Business Verification

Business Verification is Meta checking documents to confirm that a real, legally registered business sits behind your business portfolio. The verification happens on Meta's side, not in {{brand.name}} — but the result affects your panel directly: on WhatsApp in particular, an unverified portfolio keeps your number in a narrow box.

💡 Business Verification is not the same as the Display name review row on your WhatsApp connection page. That row reviews the name that will appear in chats. Business Verification reviews your company and covers your whole Meta business portfolio.

What it is for

To protect its messaging platform from abuse, Meta opens certain capabilities only to businesses whose identity has been verified. Verification unlocks:

• Moving your WhatsApp number into production use and allowing its daily new-conversation tier to rise.
• Getting your permissions opened to everyone. A review isn't completed for an unverified portfolio.
• Approving your display name. Reviewing a name requires knowing the business behind it.

On the Instagram side, too, a verified portfolio is a precondition for running the permission approval process smoothly.

When it's required

You usually meet verification at these moments:

• In the WhatsApp setup window, while creating a new business account.
• When you want to raise your number's daily new-conversation tier.
• During Meta's app review, if the portfolio isn't verified yet.

If you're connecting an Instagram account only for DMs and comment replies, verification may not come up on day one. If you're going to use WhatsApp, it will be needed sooner or later; dealing with it early is the least painful route.

Where and how you do it

Verification happens in Meta's Business Manager, in your business portfolio's security settings. It cannot be started from the panel; {{brand.name}} plays no part in the process.

Meta usually asks for:

• The business's legal name, address and phone number — they must match official records exactly.
• A tax number or company registration detail.
• A document showing the business's name and address: a tax certificate, registry gazette, utility bill or similar official paper.
• A website belonging to your business and a corporate email address.
• A verification step carried out by phone or email.

The review takes a few days. If it's rejected, Meta states the reason and you can correct it and resubmit.

⚠️ Note: The most common reason for rejection is details that don't match the document letter for letter. An abbreviation in the company name, a missing line in the address or an old phone number will sink the review. Put the document in front of you and copy the fields exactly.

What changes in the panel

Verification's traces inside the panel are indirect; there is no separate screen or button.

• The indicators on the WhatsApp Connection page. Getting the Display name review row to Approved, and letting the New conversations per day tier rise, both depend on verification.
• The Connected Meta portfolio row. On the same page it shows which Meta business portfolio your WhatsApp business account belongs to; that portfolio is the one being verified.
• Message flow. Verification alone does not mean "everyone can write to you"; the permissions have to be approved too. They are separate processes and both must finish. Details: The Meta app and App Review.

Three things it gets confused with

The names sound alike, but these are three separate processes and none replaces another.

• Display name review. The review of the text that will appear as your business name in WhatsApp chats. It shows on your connection page in the Display name review row as Approved, Not approved or Expired.
• Permission approval (App Review). Opening the app's permissions to everyone. With an unapproved permission, only messages from people with a role on the app arrive; see The Meta app and App Review.
• Instagram account verification (the blue badge). An entirely separate programme, unrelated to Business Verification, and it changes nothing in the panel.

What to prepare before you start

Have these to hand before you sit down to apply, so the review passes first time:

1. A legible scan of your tax certificate or company registration document.
2. The legal name and address exactly as written on that document (to copy and paste).
3. A mailbox on your business's own domain, and access to it.
4. A working website showing the business's name and contact details.
5. A phone registered to the business where you can receive the verification code.

A concrete example

You run an education consultancy. You connected your WhatsApp number; the connection went through and the card shows Active in the panel. But on the Connection page Display name review says "Not approved" and New conversations per day shows "250 new conversations per 24 hours". You were planning to send an update to 400 people at the weekend.

You go into Meta Business Manager and start verification for your business portfolio: you type the company name exactly as it appears on your tax certificate, copy the address word for word, upload the certificate and complete verification with your corporate email. Three days later verification is approved; your display name is approved after it and your tier rises. You changed no setting in the panel; the indicators updated by themselves.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

• Confusing it with the display name review. They are two separate reviews, and the name review usually can't progress without Business Verification.
• Typing details differently from the document. This is the most common rejection; copy the fields from the document.
• Applying with a personal email and no website. Meta expects a corporate domain and an email on that domain.
• Looking for verification in the panel. There is no such screen and there won't be; the process lives entirely with Meta.
• Expecting messages to flow the moment verification ends. Permission approval is a separate process; until both finish, your ordinary customers' messages may not arrive.
• Verifying the wrong portfolio. If you have several Meta business portfolios, check the Connected Meta portfolio row on the WhatsApp Connection page to see which one to verify.

If verification is complete but the indicators in the panel don't change, wait a few hours and refresh the page; if it persists, contact our Support team.

Related articles

• The Meta app and App Review
• The Connection screen for a WhatsApp account
• Connecting a WhatsApp Business number
• Meta's permission screen and the permissions requested
• When a connection breaks