Verify your users’ identity documents

Install the SDK Client-side

The React Native SDK is open source, fully documented, and compatible with apps supporting iOS 13.0 or Android 5.0 (API level 21) and above. Internally, it uses native iOS and Android SDKs.

Install the SDK by running:

yarn add @stripe/stripe-identity-react-native

For iOS, run pod install in the ios directory to ensure that you also install the required native dependencies. Android doesn’t require any additional steps.

Set up camera authorization for iOS Client-side

The Stripe Identity iOS SDK requires access to the device’s camera to capture identity documents. To enable your app to request camera permissions:

1. Open your project’s Info.plist in Xcode.
2. Add the NSCameraUsageDescription key.
3. Add a string value that explains to your users why your app requires camera permissions, something such as:

This app uses the camera to take a picture of your identity documents.

See Apple’s documentation to learn more about requesting camera authorization.

Set up material theme for Android Client-side

The Stripe Identity Android SDK requires the hosting activity to use material theme. To enable material theme:

1. Open your project’s app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml.
2. Make sure the android:theme applied to the application is a child of one of the material themes(for example, Theme.MaterialComponents.DayNight).

See more details about material theme here.

Install Stripe on your server Server-side

First, register for a Stripe account.

Then install the libraries for access to the Stripe API from your application:

# Available as a gem
sudo gem install stripe

# If you use bundler, you can add this line to your Gemfile
gem 'stripe'

Create a VerificationSession

A VerificationSession is the programmatic representation of the verification. It contains details about the type of verification, such as what check to perform. You can expand the verified outputs field to see details of the data that was verified.

You need a server-side endpoint to create the VerificationSession. Creating the VerificationSession server-side prevents malicious users from overriding verification options and incurring processing charges on your account. Add authentication to this endpoint by including a user reference in the session metadata or storing the session ID in your database.

For security, don’t create a VerificationSession object that’s directly accessible from the mobile client. Instead, your server provides the SDK with an ephemeral key — a short-lived API key with restricted access to the VerificationSession. You can think of an ephemeral key as a session, authorizing the SDK to retrieve and update a specific VerificationSession object for the duration of the session.

After successfully creating a VerificationSession and ephemeral key, send the VerificationSession ID and ephemeral key secret to the client to show the document upload sheet.

// Set your secret key. Remember to switch to your live secret key in production.
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys
const stripe = require('stripe')(
'sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2');

// In the route handler for /create-verification-session:
// Authenticate your user.

// Create the session.
const verificationSession = await stripe.identity.verificationSessions.
create({
  
type: 'document',
  
provided_details: {
    
email: 'user@example.com',
  },
  
metadata: {
    user_id: '{{USER_ID}}',
  },
});

// Create an ephemeral key for the VerificationSession
const ephemeralKey = await stripe.ephemeralKeys.create(
  {verification_session: verificationSession.id},
  {apiVersion: '2025-02-24.acacia'}
);

// Return only the ID and ephemeral key secret to the frontend.
const verficationSessionId = verificationSession.id;
const ephemeralKeySecret = ephemeralKey.secret;

Test your endpoint by starting your web server (for example, localhost:4242) and sending a POST request with curl to create a VerificationSession:

curl -X POST -is "http://localhost:4242/create-verification-session" -d ""

The response in your terminal looks like this:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{ id: "vs_QdfQQ6xfGNJR7ogV6", ephemeral_key_secret: "ek_YWNjdF8xRm..." }

Set up a button to present a verification sheet. After tapping the button, your user can capture and upload a picture of their passport, driver’s license, or national ID.

Before getting started, your verification page should:

• Explain to the user why they need to verify their identity.
• Include a verify identity button to present Stripe’s UI.

Add a button

Start by creating a Button component:

import React from 'react';
import {
  View,
  Button,
} from 'react-native';

function VerifyScreen() {
  return (
    <View>
      <Button
        title='Verify'
      />
    </View>
  );
}

Import the Stripe Identity SDK

Import the useStripeIdentity hook:

import React from 'react';
import {
  View,
  Button,
} from 'react-native';
import { useStripeIdentity } from "@stripe/stripe-identity-react-native";

function VerifyScreen() {
  return (
    <View>
      <Button
        title='Verify'
      />
    </View>
  );
}

Add an event handler to the Verify button

Now that you have a button and an endpoint to create a VerificationSession, modify the button so that it presents the document upload sheet when tapped.

Add a call to:

• Fetch the VerificationSession ID and ephemeral key secret from your endpoint.
• Instantiate the useStripeIdentity hook by passing fetchOptions with your brand logo and presenting it to the user.
• Handle the status to know if the user completed the verification flow.

import React from 'react';
import {
  View,
  Button,
  Text,
  Image
} from 'react-native';
import { useStripeIdentity } from "@stripe/stripe-identity-react-native";

// A square logo for your brand
import logo from './assets/{{YOUR_BRAND_LOGO}}.png';

function VerifyScreen() {
  const fetchVerificationSessionParams = async () => {
    try {
      const data = await fetch(`${YOUR_SERVER_BASE_URL}/create-verification-session`, {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: {
          'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        },
      });
      const json = await data.json();
      return json;
    } catch (e) {
      return {};
    }
  };

  const fetchOptions = async () => {
    const response = await fetchVerificationSessionParams();
    return {
      sessionId: response.id,
      ephemeralKeySecret: response.ephemeral_key_secret,
      brandLogo: Image.resolveAssetSource(logo),
    };
  };

  const { status, present, loading } = useStripeIdentity(fetchOptions);

  const handlePress = React.useCallback(() => {
    present();
  }, [present]);

  return (
    <View>
      <Button
        title='Verify'
        disabled={loading}
        onPress={handlePress}
      />
      <Text>Status: {status}</Text>
    </View>
  );
}

Test the verification sheet

Test that the verify button presents a document upload sheet:

• Tap the Verify Identity button.
• Ensure no error messages are shown.

If your integration isn’t working:

1. Put a breakpoint where you fetch the VerificationSession ID and ephemeral key secret.
2. Verify that no network errors exist and that the endpoint is returning a VerificationSession ID and ephemeral key secret.

Document checks are typically completed as soon as the user redirects back to your site and you can retrieve the result from the API immediately. In some rare cases, the document verification isn’t ready yet and must continue asynchronously. In these cases, you’re notified through webhooks when the verification result is ready. After the processing completes, the VerificationSession status changes from processing to verified.

Stripe sends the following events when the session status changes:

Use a webhook handler to receive these events and automate actions like sending a confirmation email, updating the verification results in your database, or completing an onboarding step. You can also view verification events in the Dashboard.

Receive events and run business actions

With code

Build a webhook handler to listen for events and build custom asynchronous verification flows. Test and debug your webhook integration locally with the Stripe CLI.

Build a custom webhook

Without code

Use the Dashboard to view all your verifications, inspect collected data, and understand verification failures.

View your test verifications in the Dashboard