When you open a bank account, you usually need to take some ID into the bank branch. Wise is no different. We’re a financial institution, so we need to know who’s using our service. It helps us combat money laundering, and keep everyone’s money safe.
So depending on where you’re sending money from, and how much you send, we’ll ask for you to verify your identity.
Types of identification
We accept these documents to verify your identity:
Passport (photo page only)
National ID card
Photo driver’s licence (we cannot accept Electronic Driving Licence)
However, there are a few exceptions:
Residing in EU/EEA: if you live in Europe, we can’t accept a driving licence.
Sending NZD: if you live in New Zealand and send from NZD, we need to verify your identity and address. We don’t accept Kiwi Access Card as identity documents.
Sending JPY: you will need to confirm your My Number along with your ID. Accepted documents are: My Number Card (both sides), My Number notification slip, or Jūminhyō with My Number on it.
Sending from BRL: we can only verify your documents that are issued in Brazil. This can be your driving licence (front and back), passport, or Brazilian issued ID card (RG).
Brazilian issued ID card: although this card may not have an expiry date, we can only accept it if it’s been issued in the past 15 years. We’ll also need to see the front and back.
Documents issued in Nigeria: we can only accept passports, driving licences and the most recent Nigerian national ID. We can't accept paper-slips, regional IDs or voter ID documents.
If you’re a refugee: depending on which country you’re in, we can accept more documents than the ones listed above. Learn about verification for refugees
ID documents issued by Russian government - We are not able to accept ID documents issued by the Russian government for new customers. Should we need to re-verify your profile, we are also not able to accept ID documents issued by the Russian government.
I have an ID document issued by Russia that you do not accept. What other types of documents do you accept?
Passport from another country
Driving licence from another country
Permanent residency card/Work visa
Copy of naturalization or citizenship certificate
Student or other visa valid for more than 6 months
In case you do not have any of the above please contact our support team and let us know what other documents you have. Our team will be happy to assist and review.
Keep in mind that your document should contain your name, photo and date of birth ─ if not, we would ask for a new, acceptable document.
What do you do with my information?
Protecting your information is very important to us. All data, financial details, or documents you give us are stored securely, encrypted, and kept private as per our privacy policy.
Troubleshooting verification
We hope you don’t have any issues with verification. But here are a few tips in case you do.
If we don’t accept your document:
It may have some of the information covered. We need to see the full document photo page.
It may be expired. Please check that your document is still valid before you upload it.
Your details may not match. Please check that you have entered your name and date of birth correctly on the website.
We may also need to see the back of the document. If there is information on both sides, please make sure you upload both for us.
It may be a document type that we can’t accept.
It may be in a format we can’t accept, like a PDF.
If you haven’t heard from our team within 5 working days:
Check that you’ve set up and paid for your transfer — we can’t start verifying you until we get this.
We’ll email you once we’ve verified you. So be sure to check the email you use to log in to Wise first. And if you have a transfer already in progress, we’ll automatically resume it.
Verification for refugees
We know that it can be difficult for people with refugee status to open a bank account in their new country. So, here’s a list of the documents we can accept to verify your identity if you’re a refugee. This is either for the country you’ve settled in, or your place of origin.
US
Passport
State identification card/driver’s licence
Permanent resident card, also called a green card
Form I-766 Employment Authorization Document (EAD), also called a work permit
We can’t accept green cards or work permits if your address is in Nevada, Hawaii, Mariana Islands, or the Virgin Islands.
Canada
Passport
Canadian refugee travel document
Permanent resident card
Europe
Alien’s passport (Stateless Person, NY Convention of 28th September 1954)
Travel document (Refugees, Geneva Convention 28th July 1951)
Any ID document from an EEA member country — like a passport or ID card — that clearly confirms refugee status
We can’t accept-paper based documents like those issued by Spain and Italy.