Every conveyancer has had the meeting: the client arrives for their verification of identity clutching a driver licence and nothing else, and asks whether that "counts". The answer lives in the VOI Standard — Schedule 8 of the ARNECC Model Participation Rules — which organises acceptable identity documents into six categories. Know the categories cold and the awkward meeting disappears: you tell the client exactly what to bring before they get in the car. This guide walks through all six, the rule that decides which one applies, and the document details that most often trip a check up.
What the VOI Standard actually requires
Before the categories mean anything, three baseline requirements set the scene. Under the Standard, a VOI is a face-to-face, in-person interview. The person being verified attends in person, and the verifier:
- Sights original documents — not photocopies, not scans, not a photo of a licence on the client's phone; and
- Confirms the person is a reasonable likeness to the photographs in the photographic documents produced.
That combination — original documents plus a live comparison of the face in front of you against the photo in your hand — is the whole point of the exercise. A category is only satisfied when every document in it is produced as an original at that interview.
The rule that decides everything: highest category first
This is the part practitioners most often get wrong, so it deserves its own heading. The Standard requires you to use the highest category the person can satisfy. The categories are a hierarchy, not a menu. If your client holds an Australian passport and an Australian driver licence, they satisfy Category 1 — and Category 1 is the category you must use. You cannot slide down to Category 3 because the client left their passport at home and coming back is inconvenient, and you cannot accept an Identifier Declaration from someone who simply hasn't dug their birth certificate out of the filing cabinet. Convenience is not a reason to drop a category; genuinely not holding the higher category's documents is.
Practical takeaway: the question to ask a client before the meeting isn't "what ID do you have on you?" — it's "what ID do you hold at all?" The documents they possess determine the category; the meeting just proves it.
The six categories at a glance
Categories 1 to 5 apply to Australian citizens and residents. Category 6 exists solely for foreign persons. Here is the full table:
| Category | Who it's for | Documents required (all originals, sighted in person) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Citizens / residents | Australian passport (or ImmiCard) plus Australian driver licence or photo card |
| 2 | Citizens / residents | Passport (or ImmiCard) plus birth, citizenship or descent certificate plus Medicare, Centrelink or DVA card |
| 3 | Citizens / residents | Driver licence or photo card plus birth, citizenship or descent certificate plus Medicare, Centrelink or DVA card |
| 4(a) | Citizens / residents | Passport (or ImmiCard) plus another government-issued photographic identity document |
| 4(b) | Citizens / residents | Passport plus full birth certificate plus another government-issued identity document |
| 5(a) | Citizens / residents | Identifier Declaration plus birth, citizenship or descent certificate plus Medicare, Centrelink or DVA card |
| 5(b) | Citizens / residents | Identifier Declaration by a declarant from the prescribed occupation list plus Medicare, Centrelink or DVA card |
| 6(a) | Foreign persons only | Foreign passport plus another government-issued photographic identity document |
| 6(b) | Foreign persons only | Foreign passport plus full birth certificate plus another government-issued identity document |
Categories 1 to 3: the everyday combinations
Category 1 — passport plus licence
Category 1 is the combination you'll see in the overwhelming majority of checks: an Australian passport (or ImmiCard) together with an Australian driver licence or photo card. Two photographic documents, both government-issued, both carrying the person's face for your likeness comparison. If a client holds both documents, this is their category — full stop.
Category 2 — passport, but no licence
Category 2 covers the client who has a passport but doesn't drive and holds no photo card. It requires the passport (or ImmiCard) plus a birth, citizenship or descent certificate plus a Medicare, Centrelink or DVA card. Notice the trade: losing one photographic document means adding two non-photographic ones. That pattern — fewer photos, more paper — runs through the whole hierarchy.
Category 3 — licence, but no passport
Category 3 is the mirror image: a driver licence or photo card, a birth, citizenship or descent certificate, and a Medicare, Centrelink or DVA card. This is the category for the many Australians who have never held a passport or whose passport has long expired. It's also where the "I only brought my licence" client usually lands once they come back with the other two documents — the licence alone is never enough.
Category 4: passport plus another government photo ID
Category 4 handles the client whose second document isn't a driver licence or photo card. Under 4(a), the passport (or ImmiCard) is paired with another government-issued photographic identity document. Under 4(b), the passport is paired with a full birth certificate plus another government-issued identity document. It's a less common category in practice, but worth knowing — it saves a check that would otherwise stall when a client's second photo ID isn't one of the Category 1 documents.
Category 5: when there's no photo ID at all
Some people genuinely hold no photographic identity documents. Category 5 exists for them, and it substitutes a person for a photo: an Identifier Declaration — a declaration by someone who knows the person and can vouch for their identity.
- Category 5(a): an Identifier Declaration plus a birth, citizenship or descent certificate plus a Medicare, Centrelink or DVA card.
- Category 5(b): an Identifier Declaration made by a declarant from the prescribed occupation list plus a Medicare, Centrelink or DVA card.
The prescribed declarant occupations for 5(b) are: Australian Legal Practitioner, Bank Manager, Community Leader, Court Officer, Medical Doctor, Land Council Officeholder, Licensed Conveyancer, Local Government Officeholder, Nurse, Public Servant and Police Officer. Because a declarant from that list carries more weight, 5(b) needs one fewer supporting document than 5(a).
Category 5 is a last resort, not a shortcut — remember the highest-category rule. It applies only when the person genuinely cannot satisfy Categories 1 through 4.
Category 6: foreign persons
Category 6 is reserved for foreign persons, and it requires a foreign passport specifically. This trips people up in both directions. A client who holds an Australian passport is not a Category 6 candidate no matter where they live or were born — they belong in Categories 1 to 5. And a foreign purchaser can't be squeezed into Categories 1 to 5 built around Australian documents; Category 6 is their path:
- Category 6(a): foreign passport plus another government-issued photographic identity document.
- Category 6(b): foreign passport plus full birth certificate plus another government-issued identity document.
The details that invalidate an otherwise-correct check
Expired documents
Documents must generally be current. It's easy to forget that Medicare, Centrelink and DVA cards expire — check the date on the card, not just the name. An out-of-date card doesn't complete a category. The Standard contains narrow exceptions to the currency requirement, but the safe working rule is simple: in date, or it doesn't count.
The DVA Veteran Card photo problem
Watch out: current DVA Veteran Cards carry no photograph. They can still fill the Medicare/Centrelink/DVA slot in Categories 2, 3 and 5 — but they cannot serve as a photographic identity document anywhere a photo is required. Don't count one toward your likeness comparison.
Names that don't match
Marriage, divorce, anglicised names, formal changes of name — mismatches between documents are common, and they can't just be waved through. Where the name on one document differs from another (a birth certificate in a maiden name alongside a licence in a married name, say), you need supporting evidence that connects them, such as a marriage certificate or change-of-name certificate. Ask about name history before the meeting, so the client brings the linking document the first time.
How long does a VOI last?
A completed VOI supports a conveyancing transaction for two years from the date of the interview. Verify a client in August 2026 and that VOI can stand behind their transactions until August 2028 — after which a fresh face-to-face check is needed. For firms with repeat clients, tracking those expiry dates is the difference between reusing a valid VOI and unknowingly relying on a lapsed one. (If you're also verifying the same client for AML/CTF purposes, see our piece on covering VOI and the AML identity check in one meeting.)
A pre-meeting checklist that prevents repeat visits
Pulling it together, here's what to ask every client before they come in:
- Do you hold a current Australian passport or ImmiCard? A current driver licence or photo card? (Both → Category 1.)
- If only one of those: bring it, plus your birth/citizenship/descent certificate and a current Medicare, Centrelink or DVA card (Category 2 or 3), or another government-issued photo ID (Category 4).
- No photo ID at all? Talk to us first — an Identifier Declaration under Category 5 needs setting up before the meeting.
- Foreign person? Bring your foreign passport plus a second government-issued document (Category 6).
- Ever changed your name? Bring the marriage or change-of-name certificate too.
- Everything must be an original, and generally current.
Five minutes on the phone, and the interview itself becomes what it should be: sight the originals, confirm the likeness, record it, done.
Where CompliDesk fits
The categories aren't conceptually hard — but applying them correctly, every time, under time pressure, with the record to prove it, is where firms slip. CompliDesk's VOI feature is a guided face-to-face wizard: you enter the documents the client has produced, and it works out the highest category they satisfy — so the highest-category rule is enforced by the workflow rather than by memory. Along the way it captures images of the documents and flags issues, and at the end it produces a signed VOI certificate PDF plus a one-file examination pack for the file. It then tracks the two-year currency of every VOI and reminds you before one lapses. Pricing is $10 per completed check — no separate VOI subscription, buy checks as you need them.
To be clear about what it is: CompliDesk VOI is a tool for recording a face-to-face verification properly. It is not remote VOI, it doesn't run DVS document verification, and it makes no biometric claims — you conduct the interview; CompliDesk makes sure it's captured, categorised and retrievable.
Run your next VOI with the categories built in.
CompliDesk's guided VOI wizard works out the highest category from the documents in front of you, captures the images, and produces a signed certificate and examination pack. $10 per completed check — buy them as you need them.
Get Started FreeRelated reading: Verification of identity — the complete guide for conveyancers · One meeting, both identity checks: VOI and AML without the double-up · How VOI works in CompliDesk · CompliDesk for conveyancers
This article is general information about the ARNECC VOI Standard, not legal advice. Requirements can vary between jurisdictions and change over time — check the current Model Participation Rules for your state or territory, and seek advice on your specific circumstances.