, adjust colors, or alter the images in any way.
Your government ID should
- Be the same person as your Upwork profile photo
- Match the address you have on file on your Upwork profile
Tips for taking a photo of your government ID
- Take a photo of the front of your ID, without flash
- Capture the image from above, with your ID lying on a flat surface
- Ensure all four corners of your ID are showing
- Take the photo in color (at least 200 dpi)
- Upload your photo in PNG, JPEG, PDF, or BMP format
We encourage you to comply with applicable laws. In fact, we require it in our Terms of Service. That said, we don't have knowledge of any laws that make it illegal to provide identification to someone other than law enforcement. If there is a specific law, let us know––we’re happy to look into it.
Yes, our third-party vendor’s automated checks will review IDs in any language, and translators are available in the case that a manual review is required.
How are you keeping the information I share safe?
Your privacy and the security of your information is extremely important to us. To protect your personal information, access to the information you submit to Upwork to verify your identity is stored by Upwork temporarily, per our security policy. Upwork agents comply with our privacy policy, and the third-party vendor that handles these requests does not store any identification data. We do not sell any of the information you submit to us. After 30 days, we delete the image you submit to verify your identity.
Any resident of the European Union can request that we delete their information under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Once you request this, we have 30 days to respond to your request. To learn how to make a GDPR request to Upwork, click here.