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    OverviewStep 1: Create a customerStep 2: Handling verification statusesFrequently asked questions
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JavaScript
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Personal verified Customer #

Create a personal verified Customer #

To create a personal verified Customer, use the create a Customer endpoint. A personal verified Customer is determined by setting the value of the type request parameter to personal and including additional fields required for identifying the individual.

Events #

As a developer, you can expect these events to be triggered when a personal verified Customer is successfully created and systematically verified:

  1. customer_created
  2. customer_verified

Required parameters - personal verified Customer #

ParameterRequiredTypeDescriptionfirstNameyesstringIndividual’s legal first name.lastNameyesstringIndividual’s legal last name.emailyesstringCustomer’s email address.typeyesstringType of identity verified Customer. Value of personal for individual.address1yesstringStreet number, street name of individual’s physical address.address2nostringApartment, floor, suite, bldg # of individual’s physical address.cityyesstringCity of individual’s physical address.stateyesstringTwo-letter US state or territory abbreviation code of individual’s physical address.postalCodeyesstringCustomer’s US five-digit ZIP or ZIP + 4 code.dateOfBirthyesstringCustomer's date of birth in YYYY-MM-DD format. Must be between 18 to 125 years of age.ssnyesstringLast four-digits of individual’s social security number.

Once you submit this request, Dwolla will perform some initial validation to check for formatting issues such as an invalid date of birth, invalid email format, etc. If successful, the response will be an HTTP 201/Created with the URL of the new Customer resource contained in the Location header.

Request and response (view schema in 'raw') #

JavaScript
var requestBody = {
  firstName: "John",
  lastName: "Doe",
  email: "jdoe@nomail.net",
  type: "personal",
  address1: "99-99 33rd St",
  city: "Some City",
  state: "NY",
  postalCode: "11101",
  dateOfBirth: "1970-01-01",
  // For the first attempt, only the
  // last 4 digits of SSN required
  // If the entire SSN is provided,
  // it will still be accepted
  ssn: "1234",
};

dwolla
  .post("customers", requestBody)
  .then((res) => res.headers.get("location")); // => 'https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/FC451A7A-AE30-4404-AB95-E3553FCD733F'

Check the status of the personal verified Customer #

The successful creation of a Customer doesn’t necessarily mean the Customer is verified and eligible to send or receive funds. When a Customer has been successfully verified by Dwolla, their status will be set to verified.

Let’s check to see if the Customer was successfully verified or not. We are going to use the location of the Customer resource that was just created, which is in new_customer.

bash
GET https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/FC451A7A-AE30-4404-AB95-E3553FCD733F
Accept: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json
Authorization: Bearer pBA9fVDBEyYZCEsLf/wKehyh1RTpzjUj5KzIRfDi0wKTii7DqY

{
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/FC451A7A-AE30-4404-AB95-E3553FCD733F",
      "type": "application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json",
      "resource-type": "customer"
    },
    "receive": {
      "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/transfers",
      "type": "application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json",
      "resource-type": "transfer"
    },
    "edit-form": {
      "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/FC451A7A-AE30-4404-AB95-E3553FCD733F",
      "type": "application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json; profile=\"https://github.com/dwolla/hal-forms\"",
      "resource-type": "customer"
    },
    "edit": {
      "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/FC451A7A-AE30-4404-AB95-E3553FCD733F",
      "type": "application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json",
      "resource-type": "customer"
    },
    "funding-sources": {
      "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/FC451A7A-AE30-4404-AB95-E3553FCD733F/funding-sources",
      "type": "application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json",
      "resource-type": "funding-source"
    },
    "transfers": {
      "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/FC451A7A-AE30-4404-AB95-E3553FCD733F/transfers",
      "type": "application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json",
      "resource-type": "transfer"
    },
    "send": {
      "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/transfers",
      "type": "application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json",
      "resource-type": "transfer"
    }
  },
  "id": "FC451A7A-AE30-4404-AB95-E3553FCD733F",
  "firstName": "John",
  "lastName": "Doe",
  "email": "jdoe@nomail.net",
  "type": "personal",
  "status": "verified",
  "created": "2016-11-28T19:51:48.050Z",
  "address1": "99-99 33rd St",
  "address2": "Apt 8",
  "city": "Some City",
  "state": "NY",
  "postalCode": "11101",
  "phone": "5554321234"
}

Next steps #

Congrats! Our Customer was successfully verified!

However, if the Customer was unable to be verified on the initial flow, they will be given a verification status of either retry, kba, document, or suspended. Continue reading for instructions on handling various Customer verification statuses and guidelines for providing additional information to verify these Customers.

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