A passport is only worth reading if you can tell what was checked, who checked it and what they actually confirmed. Every line on a certo passport carries that. Where a check did not come back, the line says so instead of quietly disappearing.
Each line carries one pill, drawn exactly as here. On a passport, hover or tap it and a card says who confirmed what, and when. The examples are lines from Peter Pan’s example passport.
Confirmed in full by the employer, the institution, the issuer or certo’s own check, with or without a certificate.
ExampleSenior Product Manager · Tesco Stores Limited · confirmed by HR team, Tesco
Part of the line was confirmed. The pill names what was not, and that part stays as the holder claimed it.
ExampleDelivery Lead · Sage Group plc
The company no longer exists and could not be asked. A person at certo reviewed documents the holder sent (payslips, a pension statement, old posts). A lower grade than Verified, never the employer confirming. Employers see the outcome, never the documents.
Nobody confirmed it. It is shown as the holder wrote it, and never signed.
ExampleCertified Scrum Product Owner · Scrum Alliance
Silence is a finding. Somebody was asked and never answered, so the line stays Claimed and says so; it never looks pending. A refusal reads “declined”, a record nobody holds “no record found”.
It was confirmed, and the confirmation is past the time it stays current; a certification past its own expiry reads “expired”. The pill keeps the state it held, in grey.
ExampleProduct Analyst · Ocado Retail Limited
What anyone with the link sees on every line but identity: the line and its dates, never whether anyone confirmed it. The verdicts open for the employers the holder approves.
ExampleSenior Product Manager · Tesco Stores Limited, as anyone with the link reads it
One person, one passport.
A government ID is matched to a live selfie by a specialist identity provider. The passport carries the name on the document, and one person holds one passport.
certo keeps a one-way hash and the answer. The number itself never reaches certo’s database.
Shown only when it is you.
With your consent, the identity provider compares your photo with the face on your ID. Only a match goes on the page; a new photo starts again.
A person asks the employer.
The candidate names HR or manager contacts. certo writes to them and records exactly what they confirm: the dates, the job title, or both.
We can confirm Peter Pan was employed by us 2022–present as Senior Product Manager.
People team
The same, with the institution’s records.
The records office confirms the award, the subject and the year. If it will not, the line stays claimed.
Grades and dissertations are not asked about. The scope on the certificate says so.
Checked with the issuer where possible.
Where the issuing body has an API, the credential ID is checked and the line is verified. Otherwise it stays claimed, with the reason.
Per role, scored. Not open yet.
A 30–40 minute interview for one named role, scored against a fixed competency model and re-checked. Until it opens, no passport carries a score.
An employment certificate comes out of the reply an employer sent, and an education certificate out of the institution’s records. They are separate documents because a different body stands behind each one. A role certificate joins them when the interview opens.
Samples. Both carry a certificate ID and a link back to the live passport, so a reader can check the document against the record rather than trusting the paper.
Anyone with the link sees the claims and the identity check. The verdicts open to the employers the holder approves; contact details only if they are included. The sample is the fictional Peter Pan's passport as an approved reader receives it.
| Field | What it is | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|
| display_name, tagline, location, residence_country | The name on the page, the holder's headline, where they live. Their own words; nobody checks them. | Anyone with the link |
| avatar · avatar_face_matched | The photo, and whether the identity provider matched it to the identity check. On a passport with a check, an unmatched photo is not shown. | Anyone with the link |
| sections.identity[] | The identity check: method, document kind, issuing country, level of assurance and date. The one verdict never sealed. | Anyone with the link |
| sections.*[].payload | Each line as the holder claimed it: employer and job title, institution and award, certificate and issuer, the period. | Anyone with the link |
| status · assurance | The state of each line, drawn on the passport as Verified, Partly verified or Claimed; a lapsed or expired line keeps the state it held, in grey. A partial answer stays partial. | Approved employers |
| attested_by · attested_at | Who confirmed the line, and when. | Approved employers |
| scope | Exactly what they confirmed, word for word. | Approved employers |
| credential_id | The signed certificate behind a verified line, which anyone with it can check. | Approved employers |
| confirmed_fields · unconfirmed_fields · unanswered_fields | Which fields the answer covered ("*" is all of it), which it did not, and which were asked about and left unanswered. A partial line names exactly what is still claimed. | Approved employers |
| payload.reference · payload.expires_on | A certificate’s number and expiry. | Approved employers |
| contacts[] | E-mail, phone and links. | Only if contact is included |
| date of birth | Never in the passport. Every reader sees only over 18 and over 21; the date itself opens only with the holder's separate yes to a reason given for it. | Only by a separate yes |
{
"slug": "peter-pan-england",
"display_name": "Peter Pan",
"tagline": "Product manager of nine years, now also verified as a data analyst. London and remote across the UK.",
"location": "London",
"residence_country": "GB",
"avatar_face_matched": true,
"avatar_face_matched_at": "2026-03-04",
"sections": {
"identity": [
{
"id": "01a12afe-6623-76f0-a347-d22d78a33002",
"scope": "identity document, liveness and face match to the holder",
"status": "verified",
"payload": {
"loa": "substantial",
"scope": "identity document, liveness and face match to the holder",
"method": "Government document matched to a live selfie",
"verified_on": "2026-10-11",
"document_type": "passport",
"issuing_country": "GB",
"document_expires_on": "2031-08-30"
},
"assurance": "confirmed",
"expires_on": null,
"attested_at": "2026-10-11",
"attested_by": "Didit",
"occurred_to": null,
"credential_id": "01a12afe-6675-7332-93a1-d87f9e61de01",
"occurred_from": null,
"confirmed_fields": [
"*"
],
"unanswered_fields": null,
"unconfirmed_fields": null
}
],
"employment": [
{
"id": "01a12afe-7303-7b22-a69f-30747bcc324f",
"scope": "employment dates and job title",
"status": "verified",
"payload": {
"note": "Checkout replatform for 2.4M annual orders. Wrote the team's trading reports in SQL.",
"period": {
"end": null,
"start": "2022-03"
},
"employer": {
"identifier": {
"value": "00519500",
"scheme": "GB-CRN"
},
"legal_name": "Tesco Stores Limited"
},
"position": "Senior Product Manager"
},
"assurance": "confirmed",
"expires_on": null,
"attested_at": "2026-03-05",
"attested_by": "HR team, Tesco",
"occurred_to": null,
"credential_id": "01a12afe-769c-76e4-82ca-c44b6d1e16f9",
"occurred_from": "2022-03-01",
"confirmed_fields": [
"period",
"position"
],
"unanswered_fields": null,
"unconfirmed_fields": null
},
{
"id": "01a12afe-7317-7091-85b9-2d09c9cea5aa",
"scope": "employment dates only, not the job title",
"status": "partially_verified",
"payload": {
"note": "Reporting and forecasting for the grocery online team.",
"period": {
"end": "2022-02",
"start": "2019-09"
},
"employer": {
"identifier": {
"value": "03261722",
"scheme": "GB-CRN"
},
"legal_name": "Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd"
},
"position": "Senior Analyst"
},
"assurance": "confirmed",
"expires_on": null,
"attested_at": "2026-05-12",
"attested_by": "HR shared services, Sainsbury's",
"occurred_to": "2022-02-28",
"credential_id": "01a12afe-76f1-7d01-a09f-96c565940ff0",
"occurred_from": "2019-09-01",
"confirmed_fields": [
"period"
],
"unanswered_fields": null,
"unconfirmed_fields": [
"position"
]
}
],
"education": [
{
"id": "01a12afe-6c83-745c-a58e-f171d958b332",
"scope": null,
"status": "claim",
"payload": {
"note": "Applied statistics and econometrics.",
"award": "Exchange semester",
"period": {
"end": "2013-07",
"start": "2013-02"
},
"subject": "Statistics",
"institution": {
"legal_name": "Utrecht University"
}
},
"assurance": "claim",
"expires_on": null,
"attested_at": null,
"attested_by": null,
"occurred_to": "2013-07-01",
"credential_id": null,
"occurred_from": "2013-02-01",
"confirmed_fields": null,
"unanswered_fields": null,
"unconfirmed_fields": null
}
],
"certification": [
{
"id": "01a12afe-7323-7d9b-a8ff-0baffb036883",
"scope": "credential id and validity, confirmed with the issuing body",
"status": "verified",
"payload": {
"issuer": "Google Cloud",
"credential_name": "Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer",
"reference": "GCP-PDE-99204",
"expires_on": "2028-02-28"
},
"assurance": "confirmed",
"expires_on": "2028-02-28",
"attested_at": "2026-02-28",
"attested_by": "Certification registry, Google Cloud",
"occurred_to": "2028-02-28",
"credential_id": "01a12afe-774d-74bd-b97d-2dcbf11c74d8",
"occurred_from": "2026-02-28",
"confirmed_fields": [
"credential_name",
"reference",
"expires_on"
],
"unanswered_fields": null,
"unconfirmed_fields": null
}
]
},
"contacts": [
{
"kind": "email",
"label": "Personal",
"value": "peter.pan@example.test"
},
{
"kind": "phone",
"label": "Direct",
"value": "+44 7700 900123"
}
]
}Fictional data. One line of each kind; a real passport carries every line the holder added.
Candidates verify themselves; employers, universities and course providers pay for the passports they need. Every one is read the same way.