This guide is for individuals going through a Persona-powered identity verification flow. While we’ve included helpful tips, the verification was set up by the business, service, or organization that asked you to verify. They use Persona as a tool, and they ultimately decide what’s required and can assist with your specific situation, if you’re having trouble.
A scan that starts is good news
If the scan began at all, your passport has a readable chip and your phone can talk to it. That rules out most of what goes wrong at this step. What is left is almost always the connection breaking before the read finishes.
The chip is powered by the phone holding position over it. Move a few millimetres and the link drops, even if the screen had already shown progress or a tick.
Fix the hold first
- Take the case off your phone, and take the passport out of any cover or holder. Both add distance, and distance is what breaks the link.
- Lay the passport flat on a wooden or plastic table. Not on metal, not on your lap, not in your hand.
- Rest the phone directly on the passport, with no gap at all between the two.
- Move very slowly until the scan starts, then stop moving entirely.
- Keep holding after it looks done. The read continues for a moment past the first sign of progress, and lifting early is the most common reason a scan that started does not finish.
Then fix the phone
- Turn off Low Power Mode and plug the phone in. Battery saving can cut the chip reader off partway, and this fixes a good share of scans that fail at the end.
- Restart the phone if the scan keeps dropping at the same point. The chip reader can stop responding properly after a long uptime, and a restart clears it.
- Move away from other cards. Bank cards, transit passes, and card wallets nearby can interfere. So can a wireless charger or a metal desk.
- Check your connection. The read happens on the phone, but the result still has to be sent. A signal that drops at that moment looks the same to you as a failed scan.
Try a different spot on the passport
The chip is not always where you expect, and some covers shield it more from one side than the other. Try the front cover, the back cover, the photo page, and any dedicated chip page, scanning each from both the inside and the outside. How to scan your passport, ID card, or residence permit with NFC shows where the chip sits in each layout.
Exit through the verification flow if you give up
If you need to stop, use the X or the cancel option inside the Persona experience rather than force quitting the app. That records what happened at the scan, which is what a support agent needs to help you. Force quitting can leave no record of the error at all.