Check a certificate's PDF file

1. Open Verify, or the certificate's own verification page.
2. Drop the PDF onto the page, or press Choose PDF.

Your browser works out the file's fingerprint (its SHA-256) and compares it with the fingerprint recorded when the certificate was issued. The file itself is never uploaded; only the fingerprint is sent.

What the answers mean

• This file is the original: it is, byte for byte, the PDF that was issued. Verify opens the certificate's record, where you still need to read the result, because an unchanged file can belong to a certificate that was later withdrawn or replaced.
• This isn't an original Nyvarra certificate file: no certificate was issued on Nyvarra as this exact file. Certificates from other places always give this answer, and we cannot determine if they're original; ask whoever issued them. A Nyvarra certificate gives it too once it has been scanned, photographed, printed to PDF, re-saved or edited. Check the serial printed on it instead.
• This file belongs to a different certificate: it's an original, but of another serial than the one you were looking at.

The file check is exact, so it can prove a file is the original but can't prove a different file is a fake. When a file doesn't match, the serial and the record decide: compare the name, course and date on the record with the copy you were given.

Verify only checks certificates issued on Nyvarra. It can't check certificates from universities, boards or other platforms, and it never says whether a certificate is accredited or recognised in another country.

Why two visually identical PDFs can differ

A file fingerprint depends on the exact bytes of the PDF, including details that may not be visible on the page. Printing to PDF, optimizing, annotating, re-exporting or changing metadata can produce a different fingerprint even when the certificate appears identical. That is why a mismatch is not, by itself, a finding of forgery.

Use the file and record checks together

1. Check the received PDF through Verify.
2. If the exact file is recognized, open its record and inspect the live status. An original file can later be withdrawn, replaced or expired.
3. If the file is not recognized, enter the serial printed on it and compare the live name, issuer, award and dates.
4. If the file belongs to another certificate, stop and resolve the identity mismatch with the presenter or issuer.
5. If details disagree, ask the issuer for clarification or report the concern.

What stays on your device

The file-check workflow computes the fingerprint in your browser and sends the fingerprint for comparison. This is different from intentionally attaching a file to a support request or fraud report, which does upload the attachment. Read the purpose of the screen before selecting a document.

If the PDF cannot be read

Try the original downloaded file rather than a scan, image or damaged attachment. Check that it opens in a PDF reader. If only a paper copy exists, use its serial and compare the public record; an exact-file fingerprint cannot establish that a photograph is the original PDF.