Which registration document do I upload?
It depends on your country of incorporation — and for the United States, on your legal structure. The Portal picks the field for you and labels it accordingly:
If your country is not offered on the first step of the wizard, use the Contact us link on
that step rather than picking the nearest match — a mismatched country produces a document
request you cannot satisfy.
Why is the “registration number” field labelled differently for me than for someone else?
Same reason: the label follows your country, because the number itself is a different national identifier.
Enter it exactly as printed on the document you are uploading, including any leading zeros. A
number that does not match the certificate is one of the cheapest returns to avoid.
What makes a registration document acceptable?
For US filings the requirement is stated as a single line and it is the same substance: clearly
legible, all four edges fully visible, free from obstructions or glare.
What does an acceptable shareholding structure chart look like?
This is the item that comes back most often, because “a chart of our shareholders” is not the same thing as what is being asked for. Four requirements, all of them checked:
The Portal offers a Download Shareholding Structure Template link inside the chart’s
Guidelines panel. Use it — a chart produced from the template satisfies the layout requirements
by construction, and you only have to get the facts right.
The field hint states the two remaining conditions the chart itself must carry: it must
penetrate to ultimate beneficial owners holding 25% or more, and it must be stamped with
the company seal and signed by directors. An unsigned, unstamped chart is returnable however
accurate its content.
How do I work out indirect shareholding for the 25% test?
Multiply the ratios along the path, layer by layer. A natural person holding 50% of a mid-tier company that in turn holds 60% of your company holds 30% indirectly, and is therefore a UBO who must be marked and declared. Label the direct ratio on each line of the chart — the multiplication is what the reader does with those labels, so labelling every layer is what makes the chart checkable. Where a person reaches 25% through more than one path, add the paths together.My ownership type changes what I have to upload. How?
Yes, and this is worth getting right on the earlier step, because it decides your Documents step entirely:
Declared ownership percentages must total no more than 100%. If a chart is required and you
have not selected Corporate or Mixed, the chart field will not appear — check your ownership
type before concluding the form is wrong.
What makes an ID document acceptable?
The Portal asks for the ID type each person holds — passport, national ID card or driver licence — and labels the upload accordingly. The acceptance standard is written for the passport case and is the strictest of them:
Practical reading of “without reflection”: a flash photo of a laminated page usually fails on
the photo or the MRZ. Scan it, or shoot it in even indirect light.
What counts as proof of address for a UBO?
The requirement the reviewer applies is exact matching, not document type:Name and address must exactly match the UBO information registered with Waffo. The name must be the full legal name, and the address must be the current residential address.So the failure mode is almost never “wrong kind of document” — it is a shortened first name, a former address, or an address written differently from the one keyed into the form. Check the form against the document before uploading, not after. The categories of evidence normally used are a recent bank or credit-card statement, a recent utility or telecoms bill, or a tenancy agreement inside its term. Whichever you choose, the name on it must be the person’s full legal name and the address must be the one you entered as their residential address.
One of my UBOs holds a mainland China national ID card. Do they still need proof of address?
No. Where a person’s ID type is a national ID card issued in China, the proof-of-address upload is not requested for that person — the card carries the address. You will simply not see the field for them, and its absence is not something to work around.The same person is a director and a UBO. Do I upload their ID twice?
No. People are matched as the same individual on first name, last name, ID type and ID number together, and their document cards are merged: one ID upload, tagged with every role they hold. On the merged card you will see their roles side by side, for example a Signing Director tag next to a UBO | 40% ownership tag. Two consequences:- Merging depends on those four values matching exactly. The same person entered with a differently-spelled first name, or with a passport number in one place and a national ID number in another, will be treated as two people and asked for two documents.
- A merged UBO still owes proof of address (unless the China national ID exemption above applies) — it appears on the merged card, under the ID upload, rather than on a separate UBO card.
What file formats can I upload, and is there a size limit?
The uploader accepts PDF, JPG/JPEG and PNG. Every document is encrypted before storage. There is a per-file size limit, and the figure is stated on the Documents step’s own banner — read it there rather than from memory, and keep your files comfortably below it. If an upload is rejected on size, the message tells you the limit being applied. A practical note that saves a round trip: for a multi-page document, one PDF is safer than several images, because “all four edges visible” and “complete display” are judged per file.What can be sent back to me when an application is returned?
Returned items are drawn from a fixed set — a reviewer flags specific fields and documents, not free-form prose. Knowing the set tells you what a return can possibly be about. At company level:
At person level, the returnable items differ by the person’s role. Everyone shares a core set;
a UBO carries a larger one, because a UBO is the only role for which Waffo holds full personal
details:
A returned residential address covers its parts together — street, city, country and postal
code are one item, not four.
Where do I read what the reviewer actually wants?
Three places, and they are all in the wizard rather than in an email:- Reviewer notes at the top of the application — the overall message.
- A note on each flagged item, in place. Each flagged field or document carries the specific comment for that item, next to the input you have to change.
- A Guidelines attachment on the flagged item, where the reviewer added one — a file that shows what is being asked for. Open it from the flagged item.
What are “Additional Requirements”?
An extra step that appears only when the reviewer asked for something beyond the standard document set. Each request is a card carrying:- the name of what is being requested,
- a notice — the reviewer’s explanation of what they want and why,
- optionally guideline attachments to open, and
- the input to satisfy it.
The step will not let you continue until every request on it has been answered. Requests are
grouped into named categories (legal documents, director ID documents, authorisation documents,
UBO reports, other materials, and a general “other”), and a reviewer can also raise a
custom item — a custom item always arrives with explanatory text, so a request you have
never seen before still tells you what it wants.
Can I see what was asked for in earlier rounds?
Yes. Below the current requests, History additional requirements lists previous rounds grouped by date, newest first. Each historical entry shows the item name, the reviewer’s notice, and what you supplied — the text you wrote, or a link to the file you uploaded. Rounds where nothing was supplied are shown as such. Use it before answering a repeat request: if the same item is being asked again, the history tells you what was rejected last time.The download link for a document or a Guidelines file stopped working. Why?
Because those links are deliberately short-lived. A document link is generated at the moment you click, is valid for a limited period, and then stops working — including a link you copied, bookmarked, or pasted into a chat for a colleague. This is not a fault, and there is nothing to fix:- Re-open the item in the Portal to get a fresh link. That always works.
- Do not share the link itself. Share the Portal location, or download the file and send the file.
- A link that fails immediately usually means the page has been open a long time — reload the page and click again.
Can I edit my company legal name if I got it wrong?
Not from the verification wizard once it is set. Your company legal name is captured at the very start of the journey and carried into the verification form as a read-only value, precisely so that the name on your documents and the name on your account cannot drift apart. If it is wrong, contact support@waffo.com — do not work around it by entering the correct name elsewhere on the form, which produces a mismatch return.My documents were approved. What happens next?
Approval of your documents is not the same as being able to charge. One more stage follows — payment methods being enabled one by one — and it has its own indicator on the Portal Home page. See Payment Enrollment: Why Approved Verification Is Not Yet Live Payments.Unsure whether a specific file will pass? Open the Guidelines panel on that field first — it carries a reference image of an acceptable example. If it is still unclear, email support@waffo.com before submitting rather than after.