For graduates, applicants and professionals in the United States
In the US, proof of your degree is somebody else's lookup. Get your own.
A background screener runs a check, sees a result and moves on. You never hold that result. In 2026 ProofSnap seals your diploma, transcript and the verification page into one certified package, delivered in 24 hours with a certification template a qualified person can sign.
Diploma, transcript and letters sealed exactly as you send them
The verification screen captured, with network evidence
Qualified eIDAS timestamp and Bitcoin anchor
A signed certification template for a US filing, included
Evidence report
Degree documents, sealed record
Included as a template
rule_902_certification.pdf, a Federal Rules of Evidence 902(13) and 902(14) declaration with every technical fact filled in and the declarant fields left blank for a qualified person to complete and sign.
Written by Radim Motycka, founder and lead engineer of ProofSnap, who builds the hashing, signing and timestamping pipeline described on this page.
What counts as proof of a degree in the United States?
Screeners accept an official transcript, a registrar letter or a clearinghouse lookup paid for by the employer. None of those leaves you holding anything durable. ProofSnap seals your diploma, transcript and verification screen into one certified package in 2026, delivered in 24 hours for $59.99.
How degree checking actually works here
Four things about US degree checks that decide whether your own copy is worth keeping.
The lookup belongs to the employer
Verification through the national clearinghouse route is priced per check and paid by whoever is screening you. The answer goes to them, on the day they paid for it, and the next employer pays again.
The link expires, the diploma does not
Universities issuing certified electronic diplomas send an invitation link by email. The University of Washington tells graduates that link expires after 14 days, and other registrars publish the same rule. The credential survives. The link that delivers it does not.
Closed schools break the chain
When an institution closes, what happens to the records depends on the state: some states take custody, some route them to a successor or a private custodian, and the federal Department of Education keeps none of them. Anything you sealed in advance still checks out while you find out which case you are in.
Screeners distrust loose PDFs, and they are right to
An unofficial PDF or a screenshot carries no provable date and no integrity guarantee. A sealed package carries both, which changes the conversation from trust me to check it for yourself.
How it works
One payment, one upload, one finished package. No account to create and nothing to install.
Pay and upload
Pay the one-time fee of $59.99. A secure upload page opens straight after payment for your diploma, transcript and any award or completion letters.
Send the verification link
If your school offers an electronic diploma link, a registrar verification page or a clearinghouse confirmation you can open, send it while it is live.
We capture and seal
We capture the verification screen with its HTML and network evidence, hash every file, sign the manifest, add a qualified eIDAS timestamp and anchor it in Bitcoin.
You get the package
Within 24 hours you receive one ZIP with a signed manifest inside, your documents in a files/ folder and the sealing files beside it, including the certification template with every technical fact already filled in.
That certification is a template, not a claim. The rule requires it to be signed by a qualified person, so the declarant fields are left blank for that person to complete and sign under penalty of perjury.
What is inside the package
One ZIP. Machine-readable proof for an expert, a plain PDF for everyone else, and every document you send sits in a files/ folder of its own.
files/diploma.pdfyour diploma, byte for byte
files/transcript.pdfyour transcript, unchanged
files/good_standing_letter.pdfand anything else you send, under its own name
files/web_verification_capture.zipthe official verification page, sealed: screenshot, HTML, DNS, TLS, headers, UTC time
provenance_certificate.pdfthe human-readable report
chain_of_custody.jsonevery step, in order
forensic_log.jsontamper-evident hash chain
manifest.jsonSHA-256 of every file
manifest.sigRSA signature over the manifest
publickey.pemthe key needed to check that signature
manifest.json.tsreIDAS qualified timestamp
eidas_validation.jsondata to validate it years later
manifest.json.otsBitcoin anchor
verification/verify.shoffline check on macOS and Linux
verification/verify.ps1the same check on Windows
verification/VERIFICATION_GUIDE.txthow to run it, in plain language
rule_902_certification.pdfthe declaration template, declarant fields left blank
The package carries both timestamps. Everything you send sits in files/, under its own name, so a package with more documents simply contains more files.
The capture of the official screen travels as its own sealed package inside the ZIP, with its own manifest and chain of custody. Two independent layers, no clashing file names, and each layer can be checked on its own.
Your diploma, transcript and letters preserved unchanged
A screenshot and the HTML of the verification screen you pointed us at
DNS, TLS and HTTP headers recorded at the moment of capture
A SHA-256 manifest signed with a per-package RSA key
A qualified eIDAS timestamp with long-term validation data
A Bitcoin OpenTimestamps anchor, independent of us and of the timestamp authority
A certification template for a declarant to complete, for use in a US filing
1Manifest signature valid
2All file hashes match
3Qualified timestamp valid, 2026-09-13 10:22 UTC
4Bitcoin anchor present, deep check with the ots client
Under those rules a record can be authenticated by a written certification rather than by a witness in the room. Self-authentication covers authenticity only, and whether to use that route is your lawyer's call.
What this is, stated plainly
Four things the package proves, each of them checkable by the person you send it to.
That your documents existed in exactly this form no later than the timestamp
That the verification page, as it was served to the capture from this domain, showed this content on this date
That nothing in the package has been altered since it was sealed
That the package can be authenticated by certification rather than by calling a witness
What proof of a degree costs in the US in 2026
Every other line in this table is a step in someone else's process. The last line is the record you keep.
| Route | Published price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Clearinghouse degree lookup, employer side | priced per check, paid by the employer | A confirmation for the party who paid, on the day they paid. |
| Official transcript from the registrar | set by the school | The strongest single document. Order it when the registrar still exists. |
| Apostille on a diploma | state fee per document, notarisation usually first | Legalisation for use in countries party to the Hague Apostille Convention, on paper. |
| Credential evaluation, WES and similar | from $118 plus delivery | An equivalence report for an institution or an employer that asked for one. |
| ProofSnap certified package | $59.99 | Your documents and the verification screen, sealed, dated, signed and verifiable offline by anyone. |
Prices are the providers' published figures, checked in September 2026. Each route answers a different question. This one answers the question about your own documents: what you hold, unchanged, proved as of a date you can point to.
US degree documents certification
Delivered within 24 hours of receiving your files, one flat fee, no subscription
Nothing recurring, and nothing to install.
- Every document you send, preserved byte for byte inside the package
- A capture of the official verification screen or register record, when your credential has one
- SHA-256 for every file and an RSA-signed manifest
- A qualified eIDAS timestamp and a Bitcoin OpenTimestamps anchor
- A chain of custody document recording every step, and the evidence report as a readable PDF
- Verification scripts that check the hashes, the signature and the timestamp offline, so the recipient never has to call us
- An email delivery note when the package is ready
The upload page opens as soon as payment goes through. Questions first? Write to support@getproofsnap.com.
Proof of degree in the US, answered
The extension
Would you rather do it yourself?
The extension does the same job on your own machine: certify your documents locally and capture the verification screen yourself, as often as you need it.
The side panel holds the File Certifier, the evidence language and the qualified timestamp toggle.
File Certification in the extension
Drop your diploma, transcript and any completion letters into the panel and seal them in one package: SHA-256 for every file, a signed manifest, a chain of custody document and a report PDF. One by one, or all of them in a single combined package.
How File Certification worksAdd an eIDAS SnapPack
A qualified electronic timestamp bound to your sealed package, issued by Disig a.s., whose timestamping service is listed as qualified on the EU Trusted List. Under Article 41(2) of the eIDAS Regulation it enjoys, in proceedings in the European Union and the EEA, the presumption of the accuracy of the date and time it indicates and of the integrity of the data it is bound to.
$6.99
1 stamp
$24.99
5 stamps
$49.99
10 stamps
Bought inside the extension as a one-time purchase, with no auto-renewal. Credits stay on your account.
Free to install. The package on this page exists for people who would rather hand the job over and receive a finished file.