Faculty application repeatedly rejected with identical error - verification system issue suspected

[k-yokoe]

Hi everyone,

I have applied for GitHub Education Benefits as Faculty four times,
and all applications have been rejected with the identical billing
information error message, despite carefully following all instructions.

Application History:

• First application: December 24, 2025
• Second application: January 6, 2026
• Third application: January 7, 2026
• Fourth application: January 8, 2026
• Total attempts: 4 (all rejected with identical reason)

Verification Steps Completed:
✓ Two-factor authentication enabled (as required from first rejection)
✓ GitHub user profile completed with full legal name matching documents
✓ GitHub billing information name matches academic affiliation document exactly
✓ Logged out and logged back in before each reapplication
✓ No payment method added (as instructed)

Issue:
The automated verification system consistently fails with the message:
"Please complete your GitHub billing information with your full name
exactly as it appears in your academic affiliation document."

However, I have verified multiple times that the names match precisely.

Hypothesis:
The verification system may have difficulty processing:

1. Non-Latin character names from Japanese institutions
2. Different name ordering conventions (surname-first vs given-name-first)
3. Faculty documents from specific Japanese universities

Request:
Could someone from the GitHub Education team manually review my application
or provide specific guidance on name formatting requirements for Japanese
faculty members? The automated system appears to be incorrectly rejecting
valid applications.