Artifact Signing Identity Validation stuck "In Progress" for EU organization (Netherlands VOF)

Question

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to set up Artifact Signing (formerly Trusted Signing) to sign a Windows app, but my identity validation has been stuck on "In Progress" for days with no movement at all.

I run a small Dutch VOF and both my billing account and identity validation are tied to that organization. I already checked the basics before posting. Billing account name, address, and VAT number all match my official business registration. I also found and fixed a small issue where the house number was accidentally placed on a separate address line. I went through the identity validation fields (org name, address, city, postal code, emails) and everything looks correct.

Answer 1

For an EU organization, Artifact Signing Public Trust is supported, so a Netherlands-based organization is within the supported geography.

If identity validation is stuck in In Progress for days, the supported actions are:

1. Check whether the primary contact email received a verification email and confirm the link was completed within 7 days.
   • If the link was missed or expired, create a new identity validation request.
2. If no verification email was received:
   • Check Junk/Spam.
   • Confirm the mailbox accepts messages from external senders.
   • Confirm messages containing links are not being filtered.
   • Ask the email administrator to verify that firewall, security, or email filtering policies are not blocking the message.
   • If the email still cannot be found, delete the current identity validation request and submit a new one.
3. Do not create multiple in-progress requests for the same entity to try to speed it up. That does not help, and identity validation requests cannot be expedited.
4. If the request remains stuck after the email checks, contact Azure Support or post on Microsoft Q&A with the artifact-signing tag.

If deleting and recreating the request is needed, note the impact:

• An identity validation in In Progress state cannot be deleted.
• Deleting an identity validation that is not in In Progress stops renewal of linked certificate profiles across all accounts in the subscription where that identity validation was used, which impacts signing.
• Deleted identity validation requests cannot be recovered.

Also verify role requirements in the portal:

• Artifact Signing Identity Verifier is required to create or manage identity validation.
• This role is available only in the Azure portal.

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References:

• Quickstart: Set up Artifact Signing
• Artifact Signing FAQ
• Renew or delete Artifact Signing Identity Validations
• Artifact Signing resources and roles