Unable to Apply - Billing Information

[Thorny128]

Hi everyone,

I am a student trying to apply for GitHub Education. I did this two years ago without any issues using my school transcript. However, every time that I try to re-apply, I am told that I need to complete my GitHub billing information. This is the full message:

Please complete your GitHub billing information with your full name exactly as it appears in your academic affiliation document. You do not have to add a payment method. You may need to log out and log back in to GitHub before reapplying. If you have only a single legal name, enter it in both the first and last name fields.

I have checked my billing information multiple times and it is correct - I have included my first name, last name, address, city, country, state, and 9-digit zip code. I have also tried logging out and logging back in, to no success. My first and last name are copied exactly from my transcript, and I am not sure why GitHub believes they do not match. I do not know what to do or who to contact regarding this issue, since GitHub does not comment on individual applications/requests.

Can you please help me by providing any possible solutions? For example, does this error message indicate that something is wrong with my name specifically, or could it be anything that I put in my billing information? Maybe my middle name needs to go somewhere?

[imDarshanGK]

@Thorny128
Make sure your full name in the billing information matches your academic document exactly, including any middle names, capitalization, and punctuation. Remove any extra spaces. If your transcript includes a middle name, try adding it with your first name. If you have only one legal name, enter it in both the first and last name fields. After updating, log out, clear your browser cache, then log back in and reapply. If it still doesn’t work, the issue is likely on GitHub’s side.

[Thorny128]

Thanks @imDarshanGK , I will try filling in the form (without my middle name first) with my cache cleared and let you know how it goes.

[Liu0520]

I make sure the billing information and academic documents match exactly, but they keep saying I don't, what is the reason?

[Thorny128]

@imDarshanGK I have tried to apply with my cache cleared and I am still being denied with the reason being my billing information. This time, I was also asked to fill out my profile with my full name, which doesn't make sense because I have already done that. I will try adding my middle name to the billing information's first name, but I had already tried that before and it did not work. Is there anything else I can do for the application?

[imDarshanGK]

@Thorny128, In this case, double-check that your GitHub profile name (not just billing info) exactly matches your academic document, including any middle names, capital letters, and punctuation. Sometimes the system checks both profile and billing name fields. Also, make sure there are no hidden spaces before or after the names. If everything is correct and you’ve already cleared your cache, logged out, and tried reapplying, then the issue is likely on GitHub’s side. At that point, the only option is to contact GitHub Education support and explain what you’ve already tried so they can manually review your application.

[dtukrelle]

I am having the exact same issue.
Found any solution? Maybe it is an error on Githubs side

[pilgrimlyieu]

Same issue here. I've tried swapping First and Last names, entering the full name in both the First and Last name fields, and re-login, but all attempts have failed. I've tried more than ten times but all failed.

This is my second time verifying; the first time, two years ago, it wasn't nearly this complicated, and I passed quickly.

[dtukrelle]

I think the more people that comments the greater is the chance of someone fixing the issue

[mehimanshuk]

Same issue here. I have added the billing informatiom but still rejecting saying complete billing information.

[SiKu05]

I have the same issue. My name in the billing information is EXACTLY like in my student id but I keep getting rejected. I also tried logging out and logging in again and reapplying but still only getting rejected.

It's getting ridiculous. What kind of verification process are they using if they can't even read a name?

[imDarshanGK]

You need to contact GitHub Education support and ask them to review your application manually.

[Thorny128]

Update: I ended up using my school ID for verification. I was not able to verify my academic affiliation using my school transcript, and eventually found my ID and went down that route instead. For anyone else having this issue, I would recommend trying to use an ID of some kind as it seems to work much better than using a transcript.

[pilgrimlyieu]

Hello everyone, I'm here to share an update on my process.

After a week, I tried to apply again. Since the only issue was with billing, I went to check and surprisingly found a message indicating that I could no longer update my billing information.

This must be a mistake, as I had successfully applied before. Maybe cos I've tried many times. I plan to appeal this later through GitHub Support.

So, I decided to give it one last shot, re-applying following the exact same process. To my surprise, it went through on the first try this time.