My teacher applications keeps being rejected

[carlessanchez]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Verification Help & Guidance

Hi everyone,

I've submitted my Teacher application three times already, all of them rejected in minutes. I'm following exactly the same process I followed last year, only that since I can't upload a PDF (isn't that plain absurd?) I need to apply through my phone and take picture of the screen or the printed document (I've tried both approaches, go environment!).

All of them have been rejected for no specific reason. My university e-mail is validated. My certificate states my name clearly and spelled exactly as in the billing information. It states I am performing teaching collaborations specifically during this term, and the only thing that might be an issue is that my University name is in its original language and the one that's registered on Github seems to have the English translation (yet it recognizes the institution and matches the verified e-mail address). The picture is clear and the text clearly readable.

Yet when I try to get support I see that there's no manual review for applications, which doesn't make sense seeing the AI review is clearly glitchy as you can read throughout this very same forum.

Is there a way to get help, or am I going to keep stumbling into a wall? I had no issues with my Github Education benefits last year.

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[kavitha-047]

This definitely sounds frustrating, especially since it worked for you last year.

From what you’ve described, this is very likely an automated verification issue rather than something wrong on your side.

A few things that might be causing repeated instant rejections:

• mismatch between the university name (original language vs English version in GitHub’s system)
• image processing issues (even if it looks clear to us, the verification system can fail on reflections, screen photos, or slight blur)
• document format differences (photos vs original digital documents)

A couple of things you could try:

• use a direct digital screenshot or PDF converted to image instead of a camera photo
• ensure the university name in the document closely matches the one GitHub recognizes (even small differences can matter)
• crop tightly to only the relevant info (name, institution, role, dates)

If it keeps getting rejected within minutes, that strongly suggests the system is auto-rejecting without proper evaluation.

In that case, your best option is to contact GitHub Education support directly and request a manual review, even if it’s not clearly mentioned — this is a known limitation of automated verification systems.

[carlessanchez]

Hello @kavitha-047 ,

Thanks for the helpful reply. Unfortunately, the application process doesn't allow for any other input than the camera eye for the verification document; there is no way or option to upload a document, not even an image.

I've reviewed the info in the document and everything required is there. The only point of failure I detect is the University name, which shouldn't be an issue since it's the actual name of the insititution and the one Github should be verifying, not an English translation.

I'll try to slip a Github Education support ticket through the filter (given that the last time I tried they didn't allow it for this particular subject). Obviously automatic validation is flawed and doesn't make sense to discard manual reviews.