No Passport? The ID Documents Crypto Exchanges Accept Instead

If you have a national ID card or a driving licence, most exchanges we checked accept it. Five of the six help centres compared here name both documents, and three of them also name a residence permit. The sixth gives no list on the help pages we read.

Which ID documents can you use? Check your country’s menu

The document menu comes after the country questions: where you live, then the country that issued your document or your nationality, depending on the form. Only then does it show the document types supported for those answers. On Binance’s form the fields read Residence, Document Issuing Country/Region and Document Type.

1. Start identity verification in your account and choose the country you live in. With no account yet, it follows the sign-up screens; the sign-up on Binance, screen by screen shows where. Take care here: this choice can shape the rest of the process, and changing it after you confirm may mean additional verification.
2. Choose the country that issued the document in your hand. It’s a second country question, separate from where you live, and the one to slow down on if your document comes from somewhere else.
3. Open the document type menu. Whatever it lists is what you can use. One exchange’s documents page for a group of 20 countries gives each country up to three choices, puts the one it recommends most first, and changes the order from country to country.
4. If you pick an ID card, have both sides ready. At least three of the six ask for the front and the back.

If the document you hold isn’t in the menu, OKX’s help pages cover the three cases:

• Pick another document you have that is in it. If another original document type is offered, such as a passport, you can submit that instead.
• Leave the country, nationality and document type as they really are. Don’t change any of them to get past an option that isn’t available.
• Ask support only if you think a type is missing by mistake. A type such as a voter’s card may not be supported in your country; contact support if you believe it should be.

Help pages get edited, and the table dates from October 2026. The exchanges themselves send you back to your own screen: several say the options depend on your country, and one help centre calls the exact list on your own verification page the definitive one. Where your screen and this table disagree, go with the screen.

Residence permits, foreign passports and two nationalities

A residence permit is on three of the six general lists; of the other three, one lists it only for a separate check before fiat services, one doesn’t name it, and one leaves it to your country.

Where a list doesn’t name permits but has a rule for other government IDs, a permit falls under that rule, which can mean every listed detail on the front of the card.

Bybit’s FAQ says it accepts only documents “issued by your country of origin”, then lists residence permits in the next sentence without saying how the two fit together. If you’re relying on a permit there, the issuing country to choose is the one that granted the permit, usually the country you live in rather than the one on your passport. Check the permit is offered in that country’s menu before you upload.

Living abroad with your home passport. Two exchanges’ forms ask where you live and who issued the document as separate questions, so you can answer both truthfully. Where you live can still change what’s offered. The regional documents page from step 3 says that on the exchange’s local platform in one country, residents verify with that country’s ID card and non-residents with a valid passport.

Two nationalities. OKX’s beginner guide suggests trying the nationality that is most relevant to your identity. We’d give the nationality of the document you’re uploading: a form for reclaiming a forgotten account can ask for the one written on your ID card, and answering the same way from the start keeps the two consistent.

Don’t pick a nationality to get round a missing option. The advice under which ID documents you can use rules that out, and restrictions can follow your nationality rather than where you live now.

A new nationality later. Two exchanges treat a change of nationality as a reason to redo the identity check, either as an update to your verified identity or as a full reset. On Bitget it’s a reset, which marks the account as unverified, with deposits, withdrawals and trading restricted until you pass a new check with a new ID. Reusing the same ID, it adds, may lead to rejection.

The same card as proof of address. Some exchanges accept an ID card or residence permit that shows your address as proof of address. One adds that it can’t be the same document you used for identity verification. The rules side by side are in what counts as proof of address on crypto exchanges, and what gets rejected.

A name written in another script

If your ID is written in a script the check can’t read, verify with a document that has Latin characters, or with your international passport. That is the fix two exchanges’ failure pages give for a document in an unsupported language, naming Arabic, Sinhala and Burmese as examples. One more exchange allows the same switch later, listing a move from a local-language ID card to an English-language passport as an accepted reason to update a verified identity.

• The card prints your name in both scripts. Fill in both if the form has a place for each, such as a field for your name in the local language next to your full name, date of birth and ID number. Type the Latin-letter name exactly as the document prints it, middle names included, because name discrepancies such as missing middle names or different languages are among the listed rejection reasons.
• Only the local script, and no passport. Look through your country’s menu before you give up on the card. The regional page from step 3 names the version it wants for one country, listing the national ID card by its English smartcard version. None of the help pages we read mentions translating an ID; the only translation rule is for proof of address.
• Verified, but the name came out wrong. Three exchanges cover this, between them taking in transliteration and accent corrections for the same person, character recognition errors, a wrong name order, and missing or extra characters. A change of name language can instead mean the full reset a new nationality can bring, with the same unverified spell.

Spelling, name order and middle names that differ between the ID and the account have their own fixes in what to do when your name doesn’t match your ID.

An expired, temporary or paper document

Use a document that’s valid on the day you upload it. Four exchanges list expired documents among their reasons for refusal, and MEXC’s message for it reads “The document has expired. Please submit another valid document.” A separate check before fiat services also asks for a valid photo ID that hasn’t expired. None of these pages mentions a grace period after the expiry date, so renew the document first or choose another valid one from your menu.

Valid now, expiring soon. It meets the rule, though you may be asked to update it once it expires. Three of the six describe that step, whether as a listed reason for updating a verified identity, a self-update that doesn’t reset your existing verification, or an update task with the renewed original. The later step is covered in why verified accounts get asked to verify again.

A temporary or paper document. The only guide that names them is one exchange’s version for its US customers, and it doesn’t accept temporary or paper-based IDs, including temporary driving licences and temporary state-issued ID cards. Elsewhere, the two exchanges that set a rule for other government IDs both need at least your photo and an issue date, and a slip without them meets neither. While the card itself is on its way, the advice in what to do with no identity document applies.

A card with no expiry date printed on it. One exchange’s verification page lists issue and expiration dates among the details an ID must include, and another exchange’s rule for IDs it doesn’t list needs both on the front. If your menu offers a document that shows both dates, we’d use that one.

A real ID that still gets turned down

A copy, a screenshot or a digital ID. Three of the six rule these out by name, and one of them turns the rule into this failure message:

On screenScreenshots or photocopies are not accepted. Please submit the original document.

The widest of the three rules says a photocopy, a screenshot, an image shown on another device, an older photo or an electronic credential from another app won’t replace the original unless the verification page offers that method, so a digital ID shown on your phone or shared from its app falls under it too.

Bybit offers residents of a few countries another method, which it calls local document verification. In most of them you enter your national ID number and finish with a liveness check, and your identity is checked directly through official sources, with no photo of the card to upload.

Domestic passports and visas. Both are ruled out by name on one exchange’s list: a domestic passport, and student, working and travel visas.

A passport you never signed. Two exchanges’ failure pages list a passport that “does not contain your signature” as an invalid ID, and one asks you to make sure the passport has your signature before you upload it.

Cards that no list mentions. None of the identity-document lists here includes a student card, a work ID or a bank card. One list does name two outright, Liberland E-Residency and firearm licences, and one exchange’s help pages warn that a voter’s card may not be supported in your country. Student papers do turn up elsewhere, though: a letter from a university confirming where you live counts on one exchange, but as proof of address, which is a separate check. If a card like that is all you hold, go to what to do with no identity document.

If a Binance check refused your document, the fix for each message you might see takes you from the message to the next step.

Why are KYC requirements alike at every crypto exchange?

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology grades identity documents by strength in its identity-proofing guideline, SP 800-63A. Strength depends on how rigorous the issuing process is, whether the document can be checked for accuracy and authenticity, and whether it supports identity verification methods such as comparing your face with its photo. A STRONG document carries your name, a reference number or other details that identify you, a facial image or other biometric, and security features “that make it difficult to reproduce”. The guideline’s examples put a physical driver’s licence or state ID at STRONG, international e-passports at SUPERIOR, and a student ID card at FAIR, the lowest of its three grades.

NIST writes for US agencies rather than exchanges, but the two exchanges that spell out what an ID must show come close to it. Both want a photo, your name and date of birth, plus either a document number and issue date or issue and expiry dates. NIST leaves the policy on expired documents to the services involved, and the exchanges here that mention expiry want an ID that’s still valid.

Digital IDs have a place in the same guideline, which gives a mobile driver’s licence as an example of digital evidence and checks it differently. Physical evidence is inspected, by a person or by scanning for its physical security features. Digital evidence is checked by interrogating its digital security features, such as signatures on the data. The exchange rules on copies and screens belong to the physical side, since they ask for a photo of the original card.

If what holds you back is handing over an ID at all, see what happens to your ID after you upload it.

No identity document at all?

Then you can’t get verified on these exchanges, and none of them describes a way to verify without one. Three of the six say verification is required before you can deposit or trade, or use any of their products. “We can only verify your identity when you provide the required documents”, as one exchange’s address page puts it.

What to do instead:

1. Get a national ID card, a passport or a driving licence from the authority that issues them where you live. Before you apply, check which of them the menu for your country offers.
2. If your ID is only out of reach for a while, for example while it’s being renewed, use another original document from your menu, or finish once you have yours back; some account features may be unavailable until then.
3. Use your own document and do the face check yourself. Identity pages say as much, and one adds that you can’t transfer your account to someone else or use another person’s ID in place of yours, so an offer from someone else to verify an account for you breaks the rules (five checks for fake KYC texts and “exchange support” calls).