GitHub education verification name mismatch issue

[asylvz]

Hi everyone,

I am applying for GitHub education benefits, but keep getting the following message: “Please complete your GitHub billing information with your full name exactly as it appears in your academic affiliation document.”

My billing name does match the name in my academic document. However, my legal name contains the special character “ö”, and I suspect GitHub's system may be failing Unicode normalization. I tried both “ö” and have just reapplied with “o”.

I currently have urgent work that depends on accessing GitHub Education benefits, and each unsuccessful attempt costs me about a day due to the cooldown period. I would therefore greatly appreciate your help in verifying or manually approving the correct billing name as soon as possible.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

[Nixxx19]

@asylvz

Hi there,
This error often happens when GitHub’s system cannot match special characters like “ö” in your legal name. Even changing it to “o” will not work if the verification system expects the exact character from your academic document.

The best solution is to contact GitHub Support and provide:

• Your academic document (with your name visible)
• A screenshot of your billing information page
• A short explanation that the issue is caused by a special character in your legal name

Only GitHub Support can manually verify or approve your name when the automated check fails, and they can also bypass the cooldown period.

You can reach them here: https://support.github.com/contact

Hope this helps! Let me know if you need help with anything else.

[asylvz]

Thank you for the suggestion but I see "Individual manual reviews and status updates are no longer provided." under contact-education and I cannot send a message.

[Nixxx19]

@asylvz

You're right — the Education contact form no longer supports manual reviews, which makes this situation tricky. However, you can still get help by opening a ticket through the general GitHub Support form instead of the Education-specific one.

Here is the correct path:

1. Go to https://support.github.com/contact
2. Choose "Account" → "Billing"
3. Select "Update or correct billing information"
4. Submit your request there (this form allows file attachments)

Billing support can manually verify names and fix Unicode issues, even though the Education form cannot.

In your message, include:

• A short explanation that the Education application fails due to the "ö" character
• A screenshot of the error
• Your academic document showing your name
• A screenshot of your billing info page

They will forward the case to the correct internal team and can lift the cooldown if needed.

[davevad93]

Hi @asylvz,

Make sure to fill in your billing info and GitHub profile with your full name exactly as it appears on your academic transcript (accents or special characters included). Then log out and log back into GitHub before reapplying, because the application system gets stuck in a loop even after the required information has been updated.

If you still get rejected, submit the application using another device, such as a smartphone or another PC.

If none of the above works, I recommend you contact support by opening a ticket here and explain your problem.

[Jany-M]

I'm having the same issue and it's not making any sense :(

[davevad93]

Hey @Jany-M, try what I suggested above. If that doesn't work, contact support by opening a ticket here, select "Other" and explain your problem.

[davevad93]

Unfortunately, the upload option isn't always available and manual reviews aren't provided so you have to submit a live photo using your device's camera.

If the photo is blurry, try again until it looks good as also indicated in the Student Developer Pack Application FAQs:

Your first and last name, complete school name, and a date demonstrating current academic affiliation must appear in your document.
Make sure the image is clear and easy to read; if it looks blurry, please take a new photo. 👈