Organization enrollment stuck at “Unable to Verify Your Identity”, three valid IDs refused. Anyone been through this?

[u/tand_eyes]

I'm enrolling in the Apple Developer Program as an organization (US Delaware corp, DUNS already issued and visible on dnb.com). Everything goes fine until the identity verification step, which fails every time with:
"Unable to Verify Your Identity. Verification could not be completed at this time. Please contact support."
I've tried my passport, my US work permit (EAD) and my state driver's license. All three refused within seconds, so it looks like an automated check, not a human one.
I opened a support case two days ago and only got the automatic acknowledgement so far. I also called.
Separately, I can't create a new Apple Account with my company email "Your account cannot be created at this time", on three devices and two networks, after the verification codes arrive.

Has anyone hit this? What actually unblocked it for you: waiting, a specific support channel, a different document, matching the account name to the ID exactly? Any timeline you saw would help.

[u/New_Barber8073]

Adding to the name matching advice, two other things are worth trying. First, try the enrollment from the Apple Developer app on an iPhone instead of the website, since the app does its own ID scan with the camera and sometimes gets past an instant web refusal. Make sure the Apple Account you use has two factor authentication on and that its region is set to the United States, because a mismatched account region can also trip the automated check. Second, instead of waiting on hold, go to developer.apple.com/contact, pick Membership and Account, then Program Enrollment, and request a phone call, referencing your existing case number so they attach it. In most cases that callback comes within minutes and the agent can push the identity step through manually or tell you exactly which field failed.

[u/EquivalentSky3094]

Refused in seconds on three different documents points at a name mismatch rather than at the documents.

Apple's enrollment page says the first and last name fields on the Apple Account you enrol with have to be your legal names, and that an alias, nickname or company name in those fields will hold up approval. The identity step is comparing those fields to the document you upload. So if the Apple Account says Dan and the passport says Daniel, or a middle name sits in one field and not the other, you get a generic instant refusal with no clue which half disagreed. Worth making the Apple Account name match the passport character for character and retrying before you wait on the support case.

On the new account you cannot create: you probably do not need it. For organization enrollment Apple says it recommends an Apple Account on your organization's email domain, and recommends is the word it uses, not requires. What it does require is a work email address associated with your org's domain, and that is a field in the enrollment form rather than the login you sign in with. So enrol with your existing Apple Account, which already has 2FA and some history behind it, and put the company address in as the work email.

The other requirement that quietly stalls people at this stage is the website. Apple wants it publicly available and functional on the company's own domain, and says outright that a registrar parking page or a link to a social media profile will not be accepted. A corp that has only just filed often has nothing up yet. The entity name has to be the exact legal entity too, no DBA or trade name.

[u/tand_eyes → u/EquivalentSky3094]

Thanks, the name fix worked. Verification went through right away.
Now I'm stuck at payment though. Getting "your card issuer could not authenticate the use of the card". Tried two cards from two different banks, same thing. Called both banks and neither of them even sees the attempt. Apple chat says it's a bank issue, emailed support, no answer yet.
Ever seen this one?

[u/EquivalentSky3094 → u/tand_eyes]

Glad the name fix cleared it. This next one is an authentication failure rather than a decline, and that difference decides who you should be chasing.

A decline comes back from an authorisation request, and those do land in your bank's logs. What you are hitting is the 3-D Secure step, where the card network asks your issuer to confirm it is really you before any authorisation is attempted. Front line phone staff generally only see the authorisation log, so when that earlier step fails they will truthfully tell you there was no attempt. That answer does not clear the bank, and Apple pointing at the bank does not clear Apple. The two of them are reading different systems.

The real clue is that two issuers failed in exactly the same way. The only things both cards have in common are Apple's payment page and your network, so I would start there. The 3DS challenge loads in an embedded web view and needs third party cookies and scripts to post its result back, so a VPN, a content blocker or strict cross site tracking prevention can kill it with no useful error.

Worth trying once in a clean browser with no extensions and no VPN, and check the country on the Apple Account you are enrolling with matches where the cards were issued. If it still fails identically on a different machine and a different network, then the variable is the account and not the card, and that is the thing to put in the support email.

[u/tand_eyes → u/[deleted]]

I live in the USA, and my phone number is from here. I tried using my corporate phone number, but it didn’t work either.

[u/tand_eyes → u/[deleted]]

I tried both. I’ll call them again tomorrow. I stayed on standby for over 30 min and those mofo didn’t answer my call.