Verification

Becoming a verified partner on Relex is a two-step check. Both must succeed:

Stripe Identity confirms who you are (government ID + selfie + bank-payout details).
Regulator check confirms your professional licence is real and active by querying the public register of the issuing authority — the SRA in England & Wales, the State Bar of California, the BRAK in Germany, the Barreau du Québec, and so on for every jurisdiction we support.

Until both are green, you appear in the partner directory as unverified. Once both pass you get the verified_lawyer or verified_notary badge and clients can invite you to work.

What the partner dashboard shows you

Open /settings/partner/status any time. The page shows two pills:

Identity — set by Stripe Identity. pending while you're still in onboarding, verified once Stripe confirms, failed if Stripe rejects a document.
Professional licence — set by our regulator check. awaiting_identity until Stripe finishes, then in_progress for ~2 minutes while we check the regulator, then one of verified / failed / needs_review.

The page auto-refreshes while either status is pending, so you don't need to reload manually.

How the regulator check works

You complete Stripe Identity verification.
Stripe sends Relex a webhook saying you're verified.
Relex queries the public register of the issuing regulator (the one you picked at registration), looking for your legal name and licence number.
The result is logged to your verification record (auditable) and your status updates.
You get an email with the outcome — either "you're verified" or a specific note about what didn't match.

The whole regulator check takes seconds to a few minutes. We never block you on it — if the regulator's website is slow or unreachable, you're routed to a human reviewer who handles it within one business day.

Possible outcomes and what they mean

✅ Verified

The regulator's register confirmed your name + licence number, and the licence is currently active. You get a confirmation email and the verified_<profession> badge. You're ready to receive case invitations.

⚠️ Needs review

The automated check couldn't reach a clear yes/no — usually because the regulator's website is temporarily unreachable, or doesn't publish an automated search tool, or returned an ambiguous match (e.g. a slight name difference). A Relex teammate will check by hand within one business day. You don't need to do anything; you'll get an email at every step.

Specific reasons you might see:

regulator_unreachable — The regulator's site is down or rate-limited us. We'll retry, and a human will check if it stays unreachable.
manual_review_required — Your regulator doesn't publish a public search tool we can use automatically (some US state bars, several civil-law notary chambers). A Relex teammate handles it manually.
name_match_low_confidence — Your licence number matched, but the name on the regulator's register differs from your submission in a way that needs human judgement (e.g. maiden vs married name).

❌ Rejected

The automated check found a definite mismatch. The most common reasons:

license_not_found — We searched the regulator's register with your licence number and found no record. Double-check the number (including any prefix like "SRA " or "LSO #" — strip those; we expect digits only). Update your number in the dashboard and we'll re-check.
name_mismatch — Your licence number resolved to someone with a different name. Most often a name change (marriage, deed-poll) that hasn't been updated on the regulator's side. Reply to the email we sent you with proof of name change and we'll override manually.
license_number_mismatch — Your name was found on the register but with a different licence number. Update the number in the dashboard.
suspended_or_expired — The regulator lists your licence as not currently active (Inactive / Non-practising / Suspended / Disbarred). An active practising certificate is required to onboard. If your status has changed since we checked, reply to the email with a screenshot from the regulator's register and we'll re-run.
identity_failed — Stripe couldn't complete identity verification. Open your dashboard and retry — usually a clearer photo of the document fixes it.

⏳ Awaiting identity

You haven't finished Stripe Connect onboarding yet. The professional check is paused until you do. Open your dashboard and follow the Complete identity verification link.

What the failure emails look like

Every non-green outcome triggers an email from [email protected] with:

A plain-English summary of what didn't match.
The exact name + licence number we searched for.
A link to the regulator's own lookup page so you can double-check yourself.
One-line guidance on the fix.

Just reply to the email — it threads to the support inbox and a teammate picks it up.

Pausing and resuming registration

The registration form saves your progress locally as you go. If you close the tab on Step 3, opening /partners/register again picks up at Step 3. After you submit the form and start Stripe Identity, the partner record is permanently stored — even if you close the Stripe tab, returning to Relex brings you back to the post-submit step automatically.

When the regulator is `human_review`

A handful of regulators (Florida Bar, NY State Office of Court Administration, Illinois ARDC, parts of the US bar landscape) sit behind enterprise bot protection (Cloudflare / Akamai) that blocks automated lookups regardless of how nicely we ask. Partners admitted under those regulators always go to manual review — that's the design, not a bug. You'll see a "License will be human-reviewed within 1 business day" hint during registration when the regulator you pick is on that list.

Once you're verified

The verified_<profession> badge appears on your directory listing.
Your registration data (legal name, licence number, regulator) is locked from edit — changing any of those requires deleting your profile and re-registering (which forfeits badges and ratings).
Re-verification happens periodically (currently manual; weekly cron is a roadmap item) — if your regulator status changes from active to suspended, we demote and email you.

Need help

Reply to any email we sent you about verification — they're addressed to [email protected] and thread to the support inbox. Or email us directly at [email protected].