Step-up Verification Flows
Step-up verification is the process of triggering additional identity checks when an initial evaluation can't reach a confident decision. Instead of immediately rejecting borderline cases, the workflow pauses and requests further evidence from the user.
When step-up verification triggers
Step-up verification is triggered by workflow logic — typically a Condition step that evaluates enrichment signals and routes inconclusive cases to a verification step:
| Trigger condition | Step-up action | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Identity score below threshold | Document verification (DocV) | "Score is 0.6 — request a government-issued ID" |
| Address can't be verified | OTP verification | "Send a one-time passcode to the phone on file" |
| Device risk increases | Selfie/liveness check | "Request a biometric selfie to confirm identity" |
| Fraud signals detected | Multiple verifications | "Request both document capture and OTP" |
| Inconclusive initial result | Additional data collection | "Prompt the user for missing PII" |
Step-up verification methods
| Method | Workflow step | What it verifies | User interaction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Document Verification (DocV) | Enrichment (Predictive DocV) | Government-issued ID authenticity and identity match | User captures ID with camera |
| OTP Verification | OTP step | User controls the phone number or email on file | User enters a one-time code |
| Selfie / liveness | Enrichment (DocV with selfie) | The person presenting the ID is physically present | User captures a selfie |
| Hosted Flow | Hosted Flow step | Any combination of PII, OTP, DocV, and consent | User completes a Socure-hosted page |
How step-up fits into a workflow
Yes
No
Evaluation starts
Run enrichments
Confident decision?
Decision: ACCEPT / REJECT
Step-up: DocV / OTP / Hosted Flow
Evaluation paused
User completes verification
Evaluation resumes
Final decision with additional signals
- The evaluation runs initial enrichments and rules.
- If the workflow reaches a confident decision, it returns immediately ( synchronous).
- If the workflow cannot decide, a step-up step pauses the evaluation ( asynchronous).
- The user completes the required verification.
- The evaluation resumes with the new signals and reaches a final decision.
Step-up via workflow configuration
A Decision Rules step can be configured to route inconclusive evaluations back for additional data collection. When the workflow reaches this state, your application should:
- Prompt the user for the required information.
- Send a
PATCHrequest to/api/evaluation/{eval_id}with the updated data fields. The request body follows the same structure as the originalPOSTrequest. - The workflow resumes from where it paused.
This is functionally equivalent to a step-up verification, but initiated by the decision logic rather than a conditional branch.
Related concepts
- Evaluations — The execution that triggers step-up
- Decisions — Decision values that can trigger step-up flows
- Statuses & Lifecycle — Step-up creates
pausedevaluation states - Signals & Attributes — Additional signals collected during step-up
- Rules & Conditions — Condition logic that routes to step-up
- Synchronous vs Asynchronous Evaluations — Step-up makes evaluations asynchronous
- Hosted Flows — A common step-up delivery mechanism (preconfigured workflow variant)
- Enrichments — DocV and OTP as enrichment-based verification methods
- Resuming Paused Evaluations — How to resume after step-up
- Predictive DocV — Document verification enrichment
- OTP Step Reference — OTP step configuration
Updated about 1 month ago