Home / Guides/ Onboard Accounts

Request Documents for Application Review

Manual Review

In some cases, an Application may be flagged for manual review because additional verification information is needed from the Account Holder to confirm the identity of the Person or Business and comply with Know-Your-Customer (KYC) or Know-Your-Business (KYB) regulations.

If your customer’s Application enters IN_REVIEW, you may need to collect additional documentation to complete the process. An Application with a status of IN_REVIEW will contain details on the need for additional verification. If documents are required, you can use the Highnote API to generate upload URLs and allow customers to provide documents from your UI. If an application is IN_REVIEW but does not require identity documents, you can simply notify your customer that their application is under review.

Once your Account Holder has uploaded their verification documents, a Highnote agent will review the documents and take the following actions:

  • Approve the Application as the documents sufficiently confirm the identity of the Account Holder
  • Decline the Application as the documents were not provided or appear to be fraudulent or forged

Documents must not be expired and supporting documents must be dated within 60 days. If the document appears forged, is outdated, and/or is otherwise invalid, the Application will be DENIED.

Individual, Controller, or Beneficial Owner Identity Documentation

Depending on the response, the Account Holder must provide one of relevant document(s) listed below. When there are multiple response codes, the Account Holder may need to provide multiple documents.

ResponseDocument Required
ADDRESS_MISMATCHValid Driver’s License
Utility Bill (water bill, gas bill, or light bill dated within 60 days)
Current Lease Agreement
Any document must have the current address listed.
DOB_MISMATCHBirth Certificate
Valid Driver’s License
Valid Country Issued Passport
NAME_MISMATCHValid Driver’s License
Valid Country Issued Passport
Utility Bill (dated within 60 days)
Pay Stub (dated within 60 days)
SSN_MISMATCHSSN card
Taxpayer Identification (TIN)
PHONE_MISMATCHRecent Phone Bill (dated within 60 days)

Business Entity Documentation

Depending on the response, the Account Holder must provide one of relevant document(s) listed below. When there are multiple response codes, the Account Holder may need to provide multiple documents.

ResponseDocument Required
ADDRESS_MISMATCHBusiness Registration
Business Operating Agreement
Articles of Incorporation/Organization
Tax Registration Document
Certificate of Formation
Lease Agreement
Business License Application with exact business name
Utility Bill (water bill, gas bill, or light bill dated within 60 days)
Any document must have the current address and should be related to legal entity address that's registered with the Federal Government.
BUSINESS_NAME_MISMATCHSS4 or EIN Letter 147c
Business Articles Of Incorporation/Organization
Business Operating Agreement
Business License
Certificate of Formation
FEIN_MISMATCHSS4 document
EIN Letter 147c
REPRESENTATIVE_MISMATCHArticles of Incorporation/Organization
Tax Registration Document
Business Operating Agreement
Business License
Business Registration

For Sole Proprietors, given an FEIN document may not available, only one of the following documents would need to be uploaded:

  • Taxpayer identification
  • Social Security Card
  • Owner’s Full Tax Return with Schedule C included

Manual Reviews & Document Upload

document-upload-status-lifecycle.png

In the case an Application has been flagged for manual review and verification documents are required, you can use the Highnote API to generate upload URLs and allow customers to provide documents from your UI.

One or more documents may be required based on the type of documentation they are providing.

Start Session

A document upload session expires 30 days from creation. If the Account Holder does not provide the required documentation within 30 days, the application will be DENIED.

To begin the process of uploading your user’s documents to Highnote’s secure document store, use the startDocumentUploadSession. A session allows you to upload multiple documents within a given time frame.

A session will also indicate to you any requirements that may need to be enforced by your system when uploading the file.

Note: To make requests direct from your client, you will first need to generate a Client Token.

End Session

Once your user has confirmed that they have uploaded all required documents, call endDocumentUploadSession to end the session. When a session is ended, the status of the session will be reflected as SUBMITTED. A Highnote agent will review the provided documents and decision the application once the status of the session is SUBMITTED.

Note: No other actions can be taken against this session once the status is reflected as SUBMITTED. If it is determined that more documentation is required, a new session must be started to upload the additional documents.

Application Monitoring

Highnote will not return a public link to access the content of the documents to best protect the Account Holder's privacy.

You can check the requiredDocuments status on the application to see if the document upload was completed by the applicant.

You can check the uploadedDocuments field on the requiredDocuments for the document types that were uploaded by the applicant.

Fetch Status

Once verification documents have been uploaded, you can query for the status.

Review Status

Verification documents are reviewed by a Highnote agent. You can query for the review status.

Simulate Manual Reviews

The Test Environment does not run KYB (Know Your Business) and KYC (Know Your Customer) checks on Applications. When testing, you can simulate Application failure under a variety of scenarios by creating Account Holders with specific attribute values. The simulation will produce Tags associated with the application decision and provide information as to why an Application outcome was APPROVED, IN_REVIEW, or DENIED.

For KYC, regulation requires that we collect the person’s name, address, date of birth, and identification number (e.g. SSN). For KYB, regulation requires that we collect a Business' EIN / FEIN, the Business name, Business address, and identifying information of any Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs).

Note: All values, except failure values, will trigger the attributes associated with Pass Tags.

KYC Identity Verification Simulation (Person Account Holders)

The following fields and associated values will simulate DENIED and IN_REVIEW application states.

FieldValueTagApplication Status
FIRST NAMEFORCE-DECLINENAME_MISMATCHDENIED
ADDRESS LINE 1123 Manual Review St.ADDRESS_MISMATCHIN_REVIEW

The following fields and associated values will simulate various tags associated with the application decision.

FieldFailure ValueFailure TagPass Tag
FIRST NAMEDECLINENAME_MISMATCHNAME_MATCH
FIRST NAMEIN-REVIEWWATCHLIST_HITNAME_MATCH
DATE OF BIRTH1900-12-12DOB_MISMATCHDOB_MATCH
ADDRESS LINE 1123 Decline St.ADDRESS_MISMATCHADDRESS_MATCH
ADDRESS POSTAL CODE66666 or 11111ADDRESS_MISMATCHADDRESS_MATCH
PHONE NUMBER6666666666PHONE_MISMATCHPHONE_MATCH
SSN666-66-6666 or 111-11-1111 or 111-11-1211SSN_MISMATCHSSN_MATCH

KYB Identity Verification Simulation (Business Account Holders)

The following fields and associated values will simulate DENIED and IN_REVIEW application states.

FieldValueTagApplication Status
BUSINESS LEGAL NAMEFORCE-DECLINEBUSINESS_NAME_MISMATCHDENIED
BUSINESS ADDRESS LINE 1123 Manual Review St.ADDRESS_MISMATCHIN_REVIEW

The following fields and associated values will simulate various tags associated with the application decision.

FieldFailure ValueFailure TagPass Tag
BUSINESS LEGAL NAMEDECLINEBUSINESS_NAME_MISMATCHBUSINESS_NAME_MATCH
BUSINESS ADDRESS LINE 1123 Decline St.ADDRESS_MISMATCHADDRESS_MATCH
BUSINESS ADDRESS POSTAL CODE66666 or 11111ADDRESS_MISMATCHADDRESS_MATCH
EMPLOYER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER66-6666666 or 11-1111111 or 11-1111211FEIN_MISMATCHFEIN_MATCH
AUTHORIZED PERSON FIRST NAMEMISMATCHREPRESENTATIVE_MISMATCHREPRESENTATIVE_MATCH
PRIMARY AUTHORIZED PERSON FIRST & GIVEN NAMEIN-REVIEWWATCHLIST_HITNAME_MATCH
Business Verification ScorePassing 3 or more of the failure values aboveBUSINESS_VERIFICATION_SCORE_FAILEDBUSINESS_VERIFICATION_SCORE_PASSED

Please see Identity Verification Overview for more information on customer identity programs, application outcomes, and onboarding tags.

Simulate Document Upload Status

Once an Application for a Person Account Holder, Primary Authorized Person, Ultimate Beneficial Business Owner (UBO) or Business has entered Manual Review with a status of IN_REVIEW, you can begin a document upload session to simulate adding supporting documents:

  1. Generate a Client Token (integration specific)
  2. Start Document Upload Session
  3. Create Document Link
  4. End the Document Upload Session

Once you've closed the document upload session, you can simulate the outcome of the Document Review as if each document was reviewed by a Highnote Agent by assigning a new status of APPROVED or DENIED.

Simulate Second Document Upload Status

In some cases, the document(s) provided by the Account Holder may be insufficient to approve the application. If the Account Holder needs to upload additional documents after documents were previously submitted, a new document upload session will be created for the Account Holder to upload a new document type(s).

In the Test Environment, you can simulate requesting a second document upload session for an application. The request input will need to include specific document types.

Once the request is simulated, the status of the application will be DOCUMENT_UPLOAD_REQUIRED. Multiple applicants under the same application can be selected and multiple document types can be requested for each applicant.

A second upload session will trigger the CARD_PRODUCT_APPLICATION_DOCUMENT_UPLOAD_REQUESTED notification event. The event allows you to create a unique communication template to your Account Holders when documents are requested a second time for their application versus the first time documents are requested.

Simulate Identity Verification Status

Once you've uploaded supporting documents for an Identity and simulated a review of each document, you can simulate the outcome of Identity Verification as if reviewed by a Highnote Agent. This will transition the Identity Verification from a status of IN_REVIEW to PASSED, DENIED or DOCUMENT_UPLOAD_REQUIRED if you want to test your flow for requiring additional documents.

Simulate Application Status

You may also simulate the outcome of an entire Application without the document upload or identity verification steps and transition the Application's status from IN_REVIEW directly to APPROVED or DENIED.

Provide Feedback

Was this content helpful?