GitHub Education Teacher Application Rejected Repeatedly Without Explanation

[Colpan91]

Hi everyone,

Hello everyone,

I am experiencing an issue with my GitHub Education Teacher application, which has been rejected multiple times without any explanation.
• I applied as a teacher.
• I uploaded my academic affiliation document during the application.
• I verified that the information in the Academic Affiliation upload step matches exactly with the Billing & Plans → Academic Affiliation ID information.
• My account is registered with a valid .edu email address.

Despite these steps, my application is rejected every time, and no rejection reason is provided. This makes it difficult to understand whether the issue is related to document verification, eligibility, or a system-related problem.

I would appreciate your assistance in identifying the reason for the rejection or advising on any additional steps or documentation required.

Thank you for your support.

[alexbarcelo]

I am in the same boat. In my case, I have been given a mixture of reasons, but none of them made any sense (and sometimes there was no reason at all). I double checked my mail, my name, the documents, etc.

Some rejections were obtained in less than 10 minutes, which puzzles me (does not seem to be done through human triage, but still, the rejection messages are not clear).

If you get lucky or find a way to appeal, let me know! Thanks.

[willyx78]

I want to share my experience in case it helps other teachers who are stuck with GitHub Education verification, especially outside the US. It takes 1 full week of trial and error. and 5 pages of Rejected attempts.

I’m a high school teacher in Italy and I was trying to get verified as a faculty member to access Copilot Pro.
My application was rejected many times with messages like:

“Your document does not appear to indicate you as a faculty member”
“Please ensure your first and last name exactly match”
“Your school name is missing”

Even though:

my official service letter clearly stated I am a docente (teacher),
my name and school were present,
my GitHub profile and billing info were correct.

Problem 1: Role not recognized (non-English documents)

The automated verification system:

does not understand non-English roles like docente,
relies heavily on English keywords and OCR,
may reject valid official documents without any human review.

Problem 2: First name / last name matching

Another critical issue is name matching.
In many non-US official documents (including Italian ones), the name appears as:
LAST NAME First Name
or in a different order than what English systems expect.
The verification system is extremely strict:
the order of first name and last name matters,
the exact spelling must match GitHub profile and billing info,
even logically correct variations can cause rejection.

In my case, even small inconsistencies caused repeated automatic rejections.

Specifically:

On the Billing Information, I had to invert the first and last name to match the document exactly (First name = LAST NAME, Last name = FIRST NAME).

On the GitHub profile, I had to use a single field combining first and last name exactly as it appeared on the document (LAST NAME FIRST NAME).

This alignment between the document, billing, and profile was necessary to pass the automated verification.

What finally worked

I did NOT modify the original document.

Instead, I:

Took one single photo showing:
the original official document (in Italian),
a very short English translation placed directly below the last line of the original document.

The translation contained only role and institution, no name, no dates, no personal data.
The exact translation text was:

is employed as a TEACHER (FACULTY MEMBER)
with a permanent contract
at ITST J.F. Kennedy
for the current academic year.

I intentionally removed the name from the translation to avoid any OCR name-matching conflicts.

Result
After many rejections, the application was approved immediately.

Key takeaways
Less text works better than more text.
Explicit keywords like “TEACHER (FACULTY MEMBER)” are essential.
Name matching is extremely strict; removing names from translations can help.

Placing the translation visually aligned and close to the original text matters.
This is mainly an OCR/automation limitation, not a document validity issue.

I hope this helps other teachers avoid a lot of frustration.
Good luck!

[teacherrust]

Thx,

I did exactly that.
The school must also be listed on the small piece of paper with the name written in English.

[midiakiasat]

This behavior is consistent with fully automated OCR + keyword verification, not human review.

What’s actually happening:

• Rejections within minutes indicate no manual triage.

• Non-English documents are evaluated via OCR and English keyword matching.

• Role, institution name, and name order must match exactly across:

  • uploaded document
  • GitHub profile
  • billing / academic affiliation fields

Even valid faculty documents can fail if:

• the role is not an English keyword (e.g. docente),
• name order differs from what OCR expects,
• OCR extracts extra text and creates mismatches.

What reliably works (confirmed by multiple cases):

1. Do not modify the original document.

2. Submit one single image or PDF containing:

   • the original official document (unchanged),
   • a very short English annotation placed directly below it.

3. The annotation should include only:

   • explicit role keyword: TEACHER (FACULTY MEMBER)
   • institution name (in English)
   • current academic year

4. Do not include names in the translation to avoid OCR name-matching conflicts.

5. Ensure the GitHub profile and billing name/order match exactly how OCR will read the original document (even if the order feels incorrect).

This is not an eligibility problem.
It’s an automation limitation.
Minimal English context + strict alignment is the decisive factor.