Protecting your business and everyone you pay 

Paying people across borders relies on trust. Wherever Deel moves money on your behalf, we verify the business and the people behind it, so your payments move through a network where identities are confirmed and bad actors are kept out. That protects your payments, your workers, and your account.

For you, this means you don't need to stand up a compliance function of your own; Deel does the verification work so you don't have to. Once your business is verified for a given product, you won't need to redo that check to keep using it. If you add a new regulated product later, or expand into a new entity, we'll let you know exactly what's needed at that point. Most reviews finish within one business day.

We also know this is the least interesting part of getting started. So we've kept it to what's actually required, told you upfront what to have ready, and made it clear where to get help if something doesn't fit your situation.

This page walks you through what to expect, why we ask for it, and where to go if you have questions along the way.

In this Article

1. Why we verify every customer

2. What to expect before you start

3. Documents you'll likely need

4. Why we ask for personal identification

5. Verifying your workers

6. When we ask for more information

7. How we protect your information

8. Where to get help

Frequently Asked Questions

Compliance verification process

1. Why we verify every customer

Before you can pay a contractor, or move money through Deel, we need to confirm who you are and who owns your business. This isn't an internal Deel policy, it's a legal requirement.

Deel's regulated entities are licensed financial and payment institutions, which means we're bound by anti-money laundering (AML), anti-terrorist financing laws and know your customer (KYC) laws wherever we offer regulated financial services.

If you're only using unregulated services, you likely won't need to complete this process at all, even if you pay Deel for those services through the platform. That's because the trigger isn't paying Deel; it's Deel moving money on your behalf.

Requirements scale with what you're using Deel for and which country or jurisdiction you're operating in. There are three levels:

• Full verification (what the rest of this page covers): applies where Deel moves money or employs on your behalf: contractor payments, Global Payroll with Treasury (where payroll is paid out through Deel, not just calculated), US Payroll, and PEO.
• A lighter check: applies to Employer of Record (EOR) and Contractor of Record (COR), where Deel employs or contracts workers on your behalf. For these, we verify your business itself (name, registration, address, industry) and screen it for sanctions and adverse media. We'll also ask for your expected monthly transaction volume, but we don't identify or verify your beneficial owners, directors, or controlling officer. The submitter must still confirm their own identity and provide a Proof of Authority.
• No verification: applies to unregulated services like HR tools, applicant tracking, IT management, or payroll calculation on its own, without Deel moving the money.

Note: the level is set by the products enabled on your entity, not the ones you actively use. If a money-movement product like Treasury or contractor payments is switched on for an entity that only uses EOR, that entity will be asked for full verification. If that's not what you intended, ask your account team to disable the unused product.

2. What to expect before you start

Once you've submitted everything, our team usually completes the review within one business day. If anything in the submission doesn't match our records or needs clarification, we'll come back to you and the process will take longer. Because regulated services cannot be activated until verification is complete, we recommend starting as soon as possible.

Key details to keep in mind before you dive in:

• Who needs to submit it: Regulators want this information to come from you, not a third party, so it should be submitted by someone within your business who holds operational authority
• Key People Required: You will need details for:
  • Submitter: The person completing and submitting this verification on your business's behalf. Must provide proof of authority, unless they're already listed as your Key Decision-Maker or a director.
  • Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs): Anyone owning 25% or more of the company.
  • Key Decision-Maker: At least one person with real day-to-day authority over the business, someone who could say yes or no to major decisions on your company's behalf. Depending on your structure, that might be a founder, owner, CEO, or managing director (functional leads, like a Head of HR, generally do not qualify). We don't collect this in Canada or Australia.
  • Directors: Required in select jurisdictions (e.g., UK, EEA, Canada, Australia, Singapore).
• What can vary: exact requirements differ by country and entity type. This page covers the general picture; your account team can walk you through specifics for your situation.

3. Documents you'll likely need

Here's what most businesses need to have on hand. The exact list can vary a bit by country and the Deel products you're using:

• Entity formation documents (articles of incorporation or organization, or your country's equivalent).
• A tax registration number (EIN or your country's equivalent).
• Proof of your registered business address* (see the note below, there's often nothing extra to submit for this).
• Proof of Authority: a document confirming that whoever is submitting or signing for your business is authorized to do so, for example, a board resolution or a signed letter of authorization. It has to be signed by someone other than the person it names, so it can't be self-signed. This is required in every region we operate in, unless the submitter is already listed as your Key Decision-Maker or a director, in which case no separate Proof of Authority is needed.
• Government-issued photo ID for your beneficial owners (25%+ ownership) and your control person. IDs need to be a photo taken with a camera, like on your phone, not a flatbed scan; scanned copies are automatically rejected as a fraud-prevention measure. 
• List of your company's directors: only required in the UK, EEA, Singapore, Canada, and Australia. We typically need just their names, plus a few additional personal details like date of birth or address depending on the country. This usually doesn't require a photo ID; we may ask for one in specific higher-risk cases, but it's not the default.

*On proof of address: In most cases, we verify your registered business address through our own KYB verification process, there's nothing extra for you to submit upfront. 

If your business is registered in the US, your address must be a physical address as shown on your company formation documents, we don't accept P.O. boxes, virtual addresses, or mail forwarding services there.

 If your registered address is a registered agent address, we'll ask you to provide a valid physical operating address, this can be your business address or, if your company operates without a fixed office, the residential address of the primary beneficial owner or controlling officer. 

If we're unable to confirm your address through our checks, we'll reach out to request a supporting document. Accepted documents include a signed lease agreement, a utility bill or bank statement from the last 90 days, a tax document from the most recent year, or a valid government-issued ID showing the address. 

Documents must clearly show your company name (or the beneficial owner's or controlling officer's name) and your full physical address.

How photo verification works:

If you're submitting the form, your identity is confirmed through a quick automated check - a live photo plus a photo of your government-issued ID, usually within minutes.

If we can't confirm it automatically, we'll follow up for manual review. For beneficial owners, controlling officers, and directors, you upload their ID documents and our team reviews them.

Don't have something on this list? Just tell your account team, in most cases, there's an accepted alternative.

4. Why we ask for personal identification

We know handing over a photo ID or ownership details can feel like a lot, especially for information this personal. It's also one of the most effective ways we protect your business: verifying who's behind it helps prevent fraud, impersonation, and misuse of your account, not just ours.

If your business uses a regulated financial product, we're required to verify the identity of the people who own or control it, not just the company itself. Specifically, we need to confirm:

• Anyone who owns 25% or more of your business, directly or through another entity.
• One person with real day-to-day authority over the business, not necessarily your CEO; it depends on how your company is structured. We don't collect this in Canada or Australia.

There's no exemption for seniority, security clearance, or personal preference. If your organization is itself a regulated financial institution (bank, payment processor, securities firm, or equivalent in your jurisdiction), or a government agency, different rules may apply. Contact us with your regulatory license or designation, and we'll confirm your CDD requirements.

In practice: if a holding company owns 40% of your business, and one person owns 70% of that holding company, they effectively hold 28% of your business (40% × 70%), enough to cross the 25% threshold. We'd need to verify them even though their name may not appear anywhere in your own paperwork.

In practice: if the person who runs your business day to day holds a government security clearance, or works in a sensitive role, they still need to complete verification themselves. The clearance doesn't create an exemption.

If we can't verify this information, we can't activate regulated services like contractor payments or Treasury-enabled payroll, regardless of how established your business is.

For details on how we handle your personal data once we have it, see How we protect your information.

5. Verifying your workers

If your business pays workers, employees or contractors, through Deel, each worker also needs to verify their own identity, separately from the business-level verification covered above. It's a legal requirement, and workers complete it directly in their individual capacity, not through your business.

For most workers, this happens automatically: they submit a selfie (a live photo, not an uploaded picture) and a photo of a government-issued ID inside their Deel account, and it's typically confirmed within minutes through our verification partner. If the automated check can't confirm their identity or if the worker opts out of the automated process, we route the application to a manual review, which usually takes a bit longer, up to one business day, but otherwise works the same way. The manual review involves a video call with a member of our FinCrime Team.

In some cases, we may need to come back to a worker for additional information, similar to the Request for Information process described in 6. When we ask for more information.

A worker can still sign their employment agreement before verification finishes, but Deel can't countersign it until they pass verification, so it's worth having them complete it early to avoid delaying a start date.

For the full walkthrough, including what to do if a document isn't accepted, see How to verify an employee account in our help center.

What happens if my worker is blocked

If a worker's verification can't be completed, or something in their check raises concerns, Deel may block them until it's resolved. 

Depending on the reason, that block can be temporary or permanent:

•  If the issue is something like missing or unclear documentation, the block is usually temporary and lifts once it's resolved.
• If Deel identifies fraudulent identity documents, the block is permanent and the worker can't be re-verified.
• Deel's FinCrime team notifies both you and the worker when this happens, though we don't share the specific reason for the block. You can see a worker's compliance status, but not whether they're specifically blocked.
• This is separate from your business's own review: if your business hasn't passed verification, you won't be able to use Deel's regulated services until it's approved; if it's rejected, you won't be able to use them at all.

6. When we ask for more information

Most businesses resolve this in a single round. However, if our review raises additional questions, we may reach out for clarification or further details. We call this a Request for Information (RFI) (you may also see this referred to as enhanced due diligence, or EDD, in some contexts).

This usually happens when:

• Information you've provided doesn't match public records or the documents you've uploaded, or something is missing or unclear (for example, an ID photo we can't read).
• Your ownership structure includes multiple layers, like holding companies.
• Your business is in an industry that carries extra regulatory scrutiny. In that case you'll see a short set of industry-specific questions in the form itself, so you know upfront what's coming.
• Our screening checks return something we need to clarify with you.

In practice: if the ownership details you've submitted don't match public filings, or your business sits in a higher-risk industry, we might send an RFI asking you to clarify or provide additional documentation, rather than declining your application outright.

If we send you an RFI, we'll tell you exactly what's missing and why. We try to group related questions together where we can, so you're not fielding requests one at a time. 
 

7. How we protect your information

We handle the information you provide in accordance with applicable data protection laws. Collecting and verifying it is a legal obligation, not a choice, so we treat it accordingly: documents are encrypted in transit and at rest, used only for verification. 

For more detail, see our:

• Privacy policy- https://www.deel.com/legal/privacy-policy/ 
• Client Data Processing Agreement - https://www.deel.com/legal/data-processing-addendum/ 
• Trust center (trust.deel.com)
• Licenses and regulatory status by region (deel.com/legal/licenses)

We've also completed a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) for this process, available on request.

Clients can request more information on the DPO services and Privacy Consulting services at dpo@deel.com.

8. Where to get help

If anything here doesn't match your situation, or you're stuck partway through, reach out to your account team or contact support directly. You don't have to figure this out alone.

Frequently Asked Questions