- 1. Certificate Activation
- 2. Domain Validation
- 3. Subscriber Agreement
- 4. Organization Validation
- 5. Callback Verification
- 6. Second Approval
- Common Issues
- Additional Information
1. Certificate Activation
Get started with domain setup to activate the SSL Certificate on your website. Make sure you supply accurate details of your organization and the full-time employee.
2. Domain Validation
When the activation is complete, you will need to validate the domain using one of three options. Feel free to use the Sectigo order status checker to manage this process.
3. Subscriber Agreement
Shortly after the Certificate activation, you will receive a digital Subscriber Agreement form via email from Sectigo.
Fill out the details (name and email) of the authorized, full-time employee you listed in Step 1. This employee will act as the administrative contact to sign the Subscriber Agreement contract and approve the Certificate.
4. Organization Validation
Sectigo will need up to 48 hours to review the submitted Subscriber Agreement and validate your organization using publicly available records. As soon as their validation team completes this process, they will send an email to the administrative contact email address you gave them, with instructions for further actions.
There are three main ways to validate the legal, physical and operational existence of your organization:
- A registered and publicly verifiable record of the company with a government registration authority for your country
- A record in a Qualified Independent Information Source (e.g. DNB, Bloomberg, Upik)
- A legal opinion signed by attorney or certified public accountant letter confirming the physical existence, business operational existence, and the fact of EV SSL application.
4.1 Legal Existence
Sectigo needs to verify your organization’s official registration directly with an incorporating or registration agency. If they fail to do so, they may require a copy of your Articles of Incorporation, Certificate of Formation, or similar business registration document.
4.2 Physical Existence
Your company’s physical address needs to be the location where you conduct business operations (not a mail drop, P.O. box, or address for an agent of the company). This address will be embedded in the SSL Certificate.
4.3 Operational Existence
Your organization should have an active deposit account with a regulated financial institution. One of the following details will be accepted by the CA to verify operational existence:
- The Organization has been in existence for at least three years
- Dun & Bradstreet or Qualified Government Tax listing
- A professional opinion letter
Note: For the UK companies, registered less than three years ago, the legal opinion letter is the obligatory detail.
For the non-UK company, younger than three years old, Dun & Bradstreet’s registration can be used.
4.4 Trade or DBA name (optional)
This step is applicable if your company conducts business under a different name than the officially registered name of the organization. The name needs to be registered with a government agency.
The documents can be submitted to the Sectigo CA via the ticketing system or via the link in the “Action required” email from Sectigo, which is sent right away after they finish their own verification of the submitted order details.
5. Callback Verification
When your organization details are verified, Sectigo will reach out to schedule a callback to the business phone number you provided. Sectigo CA sends the callback email to the official company email address which you specified during the SSL activation. Alternatively, one of the following generic email addresses can be used: admin@domain.com, administrator@domain.com, hostmaster@domain.com, postmaster@domain.com, webmaster@domain.com. Please note that the third-party service email addresses, like @gmail.com, etc., won’t be accepted by Sectigo for the callback purpose, even if it is specified in the Whois information for the domain.
The validation team needs to make sure that the person specified in the Subscriber Agreement form (1) signed the contract with Sectigo; (2) is a full-time employee with administrative authorization to order the certificate.
6. Second Approval
When your Organization Validation is complete, Sectigo will issue the EV SSL Certificate. The process usually takes two business days.
Additional Information
Dun & Bradstreet (DnB)
This organization is a Qualified Independent Information Source for your CA requirement to be officially listed in a public record as an incorporated company.
Registration
The registration process is free of charge for both US registrants and Non-US registrants. You can also contact DnB Customer Service for assistance. It usually takes up to 10 business days, you’ll need to be allocated a unique D-U-N-S number for your organization.
Search
D&B may already have assigned a D-U-N-S number to your company based on the information provided by a registration agency or your business partners. You can check by using their search service or look it up on their partner website.
Legal Opinion Letter
A Legal Opinion Letter signed by an attorney, Latin Notary or Certified Public Accountant can be used in these cases:
a) When you need to verify your company details urgently.
b) When you don’t want to publish certain company details in a public database.
c) If any of the required details are missing in official information sources.
The person who signs the Legal Opinion Letter must have a valid license in the country where your organization is registered, or in a country where your organization maintains a physical presence. To expedite the validation process, we recommend the person speaks English so that he or she can confirm their signature during phone verification with a Sectigo validation agent.
Support
You can use Sectigo Order Status Checker to influence your certificate validation process.
Feel free to get in touch with the Sectigo Certificate Authority for updates about your order status and validation progress.
*Be sure to have the CA order ID number at hand for all communication with Sectigo:
