Billing information blocked due to government restrictions — possible false positive, manual review requested

[imanong]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Billing & Payment Issues

Hi everyone,

Hello GitHub Community,

I am experiencing an issue with my personal GitHub account billing information.

When I try to update my billing information, GitHub shows the following message:

“Sorry, you can’t update your billing information at this time. We have determined that the billing information supplied is ineligible for transactions with GitHub due to government restrictions.”

I believe this may be a false positive or an automated screening issue related to my billing address or institution name.

My account is used for personal academic and software development purposes. I am affiliated with Jiangnan University in Wuxi, Jiangsu, China, and I use GitHub mainly for coursework, research, open-source collaboration, and development projects.

To the best of my knowledge, my university is not a sanctioned party or restricted entity for GitHub billing eligibility. The billing address I provided is an official university address:

Jiangnan University
No. 1800 Lihu Avenue
Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122
China

I have already submitted GitHub Support tickets asking for a manual review of the billing eligibility / trade-controls screening result. However, the restriction is still present, and I would like to understand whether anyone has experienced a similar issue and successfully resolved it.

I am not asking how to bypass any compliance checks. I only want to know the proper and compliant way to have this reviewed.

My questions are:

1. Has anyone encountered this same billing restriction message before?
2. If your case was resolved, what kind of information or documents helped GitHub Support review it?
3. Is there a recommended way to phrase or organize the support ticket so that the compliance team can review it efficiently?
4. Should I provide proof of enrollment, student email verification, current residence proof, or an official university webpage showing the institution address?

I am happy to provide GitHub Support with reasonable verification documents if required. I would appreciate any advice from users who have gone through a similar manual review process.

Thank you.

[imanong]

What is the proper way to resolve this billing restriction issue?

[traffictse]

Solved? I opened a ticket in March, and it isn't closed yet.

[hiroshimai2]

This usually happens due to automated compliance filters and sometimes gets resolved only after a proper manual review with clear identity/institution verification, so your approach of contacting support is the right one; similar “false flag” style restrictions can also appear in unrelated digital services like https://jayaslotapks.com/ where access checks are automated and need review before correction.

[imanong]

Thanks, that makes sense — I agree contacting support for manual review is probably the right path.

Just to clarify, the second link/example you mentioned seems unrelated to my issue, so I’ll focus on the compliance/manual-review explanation rather than that external service.

[Aditya-Idnani]

That sounds really stressful, especially when you’re just trying to use GitHub for normal academic and development work.

From your post, it honestly sounds more like an automated compliance screening false positive than anything you intentionally did wrong. Unfortunately, systems that handle trade-control and billing compliance can sometimes flag addresses, regions, or institution-related keywords automatically, and then require manual review.

You’re already doing the correct thing by contacting GitHub Support instead of trying to bypass the restriction.

A few things that may help your case during manual review:

• Proof of current enrollment/student status
• A university-issued email address
• Government ID matching your billing region
• Proof that the billing method belongs to you
• An official university webpage showing the institution and address
• A short and very clear explanation that the account is for academic/personal development use

I’d also recommend keeping the support ticket concise and structured. Compliance teams usually process clearer tickets faster than very long explanations.

And most importantly: avoid opening multiple separate tickets if possible. Replying to the same thread is usually better for escalation and continuity.

Hope GitHub support is able to manually review and clear it for you soon.