WhatsApp phone number verification
The phone number itself gets verified during the connection — a code by SMS or call, done in a minute.
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The phone number itself gets verified during the connection — a code by SMS or call, done in a minute. What this page is really about is the verification that agencies actually lose launches to: Meta business verification of the client's business portfolio. It's a document review, it caps the channel until it's done, and it needs paperwork only the client can provide — which is exactly why it belongs in your onboarding checklist, not in your launch-week panic.
Why it decides your ad budget
An unverified business is throttled at 250 unique conversations per day — and unverified accounts get banned more easily, with some unable to send messages at all. Verified, the limit scales automatically with quality and volume: 1K → 10K → 100K → unlimited customers per day.
Now do the media math: a click-to-WhatsApp campaign that produces 300 conversations a day hits the unverified cap before lunch. The ads keep spending; the bot stops answering new people. Verification is a launch prerequisite, not an optimization — start it the day the number is connected.
Note: this is not the green checkmark. Business verification unlocks messaging limits. It does not add any badge to the client's profile — the green checkmark (Official Business Account) is a separate program that requires business verification but isn't granted by it. Don't promise the client a checkmark out of this process.
Submitting verification from Chatfuel
Chatfuel is a Meta Solution Partner and submits the verification for you, from inside the client's company:
- Open the verification flow. In the client's company, go to Settings → WhatsApp and click Verify under "Verify your Meta business portfolio".
- Upload the client's documents. Accepted types: a government tax document, a business registration or license, articles of incorporation, or a business bank statement. More is better — but only from this list; a passport or driver's license gets rejected, and random extra files don't help.
- Check the legal name — letter by letter. The legal business name on the documents must match the Legal business name in the client's Meta Business Info settings exactly. A mismatch is the single most common rejection. Check it before submitting, not after the rejection email.
- Leave a reachable WhatsApp number. Meta contacts this number only if something's wrong with the submission. Make it one your team actually monitors — an unreachable number means a silent failure.
- Track the status. Progress shows right in the WhatsApp tab: Documents saved → Pending review → Verified. The typical round-trip is around 2–3 hours.
The agency habit that makes this painless: collect the client's registration document and confirm their legal business name during onboarding, in the same pass as access collection. Chasing a busy client for their articles of incorporation two days before launch is the avoidable version of this problem.
When verification is rejected
| What happened | The fix | Whose move |
|---|---|---|
| Legal name doesn't match | Update the name in Business Info to match the document exactly — or upload a document matching the name already set. Then resubmit. | Client (you guide) |
| Document not accepted | Personal IDs don't count. Resubmit with a document from the accepted list above. | Client |
| "Not yet eligible for verification" | The client's Business Info is incomplete. Fill in every field, including optional ones, then resubmit. | Client (you guide) |
| A verification request is already pending | Someone submitted before. Meta enforces a 3-day wait between requests — Chatfuel retries automatically; no action needed. | Nobody — wait |
| Submission limit reached | Chatfuel can submit up to three times on the client's behalf. After that, submit directly in Meta Security Center. | You, with client's access |
| Business account disabled by Meta | Verification can't be submitted at all. The client appeals in Meta Support Home. | Client |
If the status is stuck with everything filled in correctly, or the review drags far past the usual window, contact Chatfuel support with a screenshot of the client's Business Info page — escalation to Meta happens from there.