Identity Checks

This page documents the consolidated identity checks that appear in the CLEAR API response. These consolidated checks group related individual checks together for easier integration and reporting.

For backward compatibility, non deprecated legacy identity checks will continue to be returned in the API response, and the consolidated checks listed below are additional checks that will appear alongside existing checks.

Consolidated Check Groups

Biometric Verification

Verifies liveness and matches the user's selfie to the photo on their ID.

Check name	Description
Selfie passes liveness check	Confirms that the selfie was captured from a live person and not from a photo, video, or other spoofing attempt.
Selfie matches portrait on Gov ID	Confirms that the selfie captured during enrollment matches the portrait photo on the submitted government-issued ID.

Document Authenticity

Examines document security features to detect forgeries, alterations, and counterfeit credentials.

Check name	Description
Gov ID was processed	Confirms that the submitted government ID image was successfully processed and met minimum quality requirements to enable downstream checks.
Gov ID full name was extracted	Confirms that the full name was successfully extracted from the government-issued ID.
Gov ID type is an eligible document type	Confirms that the submitted government ID is an eligible document type supported by the verification flow.
Gov ID captured image is acceptable	Confirms that the government ID image does not show signs of tampering or unacceptable image quality issues.
Gov ID front is not suspicious	Analyzes the front of the government ID for visual signals that could indicate the document is suspicious.
Gov ID back is not suspicious	Analyzes the back of the government ID for visual signals that could indicate the document is suspicious.
Gov ID is likely authentic	Evaluates security features and issuer-specific elements to determine whether the government ID is likely authentic.
Gov ID is not expired	Confirms that the government-issued ID is not expired based on extracted expiration data.
Age on Gov ID is 18 or over	Confirms that the individual is at least 18 years old based on the date of birth extracted from the government-issued ID.

Source Validation

Confirms identity attributes against credible and authoritative data sources to verify information is legitimate, consistent, and tied to the individual.

Check name	Description
Gov ID matches DMV records	Confirms that information extracted from the government ID matches Department of Motor Vehicles records, where available.
Phone number matches user's information (USA)	Confirms that the phone number is associated with the user's provided identity information according to available data sources.
Gov ID last name matches phone number (Canada)	Confirms that the last name extracted from the government ID is associated with the phone number.
User is verified in country's database	Confirms that the national ID number was validated against an authoritative source.
User's information matches a trusted source	Confirms that the user's provided identity information is corroborated by one or more trusted data sources.

Phone Line Intelligence

Identifies the type of phone line used during verification and blocks landline and VoIP numbers.

Check name	Description
Phone number is a fixed or mobile phone (Document)	Confirms that the phone number associated with the document flow is a valid fixed or mobile phone number.

Device Security Assessment

Evaluates whether a device shows signs of tampering, emulation, or other signals that could indicate fraudulent activity.

Check name	Description
Device is trustworthy	Evaluates the device used during enrollment against known risk signals to determine whether it appears trustworthy and not associated with suspicious or fraudulent activity.

Phone Number Validation

Validates the relationship between the phone number and the user's identity information.

Check name	Description
Gov ID last name matches phone number	Confirms that the last name extracted from the government ID is associated with the phone number.
Phone number matches user's information	Confirms that the phone number is associated with the user's provided identity information according to available data sources.

SSN Validation

Confirms a U.S. Social Security Number is valid and consistent with the user's identity.

Check name	Description
Gov ID SSN9 is formatted correctly	Validates that the Social Security number extracted or associated with the government ID is correctly formatted.
Gov ID SSN9 is not deceased	Confirms that the Social Security number extracted or associated with the government ID is not linked to a deceased individual.
Gov ID Full name matches SSN9	Confirms that the full name extracted from the government ID is associated with the provided Social Security number.
Gov ID Address matches SSN9	Confirms that the address extracted or associated with the government ID is associated with the provided Social Security number.

Motor Vehicle Records Validation

Matches information against official U.S. state motor vehicle authority records (i.e., AAMVA, DMV).

Check name	Description
Gov ID matches DMV records	Confirms that information extracted from the government ID matches Department of Motor Vehicles records, where available.

Regulatory Screening

Screens against sanctions, adverse media, PEPs, and warning lists.

Check name	Description
Gov ID full name is not on politically exposed persons lists	Confirms that the full name extracted from the government ID does not appear on politically exposed persons lists.
Gov ID full name not on sanctions lists	Confirms that the full name extracted from the government ID does not appear on applicable sanctions lists.

VPN Detection

Detects verification attempts originating from anonymized networks, including virtual private networks.

Check name	Description
Device is not using a VPN	Evaluates whether the device used during enrollment is using a VPN or anonymized network connection.

Email Security Assessment

Evaluates email security using reputation, usage patterns, and historical signals.

Check name	Description
Email is not high-risk	Evaluates whether the email address is associated with known high-risk or fraudulent behavior.
Email query count is not abnormally high	Evaluates whether the email address has been queried an unusually high number of times, which may indicate elevated risk.
Email was first seen more than 30 days ago	Confirms that the email address was first observed more than 30 days ago, which may indicate lower fraud risk.
IP address is not high-risk	Evaluates whether the IP address used during enrollment is associated with known high-risk or suspicious activity.

Check Statuses

CLEAR returns multiple check statuses to improve the accuracy of our results, to increase the transparency of our logic, and to reduce the number of inquiries about failure reasons. Check statuses allow clients to understand when a check was run and what its result was, when a check was indeterminant, and when a check does not apply based on the users information.

Status Name	Description
Pass	This check was completed successfully.
Fail	This check was completed and failed.
Not Applicable	This check is not supported based on the user’s information and was not evaluated. Session will receive a successful status if all other required checks pass.
Indeterminate	This check was attempted but could not be completed due to a temporary issue, such as a timeout or network error.
Awaiting Async Response	This check was attempted but has not yet completed because it is pending an asynchronous response.

Migration Notes

API Response Structure

When consolidated checks are enabled, your API response will include:

All existing legacy checks - These will continue to appear with their current structure for backward compatibility
New consolidated checks - These will appear as additional check objects in the response

Example API Response

See the complete example verification session response that includes both legacy and consolidated checks:

{
  "id": "verify_aUq707RrnCdIzCWG2Jtb1MHf42sdRlYp",
  "object_name": "verification_session",
  "activated_authentication_methods": [],
  "authenticated": true,
  "authentication_methods": [
    "selfie",
    "sms"
  ],
  "check_metadata": [],
  "checks": [
    {
      "name": "Biometric Verification",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Selfie passes liveness check",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Document Authenticity",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Age on Gov ID is {{value}} or over",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gov ID back is not suspicious",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gov ID captured image is acceptable",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gov ID front is not suspicious",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gov ID full name was extracted",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gov ID is likely authentic",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gov ID is not expired",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gov ID type is an eligible document type",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gov ID was processed",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Selfie matches portrait on Gov ID",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Source Validation",
      "value": false,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "failure",
      "reason_codes": [
        "SV416"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Phone number matches user's information",
      "value": null,
      "status": "skipped",
      "check_result": "not_applicable"
    },
    {
      "name": "User's information matches a trusted source",
      "value": null,
      "status": "skipped",
      "check_result": "not_applicable"
    },
    {
      "name": "Phone Number Validation",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gov ID last name matches phone number",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Phone number matches user's information",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "VPN Detection",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Device is not using a VPN",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Device Security Assessment",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Device is trustworthy",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success"
    },
    {
      "name": "Phone Line Intelligence",
      "value": true,
      "status": "completed",
      "check_result": "success",
      "reason_codes": [
        "PL200"
      ]
    },
  "collected_traits": null,
  "completed_at": 1781617889,
  "created_at": 1781617801,
  "custom_fields": {
    "CF_1234": null,
    "CF_4321": null,
    "New_Custom_Field": null,
    "NEW CF": null,
    "Employee ID": null,
    "Store Num": null,
    "TEST Name": null
  },
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "expires_at": 1782481801,
  "fields_to_collect": [],
  "idv_status": "fail",
  "ip": [
    "192.0.2.100",
    "192.0.2.100"
  ],
  "is_data_granted": null,
  "legacy_clear_partner_information": {
    "preferred_username": "verify_aUq707RrnCdIzCWG2Jtb1MHf42sdRlYp"
  },
  "phone": "+15555551234",
  "project_id": "project_6Vqbfwey8gPWIhvh42yvQ1pACqwg2AhZYDWHunuQlR",
  "redirect_url": null,
  "report_id": null,
  "sessions": [
    {
      "location": {
        "country": "United States",
        "country_iso": "US",
        "subdivision": "California",
        "subdivision_type": "State",
        "city": "San Francisco",
        "lat": "37.77493",
        "lon": "-122.41942",
        "ip": "192.0.2.100"
      },
      "user_agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/149.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
      "created_at": 1781617805,
      "ip": "192.0.2.100",
      "locale": "en-US",
      "zoneinfo": "America/Los_Angeles"
    },
    {
      "location": {
        "country": "United States",
        "country_iso": "US",
        "subdivision": "California",
        "subdivision_type": "State",
        "city": "San Francisco",
        "lat": "37.77493",
        "lon": "-122.41942",
        "ip": "192.0.2.100"
      },
      "user_agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 26_5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) CriOS/149.0.7827.137 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1",
      "created_at": 1781617852,
      "ip": "192.0.2.100",
      "locale": "en-US",
      "zoneinfo": "America/Los_Angeles"
    }
  ],
  "status": "fail",
  "status_details": null,
  "token": "verify_token_N5G5oCfyGyEJDp9BjuHhkST8Nky0X8aN",
  "traits": {
    "address": null,
    "dob": {
      "day": 15,
      "month": 3,
      "year": 1990
    },
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "first_name": "JOHN",
    "last_name": "DOE",
    "middle_name": null,
    "second_family_name": null,
    "full_last_name": "DOE",
    "phone": "+15555551234",
    "ssn4": null,
    "ssn9": null,
    "identification_number": null,
    "identification_type": null,
    "document": {
      "nationality": null,
      "document_type": "drivers_license",
      "document_subtypes": null,
      "issuing_country": "USA",
      "issuing_subdivision": "CA",
      "document_number": "D1234567",
      "date_of_expiry": {
        "day": 15,
        "month": 3,
        "year": 2028
      },
      "gender": null,
      "address": {
        "line1": "123 MAIN ST",
        "line2": null,
        "city": "SAN FRANCISCO",
        "state": "CA",
        "postal_code": "94102",
        "country": "USA"
      },
      "date_of_birth": {
        "day": 15,
        "month": 3,
        "year": 1990
      },
      "first_name": "JOHN",
      "last_name": "DOE",
      "middle_name": "MICHAEL",
      "full_name": "JOHN MICHAEL DOE"
    },
    "document_front": "REDACTED",
    "document_back": "REDACTED",
    "parsed_fields": [
      "name",
      "dob",
      "address"
    ],
    "face_scan_preview": "REDACTED",
    "member_type": null,
    "health_insurance": null,
    "verified_email": null,
    "historical_data": null
  },
  "updated_at": 1781617889,
  "user_agent": [
    "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/149.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
    "Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 26_5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) CriOS/149.0.7827.137 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1"
  ],
  "user_created": false,
  "user_id": "uo71dqB7frDwss0fsEAyBGRdp5JRy1Bo7noQ9lAeeh",
  "user_profile_information": {
    "name": null,
    "dob": null,
    "phone": null,
    "address": null,
    "email": null
  },
  "user_profile_match_status": "skipped",
  "verified_info": null
}

Integration Guidance

To prepare for consolidated checks:

Update parsing logic - Ensure your integration can handle the new consolidated check names without breaking
Test with both check types - Verify that your reporting and decision logic works with both legacy and consolidated checks present
Use "Collect only" mode first - Request consolidated checks in collect-only mode to test your integration before enabling them for verification decisions
Update hard-coded mappings - If your integration uses hard-coded check name lists (e.g., for PDF reports or dashboards), add the new consolidated check names

Consolidated Checks List

The following consolidated checks may appear in your API responses when enabled:

Biometric Verification
Device Security Assessment
Document Authenticity
Email Security Assessment
Motor Vehicle Records Validation
Phone Line Intelligence
Phone Number Validation
Regulatory Screening
SSN Validation
Source Validation
VPN Detection