Why the Exchange Keeps Asking for Face Verification After KYC

Face verification is the check that turns up after identity verification has already gone through. At login, at a withdrawal or before a trade, the platform asks for a live image of your face and compares it with the photo on the ID you submitted when you were verified. Binance’s English help article “What is Face Verification and How to Complete It Successfully?” puts it in one sentence:

Face verification will compare a real-time image of your face with the image on your ID documents submitted for Identity Verification.

So the reason it keeps asking after KYC is that KYC is what gave it something to compare against. An account that never uploaded an ID would leave the check with nothing on file. That reading is ours; the help page does not put it that way.

The same page gives three purposes for the step, “Prevent identity fraud. Ensure account security. Comply with regulations.”, and it is blunt about opting out: “Please note that facial verification is mandatory and cannot be removed or bypassed.” (English edition, published 2025-10-22, read 29 October 2026.)

This piece covers one situation. You passed verification a while ago, you are trying to move funds out, and a face scan appears. Being told to resubmit your documents from scratch is a different event, covered in When Verification Comes Back. A black camera screen or a nod that never registers is a capture problem, and the face verification troubleshooting guide sorts those by what the screen shows.

The photo on file is as old as your ID

Two images go into the comparison: the one the camera takes now, and the one on the ID you uploaded. You can retake the first as often as you like. The second has not changed since the day you submitted it.

The help page lists five reasons a check fails, word for word:

1. Poor lighting.
2. Low camera quality.
3. Wearing glasses, hats, or masks.
4. ID photo and live face look significantly different.
5. Attempting to use someone else’s face or ID.

The fourth is the one we would look at first. A brighter room or taking your glasses off deals with the first three, and the fifth should never apply to you. The fourth is the only one you cannot fix by adjusting anything in front of the camera.

An ID photo may have been taken years ago, and your hair or weight may have changed since. That is our inference: the page does not say what counts as “significantly different”, and it sets no threshold. If you have since been issued a new document, the re-verification article linked above is where to check whether yours is a case you can update yourself.

Turning your head or blinking is a separate test. The checklist reads: “Follow On-Screen Prompts: Be ready to follow instructions such as turning your head slowly or blinking when requested.” As we read it, that part checks that a live face is actually present, which is a different question from whether it resembles your ID. How that first question gets answered is in Liveness Check Failed?, so it is not repeated here.

When it shows up: the page says “may”

You may be required to complete facial identification when attempting to access your account or proceed with certain features like trading, withdrawals, redeeming rewards and increasing deposit limits.

Account access, trading, withdrawals, rewards, deposit limits. The sentence names where the check can appear and stops there. There is no amount, no frequency, nothing that tells you which withdrawal will trigger it. The platform does not publish those rules and we do not know them; we have not seen a single claim of the “above X you will be scanned” kind that cites an official source.

The English page’s title carries a “Binance MFA” label. On our reading, that files the face check alongside the other sign-in factors rather than under KYC. A Reddit thread that ranks for this search quotes a support reply along the same lines: “Binance uses MFA, and face verification is one of the possible factors”. We saw that line only in a search snippet and did not open the thread, so treat it as one user’s report, not a platform statement.

What the “remove facial verification” videos actually remove

Search for why the app keeps asking for a face scan and the first page is mostly videos titled something like “How to remove facial verification”. Their snippets describe going to Security, tapping Passkeys & Biometrics, and deleting.

That collides head-on with the help page: “facial verification is mandatory and cannot be removed or bypassed.”

Our inference is that those videos delete a passkey or biometric login registered on the device, which is not the step where the platform matches your face to your ID. Both involve your face and the names overlap, so they are easy to mistake for one another. We drew this from the snippets alone, did not watch every video, and give no deletion steps here. What passkeys and biometric sign-in are, and how they get set up, is in Binance 2FA and Passkeys.

The other workaround people reach for is having a relative do the scan. The help page shuts that down: “Attempting to bypass the verification by sharing an account with family members or individuals other than yourself, etc. is considered a violation of our terms and conditions.” Nothing on this site explains how to skip, hand off or put off the check.

Someone else in the frame, and withdrawals on hold

Someone walking past behind you, or a child leaning in to look, can end up in the shot. The English help article on this case opens with a general rule that the Chinese edition of the same page does not spell out:

Your account withdrawal function will be suspended if you fail to pass the face verification. For example, there were other people captured during the face verification process.

To get withdrawals back, “you need to submit a video with all the people that appeared in the face verification to the Customer Service team to verify your request.” The video has to cover five things, in the page’s words:

1. Today’s date;
2. The amount and crypto you wish to withdraw;
3. A clear confirmation that you authorize this withdrawal;
4. A statement of your purpose;
5. Your Binance account email address/phone number.

The page then sets out how the video and the submission must look:

• “Everyone needs to show their faces clearly and hold up their ID documents”.
• “Everyone speaks a statement into the camera.” Sample wording is given for the account holder and for the other people.
• For anyone who does not speak English: “please ensure that the written statement you are holding is in English”, then explain the content in your own language.
• If they cannot be in the same place, “you can record a video with them via a video call”, and “Please ensure that everyone appears on the same screen at the same time.”
• “Submit the video with pictures of you and the other people’s ID card/driver’s license/passport shown in the video.”
• “Please do not put watermarks on your videos and do not edit your videos.”
• “Take a selfie alone and submit it to our team.”

The awkward sentence is this one: “due to security reasons, we’re unable to reveal any photos or information that can identify a person.” You will not be shown who was picked up. Working out who was in the room that day is left to you, which is our reading of what that sentence means in practice.

The page applies the same process to other features, naming “buying NFTs or publishing P2P ads”. A video you record and send is a different thing from a support agent calling you on camera; Video KYC Verification on an Exchange separates the two.

When it keeps failing, the page gives one route

For a failed check, the help page has one sentence: “If verification fails, please contact Binance customer support for further assistance.” It mentions no appeal form and no alternative way to verify. Before another attempt, go back through the five failure reasons above; the checklist ends on a reminder worth taking literally: “Make sure you are the account owner when completing facial verification”.

Scan only inside an app or website you opened yourself. A link asking for a selfie is on no route these pages describe.

Writing to support? Send a screenshot of the on-screen wording rather than “it won’t pass” (our suggestion, not the page’s).