Supported document type
Detect tampered and deepfake Form I-20
A Form I-20 is the Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status that a SEVIS-certified US school issues to an admitted international student, and it is the document behind every F-1 and M-1 visa application. It records the SEVIS identification number, the program, the cost of attendance, the student's funding, and the program dates, and fraud stretches the program end date to justify a longer stay or inflates the funding to clear the financial bar.
API slug: form_i20
What a genuine form I-20 contains
The form carries the school's SEVIS school code and the student's SEVIS ID in the letter-N plus ten digits pattern, along with the education level, major, program start and end dates, and English proficiency. The cost-of-attendance table estimates tuition, living costs, and dependents' costs, and the funding section must show sources that together cover the total.
A designated school official signs the form, and the student countersigns an acknowledgement; travel reentry requires a DSO signature dated within the last twelve months. I-20s are generated through SEVIS and reissued whenever details change, so a student may legitimately hold several editions, and the newest program dates govern the case.
How form I-20 forgeries are made
SEVIS ID structure
The student identifier follows the letter-N plus ten digits pattern, and an identifier that breaks it was typed by hand. The same SEVIS ID should match the student's visa records elsewhere in the file.
Funding coverage arithmetic
The funding lines must sum to at least the first year's total cost of attendance. Support that falls short, or sources that land on the total with implausibly round figures, deserve scrutiny before approval.
Program date edits
Stretching the program end date is the residence-fraud move. Date substitutions inside the printed table leave font-pass and baseline traces, and an end date far beyond the education level's normal length is incoherent.
Signature currency
The DSO signature must be present and, for travel use, dated within the last twelve months. An unsigned, photocopied, or stale signature block fails the document's own rules for the use claimed.
Edition currency
Reissued I-20s supersede their predecessors, so a case that pairs current financial evidence with superseded program dates is mixing editions and should be reconciled before any decision.
What TamperCheck checks on a form I-20
TamperCheck runs 200+ forensic checks across three layers and returns a risk score from 0 to 100 with plain-English findings tied to specific regions of the document. These three carry the most weight on this document class.
Signature forgery analysis
Signature regions are assessed for ink consistency and for how the stroke sits on the page, which distinguishes a genuine pen stroke from a pasted image of one.
Date and validity consistency
Issue, expiry, and period dates are checked against one another and against the file's own creation metadata, which catches backdating and validity extension.
Reference and document number checks
Document, account, and reference numbers are checked for issuer format conformance and against every other place the same value appears on the page.
And many more checks
The three above are the layers that carry the most weight on a form I-20. Every upload runs the full suite of 200+ checks regardless of document class, spanning file structure and metadata, pixel-level forensics, font and text rendering, optical and print characteristics, provenance signals, AI-generation signatures, and many more checks.
Who verifies a form I-20, and why
University DSOs, visa officers, and SEVP compliance teams. In each case the document is being used to unlock money, access, or a legal status, which is exactly what makes it worth forging.
How to verify a form I-20 in 4 steps
Collect the latest edition
Ask for the most recent I-20 and any earlier editions, since reissued forms supersede old dates and the newest program dates govern the case.
Check the SEVIS ID
Confirm the identifier follows the letter-N plus ten digits pattern and matches the student's visa documents.
Weigh funding against costs
Sum the funding sources and compare them against the first year's total cost of attendance. Shortfalls and suspiciously round coverage both deserve questions.
Run a forensic check on the file
Date and funding edits are small-region work that manual review struggles with. TamperCheck runs 200+ forensic checks over the SEVIS ID, the funding arithmetic, and the program dates, returning a risk score from 0 to 100 with findings tied to specific regions of the image.
Frequently asked questions
What is a SEVIS ID on the I-20?
It is the student's identifier in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, printed in the letter-N plus ten digits pattern near the top of the form. The same identifier appears on the visa foil and related records, which makes it the natural cross-document anchor.
Why did the student hand me several I-20s?
Schools reissue the form whenever the program, funding, or level changes, and each reissue supersedes the last. The newest edition's program dates govern, and a file that mixes current financials with superseded dates needs reconciliation.
Does the DSO signature on an I-20 expire?
For travel reentry the DSO signature must be dated within the last twelve months, so students on long programs need travel signatures renewed. An unsigned or photocopied signature block fails the form's own rules for the use claimed.
How does TamperCheck verify a Form I-20?
TamperCheck validates the SEVIS ID structure, recomputes the funding coverage against the cost table, and inspects the program dates for localised edits. Uploads are processed ephemerally and not stored, and the verdict arrives within seconds as a risk score from 0 to 100.
TamperCheck analyses form i-20 uploads with a hybrid forensic and AI pipeline tuned for this document class. Upload endpoints accept PDF and common image formats; class is inferred automatically. See the API documentation for authentication, async jobs, and webhooks.