Identity Verification
Review student ID uploads manually or with optional AI OCR, or mark identity verified after sighting ID out-of-band. Every verification is confirmed by a human.
Last updated 16 Oct 2026
Identity Verification
Most students upload an identity document through the student portal. The upload lands on their student page for staff review, and RTObase never verifies identity automatically; a person always confirms. For cases where the portal flow isn't appropriate, such as ID sent by email, sighted in person, or filed from a paper enrolment, members with Students: Edit can also mark identity verified manually.
Either way, the verification captures the document type and any notes for the audit trail, attributes the action to a named user, and surfaces in the student's activity feed as Identity Verified.
Access required
Choose the task you are doing. Each row is a separate action.
| Task | Required access |
|---|---|
| Review identity evidence | Students: View |
| Record or reverse identity verification | Students: Edit |
Learners upload evidence for their own record in the student portal. Uploading evidence does not mark identity verified.
Reviewing a portal upload
When a student uploads their ID, the pending verification appears on their student page. The review depends on your organisation's AI access to personal records setting:
- When AI access is off, an authorised staff member reads the document and reviews it manually.
- When AI access is on, RTObase reads JPEG, PNG and PDF uploads when the student submits them to suggest details from the document, such as licence number, expiry, state, date of birth and address. This includes scanned PDFs. The review card flags possible mismatches.
- When suggested details are unavailable, staff read the uploaded document and confirm the details manually. The student can still submit the document if the check is unavailable.
- Nothing is approved automatically. A staff member confirms the evidence and chooses whether any suggested fields are saved to the student profile. Rejecting sends the student back to the portal to upload again.
For a driver's licence, suggested licence numbers come from the front of the licence. A card number, card serial or barcode number is not used as the licence number. The issuing state is read separately from the residential address state. Staff still confirm every suggested detail.
On the student's Details tab, use Zoom in and Zoom out to inspect an uploaded image, Rotate to turn it clockwise in 90-degree steps, and Reset to return to its original orientation and fitted size. Zoom ranges from 100% to 400% of the fitted view; scroll inside the image when enlarged. Front and back images have separate controls. PDF uploads use the PDF viewer's controls.
Uploaded documents are stored privately for the review and deleted after a decision. OCR text and AI confidence data are also cleared after review. Each file can be up to 10 MB. Students select their files and submit them for review. The file inputs stay disabled while the submission is in progress.
Course and organisation settings
| Task | Required access |
|---|---|
| Configure a course identity requirement | Courses and units: Manage |
| Change organisation identity settings | Administrator |
Set the requirement for each course in Course design → Completion rules → Enrolment requirements. Existing courses retain the requirement that their organisation had before this setting moved to courses. A course that requires verification blocks its completion-document download until staff approve the student's ID. Courses without the requirement can use a shorter learner flow.
Two organisation settings still shape how verification works:
Accepted document typesChoose which document types the portal offers students (e.g. driver's licence and passport only). Useful where your regulator or delivery model expects specific evidence.
Allow AI access to personal recordsThis is off by default. When enabled by an administrator, identity-document OCR suggests details for staff review. The same opt-in enables assessment document import, the Admin Agent and AI support chats, which may process personal information supplied in a document or required to answer or act. Enrolment Insights does not need this setting because it sends only deidentified operational signals. AI content generation remains available because it does not read person records or automatically send the organisation's email, phone number or street address.
When to use it
- Student emailed a photo of their licence/passport instead of uploading via the portal
- Photo ID was sighted in person during induction or a face-to-face class
- Identity was already verified by a previous RTO and the evidence is on file
- The student's portal upload was rejected and they've since re-sent valid ID through another channel
If the student is going to verify themselves through the portal, just point them there, manual verification is for cases where the portal flow isn't appropriate.
How to mark it verified
Open the student detail page
Go to Manage → Students in the sidebar and click the student's name.
Find the Identity Verified badge
On the Personal section, look for the Identity Verified label. If the student isn't yet verified (or a previous verification was rejected), you'll see a Mark Verified button next to it.
Pick the document and add notes
Clicking Mark Verified opens the verification dialog with two fields, see below.
Confirm
Click Mark Verified in the dialog. The student's identity_verified_at timestamp is set, the verification record is logged with your user ID and the current time, and the student feed shows an Identity Verified event.
Form fields
Document sightedRequiredThe type of identity document you sighted. Options: Driver's Licence, Passport, Photo ID Card, Proof of Age, Other. Pick the closest match, this is captured in the audit trail so an auditor can see what evidence underpinned the verification.
NotesOptional free-text context (max 2000 chars). Use this for anything an auditor would want to know, e.g. "Photo of NSW Driver's Licence received via email on 6 May 2026, filed under student record." If the student had a prior rejected verification, the placeholder hints at noting that the new evidence overrides the previous rejection.
Who can do this
Manual identity verification needs Students: Edit, including when held by a custom role. Trainers using the trainer portal must ask an authorised office member to review the evidence.
Reversing a verification
If you marked identity verified by mistake, click Unmark next to the Identity Verified badge on the student detail page. This clears identity_verified_at so the student returns to an unverified state. The original verification record stays in the audit log, unmarking doesn't delete history, it just changes the current state.
Where it shows up
| View | What you see |
|---|---|
| Student header | ID Verified / ID Pending / ID Not Verified appears when identity is required by an active course or a verification is recorded. ID Pending appears while a portal upload awaits review |
| Student detail → Personal | Green Verified badge with date |
| Student activity feed | Identity Verified event with your name and timestamp (under the Audit filter) |
| Lifecycle dashboard | The student no longer surfaces in the "Identity not verified" attention queue |
| Student portal | The student sees a green Verified badge: they don't see the document type or notes |
| Audit log | Full record of the insert into identity_verifications with status APPROVED |
Note
The student portal is opaque to how identity was verified, students see the same green badge whether they uploaded through the portal or you marked it manually. Document type and notes are staff-only.
Warning
You're attesting that you've actually sighted the document. The activity feed and audit log capture your name against the verification, so make sure the evidence really is on file before clicking through.
Keep going
How to Edit a Student →
Update student details, contact information, and AVETMISS data.
USI Verification →
Verify student Unique Student Identifiers (USI) for AVETMISS compliance.
Activity Feed →
Review status changes, unit outcomes, messages, payments, document issuance and automation in one student, enrolment or class timeline.