What Are The Requirements for SSL.com EV Certificates?

Chris Kemmerer

6 years ago

Note: This page is for users of SSL Corp EV Roots only. Users of UserTrust EV certificates can find their required documents here.

Extended Validation (or EV) certificates are recognized as the highest standard in Internet trust. In order to fully validate and issue an EV certificate several steps must be taken by the purchaser, as outlined below.

Looking for information on certificate renewal? Please read Renewing EV, OV, and IV Certificates.

In order to verify your EV certificate please submit the three document items listed below through your SSL.com account portal.

A signed copy of the EV Subscriber agreement
A signed copy of the EV Authorization Form
Please choose one of the following items to submit:
1. Your company’s Dun & Bradstreet number (also known as a D-U-N-S or Duns number). Using a D-U-N-S number helps SSL.com expedite validation and certificate issuance. Please make sure that your company information in Dun & Bradstreet is correct and up-to-date before using this option. You can enter your D-U-N-S number directly with your Company Details when ordering your certificate:
2. A business profile from another Qualified Information Source, such as ZoomInfo, Crunchbase, or OpenCorporates.
3. An attestation letter from a licensed professional (attorney, accountant, or civil-law/Latin notary):

If the business or organization applying for an EV certificate is less than 1 year old (365 days), we require:

A scan of the front of a valid, government-issued photo ID card or passport ID page. The ID number may be obscured, but we must be able to see your name, address, year of birth, and photograph.

A photograph of yourself holding the government-issued ID next to your face so that your face may be compared with the image on the ID. The photograph should be at least 5 megapixels (MP) – most current smartphones can provide an image of 5MP or greater.

For applicants to an Sole Proprietor EV Code Signing Certificate, a signed copy of the EV Sole Proprietor Form has to be submitted.

SSL.com customers purchasing an EV SSL certificate will immediately receive a DV certificate after going through the standard domain validation process. This certificate will serve as a placeholder so you can secure your site right away. Your EV certificate will be issued as soon as the additional verification steps below are completed and confirmed.

After submitting the above information to SSL.com, our vetting partner will:

- Verify Legal Existence and Identity by verifying the organization registration directly with the incorporating or registration agency.
- Verify Trade/Assumed Name (if necessary)- this is only applicable if the company does business under a name which is different from the official name of their corporation. The company's trade name must be registered and verifiable.
- Verify Operational Existence - typically this means confirming that the company has a current active demand deposit account with a regulated financial institution to verify that the company is able to conduct business operations.
- Verify Physical Existence through the company's address and organization phone number.
- Verify Domain Ownership via a WHOIS search.
- Verify the name, title, authority and signature of the person(s) involved in requesting the certificate and agreeing to the terms and conditions.

We will be able to provide your EV certificate only upon successful completion of all of the above steps – this is why it’s called an Extended Validation certificate.

Note also that in order to ensure maximum trust, EV certificates can be ordered for a maximum of two years, and the validation steps above will be repeated when your EV certificate is reordered.

Video: Validation Requirements for OV, IV, and EV Certificates

Thank you for choosing SSL.com! If you have any questions, please contact us by email at Support@SSL.com, call 1-877-SSL-SECURE, or just click the chat link at the bottom right of this page. You can also find answers to many common support questions in our knowledgebase.