ESD asking for selfie with multiple ID documents - utility bill name issue

OMG yes!!! ESD has been doing this alot lately - its their new fraud prevention thing. I had to do it 2 months ago. The utility bill doesnt HAVE to be in ur name actually. You can use a bank statement instead, or your tax docs from last year. Anything that proves where you live is fine. BUT make sure the address matches your license exactly or they'll reject it!

They made me do this same thing!!! Super annoying. I tried taking the pic like 5 times because its IMPOSSIBLE to hold all that stuff and take a selfie at the same time. My hands arent big enough lol. They rejected my first attempt because my thumb was covering part of my ss# on my card.

This is part of ESD's enhanced identity verification process that was implemented to reduce fraud cases. For the utility bill requirement, you can substitute any of the following: 1. Bank statement with your name and current address (within last 60 days) 2. Credit card statement (within last 60 days) 3. Tax documents from the current year 4. Insurance statement 5. Mortgage statement 6. Lease agreement Make sure all documents are clearly visible in the photo, unfolded, and that no information is obscured by your fingers or shadows. The verification typically takes 3-5 business days once submitted correctly.

My sister had to do this same procedure last month. For her they actually rejected the first submission because she didn't have ALL of the documents clearly visible in one photo. Apparently you really do need to show all the documents at once. She ended up propping her phone against some books and using the timer feature to get a good shot.

ugh i HATE these new verifcation things!! the WA unemployment system has gotten so paranoid after all the fraud during covid. I had to call ESD like 30 times trying to get this sorted, kept getting busy signals or disconnected after waiting an hour. so frustrating

Been through this exact nightmare. Make sure your birth certificate is the official one with the seal visible - they rejected mine because I sent a copy without the raised seal. For the utility bill, I used my cell phone bill which worked fine. Bank statements work too but they need to show transactions from within 30 days. The really annoying part is that even after I submitted everything correctly, my claim stayed in adjudication for another 9 days! They never told me it was approved - the status just changed one day and the money appeared in my account.

this all sounds like a scam to me tbh. ESD would never ask for a selfie with all those documents at once. super suspicious. did they contact you through the official eservices site or was it an email? i would call ESD directly to confirm before sending all that sensitive info

Someone posted about this on reddit too - they said ESD is SUPER picky about the photos. Like all 4 corners of each document have to be visible and they need to see your face clearly holding them. Its stupid but after you get it right they process things pretty fast.

UPDATE: I finally got this sorted! For anyone dealing with the same issue - I ended up using my bank statement (which worked fine) and had my daughter take the photo while I held everything up. They approved my verification in 4 days. What a relief! Thanks to everyone who offered advice.