How graduates claim their degree

Every graduate in your batch gets an e-mail with a link to claim the passport your university started for them. Until they claim it, the passport is never public, whatever happens.

The graduate's side

1. They open the e-mail, headed Claim the degree with your university's name, and select Claim your passport.
2. They sign in, or create a certo account. The passport binds to that account.
3. They check their identity once, with an identity document and a selfie.
4. certo compares the name and date of birth that check reads with the ones your university recorded. When they match, the passport is theirs, with the degree on it, marked Verified.

Their first year starts then, paid by your sponsorship: the rest of their history checked at no cost to them, and free reading for every employer they approve. What a certo passport is explains the passport from the graduate's side; you can send them the link.

A graduate who already has a passport

A batch always starts a new passport, because your university cannot know whether the graduate already holds one. When a graduate who has a passport opens the link, they read that certo will add these records to the passport they already hold after a quick check, and e-mail them.

A person at certo then checks that the identity on their existing passport is the person your university recorded, and moves the degree, its confirmation and its certificate into that passport. The year your sponsorship paid for goes onto that passport too. The passport your batch started is retired. The link does not expire while the check is waiting.

Your university never learns which passport the degree went to.

Following the claims

The Invitations list on Issuing shows every graduate's address and where their claim stands:

You see the status only. Your university does not get access to the graduate's passport.

When a claim does not go through

The identity check does not match. The name and date of birth have to match what your university recorded. After several attempts that do not match, the link locks and the graduate is told to contact certo. A person at certo can unlock it or send the graduate a new link, and the old one stops working. The most common cause is a name on the batch that differs from the identity document, such as a shortened name, so use full legal names.

The e-mail went to an address the graduate no longer reads. The link works only for the person whose identity matches, so a graduate can forward the e-mail to an address they use. Or correct the address on the row and send it again: the new link goes to the new address, the old one stops working, and no sponsorship is spent.

The link expired. An unclaimed link runs out after 90 days and the list says Expired, not claimed. Send the same row again: it shows New link sent, and the graduate gets a new link for another 90 days, free.

If something on a record is wrong

Not claimed yet. Correct the row and send it again. It replaces the earlier one on the same passport, the earlier link stops working, the graduate gets a new link, and no sponsorship is spent. Correcting a row says how certo knows it is the same graduate.

Claimed already. The degree is the graduate's now, and may be a signed certificate, so a batch never changes it: the row shows Already claimed and nothing is charged. If the degree should not stand as issued, your university can revoke its certificate (see Verifying a degree), which withdraws it from the passport. To have a corrected degree issued in its place, write to certo at support@certo.bio with the graduate's e-mail address and what should change.