Azure Artifact Signing questions: Sole proprietor company name, & identity verification

Question

Azure Artifact Signing questions: Sole proprietor company name, & identity verification

Trevor Davis 20

Can a Canadian sole proprietorship registered in BC since 1982 obtain an organization-validated certificate displaying Davis Software as the verified publisher?

Can you delete the Artifact Signing account after signing your annual release, then create another the following year without repeating identity verification?

Are there any charges or restrictions associated with this annual cancellation and reactivation approach?

Trevor Davis 20 Reputation points

2026-10-23T06:43:13.2733333+00:00
Follow-up: Identity validation duration and documentation requirements

Thank you for the information. I have three additional questions concerning organization validation for Davis Software, my Canadian sole proprietorship.

Identity validation expiration: How long does an approved organization identity validation remain valid? If I delete the Artifact Signing account after an annual software release but retain the Azure subscription, will the identity validation expire on its original schedule?

Supporting documents: I have a current business bank statement identifying me as the proprietor of Davis Software, together with a TELUS internet bill in my name. Both show my current address. Are these acceptable documents for organization validation of a Canadian sole proprietorship?

Telephone verification: I no longer have a landline telephone. Can Microsoft use my mobile telephone number for any required verification, or is a landline mandatory?

I would appreciate clarification from a Microsoft representative, particularly regarding the documentation and telephone requirements, before creating a billable Artifact Signing account.

Thank you.

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Trevor Davis 20 Reputation points

2026-10-23T06:43:13.2733333+00:00

Follow-up: Identity validation duration and documentation requirements

Thank you for the information. I have three additional questions concerning organization validation for Davis Software, my Canadian sole proprietorship.

Identity validation expiration: How long does an approved organization identity validation remain valid? If I delete the Artifact Signing account after an annual software release but retain the Azure subscription, will the identity validation expire on its original schedule?

Supporting documents: I have a current business bank statement identifying me as the proprietor of Davis Software, together with a TELUS internet bill in my name. Both show my current address. Are these acceptable documents for organization validation of a Canadian sole proprietorship?

Telephone verification: I no longer have a landline telephone. Can Microsoft use my mobile telephone number for any required verification, or is a landline mandatory?

I would appreciate clarification from a Microsoft representative, particularly regarding the documentation and telephone requirements, before creating a billable Artifact Signing account.

Thank you.

Answer 1

A Canadian sole proprietorship may submit Davis Software through Organization/DBA validation, but that name will appear in the certificate only if Microsoft validates it as the registered legal business identity; deleting only the Artifact Signing account preserves the subscription-scoped identity validation, although its normal expiration and renewal requirements still apply.

1. Eligibility and publisher name

Canada is supported for Public Trust organization validation, and the organization workflow expressly covers an Organization or DBA. Its age since 1982 comfortably exceeds the documented three-year-history threshold referenced for Canadian organizations. However, Microsoft’s validation team makes the final eligibility determination.

For a Public Trust request:

Register Microsoft.CodeSigning on the Azure subscription.
Create an Artifact Signing account using a paid Azure subscription; free, trial, and sponsored subscriptions are unsupported.
Ensure the submitting user has the Artifact Signing Identity Verifier role. Assigning that role requires sufficient Azure RBAC authority; otherwise, have the subscription owner or an administrator with role-assignment authority assign it.
Open Artifact Signing account → Objects → Identity validations.
Select Organization → New Identity → Public.
Enter:
- Organization Name: the registered legal entity or DBA name exactly as supported by the BC registration/public records.
- The registered business address and identifier.
- A website belonging to the business.
- Primary and secondary addresses on the business-owned domain.
- The proprietor’s legal personal name exactly as shown on the government-issued ID.
Select Certificate subject preview to inspect the information expected to appear in the certificate, then submit the request. Final issuance remains subject to successful validation. ^1^

Artifact Signing does not permit a custom Common Name or Organization value. The certificate name must be the validated legal entity name, so Davis Software cannot simply be entered as a preferred publisher label. It must be verifiable as the legal business/DBA identity. ^2^

The public documentation does not definitively specify which BC sole-proprietor registration documents or identifiers guarantee acceptance. Before creating the billable account, request entity-specific guidance through an Azure portal support request. If that route is unavailable, Microsoft also documents Microsoft Q&A with the Artifact Signing tag as a public support path. The validation team—not the general eligibility criteria—ultimately decides whether the BC registration supports “Davis Software.”

2. Deleting and recreating the account annually

You can delete the Artifact Signing account after signing and later create another account in the same Azure subscription without automatically deleting the completed identity validation:

Deleting the account deletes its certificate profiles and stops signing through them.
Previously signed files are not affected.
Identity validations remain because they are scoped to the Azure subscription rather than only to one Artifact Signing account. ^1^

Use:

Azure portal → Artifact Signing Accounts → select account → Delete

or:

az artifact-signing delete \
  --name MyArtifactSigningAccount \
  --resource-group MyResourceGroup

Do not delete the identity validation if the objective is to reuse it. Deleted validations cannot be recovered, and deleting one stops renewal for every linked profile across Artifact Signing accounts in that subscription. ^3^

This does not permanently eliminate identity checks. Identity validation has an expiration date and renewal performs a full review; Microsoft may request additional documents. Renewal becomes available 60 days before expiration and can take 1–20 business days. If it expires before renewal, a new validation must be created. ^3^

3. Charges and operational restrictions

The annual deletion/recreation approach has these consequences:

Billing begins when the Artifact Signing account is created.
Pricing is not prorated: creating an account incurs the full SKU amount for that billing period regardless of when during the period it is created. ^2^
Current prices depend on region, currency, and Azure agreement; check the live pricing page before each recreation. ^4^
Account deletion removes all associated certificate profiles and immediately prevents further signing through them.
Recreating a certificate profile assigns a new durable-identity EKU, even when using the same identity validation and profile name. Any WDAC policy, allowlist, or application pinned to the old profile EKU must be updated. ^5^

Consequently, annual account recreation can avoid charges while the account is absent, but it does not bypass identity-validation expiration, full renewal review, full-period billing when recreated, or certificate-profile/EKU changes.

References