📖 Table of contents
Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) allows you to sign with the highest security standards, while ensuring a simple and fast experience for your signers.
Check out our dedicated article to learn when to use it and how to add it to your subscription.
Create a signature request with the Qualified Electronic Signature
Creating an signature request to sign with Qualified Electronic Signature follows the same process as creating a 'regular' signature request, with a few differences.
When preparing your document, you'll need to follow the additional conditions below:
Add signers and provide their phone numbers,
Add only one signature field per signer per document (you can add all other fields without this condition),
Ordering the signers (see how in our dedicated article).
The Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) verification relies on comparing the recipient's declared identity with the information from the signer’s official ID, ensuring security and legal compliance.
The process compares the given first and last names provided by you and validated by the signer with the names displayed on the submitted identity document. Names must comply with specific rules for successful verification, ensuring a robust, standardized, and secured process.
The rules for a successful verification are detailed below.
Rules for Successful Identity Verification
Accepted Documents
National ID card
Passport
Residence permit
Temporary residence permit receipts are not accepted.
Verification Rules
First Name
Must match exactly one of the given names on the document.
Example: Document lists "Maëlys-Gaelle Marie." Declared: "Maëlys-Gaelle" or "Marie."
Example: Declared: "Maëlys-Gaelle, Marie" (two matches detected).
Format
Names can be in lowercase or uppercase.
Special Latin characters (e.g., à, é, ç) are normalized (a, e, c).
Example: "José García" → "Jose Garcia."
Hyphens and apostrophes can be replaced by spaces.
Example: "N’O" → "N O."
If names are in both Latin and non-Latin scripts, use the Latin version.
3. Last Name
Must match exactly one of these:
Birth name or usage name on the document.
Example: Document lists "GABLER MUSTERMANN." Declared: "GABLER" or "MUSTERMANN."
Example: Declared: "GABLER-MUSTERMANN."
4. Honorary Titles
Titles like Baron or Dr. must not be declared. Use only first and last names.
These rules ensure secure and accurate verification for Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES). To ensure a smooth and successful identity verification process, it's crucial to provide information that matches exactly what appears on your signer's official ID document.
Any mismatch between the declared identity and the ID information can lead to verification failure and delays in completing your Qualified Electronic Signature (QES).
Error Reporting and Resolution
If the declared names do not match the document, the signing process cannot proceed. Here is how your signer can correct the information:
Click on the "Declare mismatch" button and specify the necessary changes.
You, the request sender, will receive an email to update the information.
Once corrected, your signer will be notified and can restart the process.
Important: For security reasons, your signer cannot make changes to the data directly. Ensure that the declared names provided by you match exactly as written in your signer's identity document chosen for the verification process of the QES.
When setting up your request, in the "Security Level" step, you must then select the "Qualified Electronic Signature" level.
With the Qualified Electronic Signature, all signers will be subject to the same signature level; it's not possible to define different levels.
With the Qualified Electronic Signature, signers can not sign with the "Draw signature" option or upload their signature image.
Once you've selected the right signature level, you can finalize the signature request by clicking on "Send."
Explore the necessary conditions for sending the request
To validate sending your signature request with Qualified Electronic Signature, you need to:
Order your signers (only if you have multiple signers): they should be ranked in the order in which you want the document to be signed,
Add only one signature field per signer per document,
Have provided the signers' phone numbers.
The signature request can only be sent if all three conditions mentioned above are met.
Note: For Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES), the audit trail creation is not legally mandatory and is not available on Yousign.
Using QES by Credits (Monthly Plan)
With a Yousign PLUS monthly plan or higher, you can purchase QES by credits. Each credit allows up to three identification attempts per signer.
If the signer fails all three attempts, the credit is used up, and you’ll need to buy a new one for an additional 3 attempts per credit.
Important: Unused attempts from a QES credit cannot be transferred to another credit. This ensures that each QES credit is tied to a specific set of identification attempts (3).