Meta business verification for WhatsApp: what it is, what you need and how long it takes

What business verification is

Business verification is done in Meta Business Suite. Meta uses it to confirm that your business portfolio, the collection of Facebook Pages, Instagram accounts, ad accounts and other business assets you manage, belongs to a legitimate business or organisation.

Meta says it checks two things. First, that your business is a legal entity: it must be registered with local authorities and have an official phone number or postal address. Second, that you are authorised to represent it: you must be able to receive a verification code sent to your business's phone number or email address, or verify the portfolio's website domain.

Meta is clear that this is not the same as Meta Verified for businesses, and it does not give you a verified badge on its own.

Why a WhatsApp API user needs it

Meta says a business starts with limits, and that completing one of three "scaling paths" raises them. Meta's Help Centre sets the before and after side by side:

1. Before: you can start conversations with 250 unique customers every 24 hours per business portfolio, and register up to two phone numbers. You can answer customer-initiated conversations without a limit.
2. After: 2,000 unique customers every 24 hours, and up to 20 phone numbers. You can ask to show your business name to customers in chats (the name is still reviewed), and you become eligible to apply for an official business account, the tick.

Meta's developer documentation adds that the limit belongs to the whole business portfolio and is shared by every number in it, and that after you reach 2,000 the limit can rise by itself, to 10,000, then 100,000, then unlimited, when your messages are high quality and you have used at least half of your current limit in the last 7 days. Meta says that rise happens within 6 hours of meeting those conditions.

You can start without verifying. The 250 limit applies to messages you start; Meta says there is no limit on replying to customers who write first.

The three ways to scale

Meta says you need only one of these:

1. Partner-led business verification. A solution partner submits your business details and documents for you. Meta says most requests are decided within minutes, and some take up to 24 hours. It counts for WhatsApp only, not for Meta's other products.
2. Meta business verification. You provide and confirm your business details, prove your connection to the business and submit documents. Meta says a decision can take as little as 10 minutes and as long as 14 working days. This also works across Meta's other products.
3. A record of high-quality messages. See the next section: Meta's two pages describe this path differently.

Partner-led verification is not open to every provider. Meta's developer page says it is only available to approved Select Solution and Premier Solution Partners. VartaAPI is a Meta Tech Provider, not one of those, so with VartaAPI you take the second path, in your own Meta account.

Where Meta's own pages disagree

Meta's developer documentation (updated 21 May 2026) and its Business Help Centre do not describe the third path the same way, and the Help Centre's two WhatsApp pages differ on the tick. Meta does not explain the gaps.

1. The messages path. The Help Centre says it needs a minimum of 1,000 conversations over 30 consecutive days. The developer page says you must send 2,000 delivered messages outside customer service windows to unique WhatsApp numbers within a moving 30-day period, using templates with a high quality rating.
2. The tick. The Help Centre's "Scale your WhatsApp Business account" page says that to be eligible for an official business account you must complete verification by the partner-led or Meta path. Its separate request article, covered in our green tick guide, says verification or a record of high-quality messages.

If you plan to ask for the tick, assume Meta business verification is needed, because the stricter reading is the safe one.

Before you start

1. You must have full control of the business portfolio, the highest permission level. If Security Centre will not open for you, you may not have it.
2. Have your legal business name, address, phone number and website ready. Meta says the details must match your legal business entity exactly.
3. Your website must load and use HTTPS, meaning the address starts with https://. Meta lists a site that fails to load, is not HTTPS, or contains a link that leads to an error as a reason for refusal.
4. If you pay for ads by monthly invoice on a line of credit that you own, Meta says you do not need to submit documents: you fill in the form with your line-of-credit details.

Not every business sees the option. In Security Centre you will see either Start verification or Ineligible for verification. Meta says that if you see Ineligible, you may be contacted from another Meta tool for the product you want, and should follow that email or notice.

The steps

Meta describes these steps on a desktop browser:

1. Open Security Centre in Meta Business Suite and click Start verification.
2. Enter your legal business name, address, phone number and website.
3. Confirm your details. If Meta finds no matching record, choose that your business is not listed, and you may be asked to upload official documents such as a business licence or articles of incorporation.
4. Choose how to confirm your connection to the business: email, phone, text message, WhatsApp message or domain verification. Domain verification proves you own the website by adding a meta tag or a DNS record.
5. Confirm your connection and click Done. You will see that your submission has been received.

Meta says a decision on this path may take up to 14 working days, and that you get a notification when the review is finished. If you edit your business details afterwards, you must complete verification again.

Which documents Meta accepts

The documents must show your business's legal name and its official postal address or phone number. Meta also tells you to cover personal information it does not need, such as a social security number or the local equivalent, if the document includes it. Meta lists these main types:

1. A certificate or articles of incorporation.
2. A business registration or licence document.
3. A government-issued business tax document, such as a tax certificate. Self-filed tax documents are not accepted.
4. A business bank statement.
5. A utility bill, but only to prove the address or phone number. The legal business name must be on it, and Meta says a utility bill is not acceptable for proving the legal name.

Documents must not be expired and must be issued by the relevant authority. Hindi and English are among the languages Meta accepts for the documents themselves; for any other language it asks for an English translation with the official stamp of a translating agency. Meta's list names document types, not Indian ones, so match yours to a category and check the legal name is spelled the same everywhere.

If you choose to get your verification code at an email address, Meta says you may also have to prove you own the website domain.

If Meta refuses

Meta lists these reasons a submission can be refused: false or misleading information, or being suspected of it; trying to claim or verify a business portfolio you do not own or are not authorised to represent; trying to get around Meta's review system; and a website that fails to load, is not HTTPS, or has a link that leads to an error.

Meta says you may be able to appeal. Look in Security Centre, or in the other Meta tool where you started, for the status of your submission. Meta's Help Centre has an article on where to find that status.

If someone submitted for you through partner-led verification and was refused three times, Meta's developer page says you must complete verification on your own.

What VartaAPI does, and what it does not

VartaAPI connects your own number to Meta's official platform, and the business portfolio stays yours. Verification is done by you in Meta's Security Centre, so VartaAPI cannot submit it for you, and does not charge for it. Your dashboard shows your number's quality rating and daily limit, so you can see where you stand on the limits above.

If you have not connected a number yet, start with the official WhatsApp Business API guide. The display name is reviewed once your limits rise: see the display name guide.