Degree Verification Delayed at the University: What to Do Next

Reviewed on: 2026-06-12.

Faizan got a job offer from a firm in Bengaluru conditional on a background check. The check agency emailed his university's verification cell to confirm his degree. Weeks passed. The agency marked his case “pending, awaiting institution response”, his joining date slipped, and the offer began to wobble. The university was not refusing. It was simply not replying to a third party it felt no urgency to serve.

If this is you, the delay is rarely about doubt over your degree. It is about a verification request sitting in a queue no one is chasing. Your fastest moves are to give the verifier a digital, self-verifiable copy of your degree, to push the university registrar to respond, and, because a public university is a public authority, to file an RTI for the status and movement of the verification file. RTI does not perform the verification, but a pending RTI on the same file usually moves it.

This guide is about third-party verification of your degree stalling. If you never received the degree, see convocation certificate missing. If it has a name error, see degree certificate spelling correction.

You do not always have to wait for the university to answer the verifier. Often you can hand the verifier a copy they can check themselves.

• National Academic Depository (nad.gov.in): if your university has uploaded your degree, a verifier can confirm it directly. This sidesteps the manual verification cell entirely.
• DigiLocker: a degree issued into DigiLocker is a self-verifiable digital document. Share it with the employer or agency.
• University online verification portal: many universities now run their own verification service for a fee. Point the verifier to it.

Send the verifier the digital link and ask if it satisfies their requirement. Many background checks accept a NAD or DigiLocker confirmation and the manual delay becomes irrelevant.

When the verifier insists on a direct institutional reply, make the registrar's office the target, not the clerk handling the queue.

1. Write to the registrar and the verification cell, quoting your enrolment number, course, year and the verifier's reference number.
2. Attach the verifier's pending request so the university sees a real consequence: a job or admission held up.
3. Ask for the verification to be completed within a stated reasonable time and confirmed to the verifier.
4. Copy the verifier on your follow-up so both sides see the same trail.
5. If the cell demands a fee you already paid or a document you already sent, ask for that demand in writing.

A public university holds the verification request, the file noting and the dispatch of the reply. These are records under the RTI Act, 2005. You are not asking the PIO to verify your degree. You are asking for the status of the file, which creates pressure and a paper trail.

To: The Public Information Officer, [University name]
[Examination / Verification Cell]

Subject: Application under the RTI Act, 2005 regarding a pending degree
verification request

For Enrolment No. [number], [course], passed in [year]; verification
request from [verifier name], reference [number], dated [date]:

1. Please state whether the said verification request has been received,
   and the date of receipt.
2. Please provide the present status and the date-wise movement of the
   verification file.
3. Please state the standard timeline this university follows for
   responding to a degree verification request.
4. Please state the fee, if any, for verification, and whether it has
   been received in my case.
5. If the verification has been completed, please provide the date and
   mode on which the reply was sent to the verifier.

I enclose the application fee of Rs 10 by [mode].

[Name, address, mobile, email, date]

If the RTI reply shows the request was never received, the gap is on the verifier's side, and you redirect your push there. If it shows the request is sitting unactioned, you have proof of institutional delay for your representation to the registrar.

The verifier, an employer, a background-check company or a foreign credential service, is usually not a public authority, so you cannot RTI them. Your RTI lever works only on the public university that holds the degree records. Use the digital-degree route to satisfy a private verifier directly, and use RTI to unstick the public university's response. For overseas evaluations, the agency may also require an attestation chain; sort that separately, but do not let it disguise a plain university delay.

• Waiting passively when a NAD or DigiLocker copy could satisfy the verifier now.
• Chasing a junior clerk instead of writing to the registrar with the verifier's request attached.
• Not copying the verifier, so the two sides never see the same trail.
• Trying to RTI a private employer or background-check firm, which is outside the Act.
• Letting a joining or admission deadline pass without escalating in writing.

• Convocation certificate missing
• Degree certificate spelling correction
• Background verification stuck because a university is not replying
• Practical Guides hub

See how to file RTI online and first and second appeals.

Often yes. If your degree is on the National Academic Depository or DigiLocker, the verifier can confirm it directly. Send them the digital link and ask if it satisfies their check.

Push the university registrar, attaching the verifier's pending request. The university holds the records and must respond. You cannot RTI the private verifier.

No. RTI gives you the status and movement of the verification file. A pending RTI on the same file usually pushes the cell to act and gives you proof of the delay.

Then the gap is on the verifier's side. Get them to resend to the correct cell, and use your RTI reply showing non-receipt to redirect the chase.

Write to the registrar with the verifier's request and your joining deadline attached, ask for time-bound action, and copy the verifier. Offer the digital-degree route as a faster alternative.

Many universities charge a verification fee. Check the university portal, and if you have already paid, ask in writing or by RTI for confirmation that the fee was received so it is not used as an excuse for delay.

Download the degree verification delay checklist (PDF).