I did research for what was required, before entering contests, as I am not a US resident. When submitting my W-8BEN form recently to receive a recent payout, I was told new policy was introduced for account verification. These two new steps, required submitting a billing statement, and a gov’t document with photo ID.
I have no issue with submitting billing statements, as these can be easily verified through regular credit checks - especially if it’s a bank statement. My concern is with submitting gov’t documents, as a non US citizen.
My questions are (a) how is squadhelp as a private company, able to verify non US government documents, applicable to a different country? And (b) for non US residents only, if squadhelp is unable to verify these submitted documents, how does squadhelp regulate whether these documents are fraudulent or not? Is it at their own discretion, for example?
These new policy changes were implemented for a legitimate reason, no doubt. But it would be nice to have an explanation to the necessity of supplying non US government ID, which can only be substantiated by the authorities within those individual countries. It may just be a communication issue, and the new policy changes haven’t been explained in full. Which is why I am submitting this feedback. I understand the need for a legitimate verification process, but can international government photo id, be legitimised outside it’s jurisdiction?