There are several possible reasons why an Australian Driver Licence is not being verified.  With each State and Territory issuing licences and managing data, the reasons for a non-verification can be complex.


For any Australian government-issued ID document (Driver Licence, Passport, Medicare Card, etc) all input elements must be 100% with the individual's record in the Government Agency - in some instances this may mean that the details on the ID document will need expanding upon.


It is important to understand that there is no fuzzy name matching accepted by the Government agencies.  Therefore an input of Jon will not match to John or Jonathan; Jon will only match to Jon.


Confirm the following before resubmitting:


- The Driver Licence is current; although the Expiry Date is not required for verification purposes, if the document is no longer current then you will receive a negative result.  Likewise if the Driver Licence, whilst not appearing as expired, has been reported as lost or stolen it will have been cancelled and therefore be void for verification purposes.  Also if the individual has had the licence suspended or revoked by authorities it will also be void for verification purposes.


- The Driver Licence number has been entered correctly; not just typo errors but as an example the NSW Driver Licence contains a Card Number and a Licence No., and it is the Licence No. that should be submitted for verification


- The individual's full name, including all middle names, has been entered correctly; Victorian Driver Licences contain only an initial for a middle (eg John A Smith) but it is the full name of the individual that should be input (eg John Alexander Smith)

- For NSW driver licence: The name (Given) that is printed on the card is different from what is stored at the national driver licence database (known as NEVDIS) as the legal name.
The NSW Roads agency used to allow people to have their ‘preferred’ name printed on their licence without providing proof of their change of name (i.e. a marriage certificate or change of name certificate). This practice has now ceased but it is not being captured retrospectively i.e. the licence will keep being renewed with the ‘preferred’ name printed on it. The DVS matches against what is stored as the ‘legal name’ at NEVDIS.

In order to have the ‘legal’ name updated in the database, the individual will need to provide proof of their change of name to the NSW road agency.


If all the above are accurate and a negative result persists then consider that the individual may have provided false information.


Occasionally an individual may present with an unusual name or naming convention.  The following tips may help with successful verifications and reduce resubmissions:


- The name on the document may be spelt differently to the how the individual spells their name; for example the name St. John may be noted on the document as St John or Stjohn.


The individual may be mononymous, known and addressed only by single name.  This is common throughout Asia. In most instances the mononym (eg Davinder) will be stored as a surname in the Government agency database.  For submission of mononyms a full stop '.' must be submitted as the first name.