Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates

The extended validation (EV) SSL certificate requires an extended validation of the business. It validates domain ownership and organization information, plus the legal existence of the organization. It also validates that the organization is aware of the SSL certificate request and approves it.

The validation requires documentation to certify the company identity, plus a set of additional steps and checks:

• Verifying the legal, physical and operational existence of the entity;
• Verifying that the identity of the entity matches official records;
• Verifying that the entity has exclusive right to use the domain specified in the EV SSL certificate, and;
• Verifying that the entity has properly authorized the issuance of the EV SSL certificate.

EV SSL certificates are available for all types of businesses, including government entities, and both: incorporated and unincorporated businesses. A second set of guidelines, the EV SSL Certificate Guidelines, specify the criteria under which a CA needs to be successfully audited before issuing EV SSL Certificates. The audits are repeated yearly to ensure the integrity of the issuance process.

The order can take from a few days to a few weeks, due to the extended validation process.

The Extended Validation SSL Certificates are generally identified with a green address bar in the browser containing the company name.