How to Verify an OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 Card Is Real

An OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 card is supposed to mean a worker sat through real safety training. Counterfeit cards are sold online and through fake "training centers," and they turn up on real job sites. If a worker with a fake card gets hurt, or hurts someone else, "he showed me a card" won't carry much weight.

The good news: checking a modern card takes under a minute.

What a real card looks like

OSHA Outreach Training Program cards for the 10-hour and 30-hour courses are issued through OSHA Training Institute (OTI) Education Centers and authorized training organizations, not by OSHA directly. Since 2016, the standard card has been a durable plastic card with the student's name, the trainer's name, the training date, the issuing education center and a QR code on the back.

Step 1: Scan the QR code

Point any phone camera at the QR code on the back of the card. It should open a verification page from the issuing education center or the official outreach card portal, confirming the card details.

Look at where the link actually goes. A forger can print a QR code that points to a fake page. The link should go to the website of a real OTI Education Center or the official outreach portal, not to a random domain. And the name on the page should match the name on the card and the person in front of you.

Step 2: For older cards, contact the issuer

Cards issued before 2016 were often paper and have no QR code. To verify one, contact the education center or training organization that issued it, with the worker's name, the card number, the course and the approximate training date.

Step 3: Know what OSHA won't do

OSHA itself does not run a national database for looking up student cards. Verification goes through the QR code or the issuing organization. Be wary of any third-party site claiming to be the official national lookup.

Red flags

• A card dated after 2016 with no QR code
• A QR code that leads to an unfamiliar website, or doesn't load
• Misspellings, uneven printing, or a laminated paper card
• A worker who got the card in a day, with no class they can describe
• A trainer or education center you can't find

Do OSHA 10 and 30 cards expire?

Under the federal program, construction 10-hour and 30-hour student cards don't carry an expiration date. But some states, cities and many general contractors set their own refresher requirements, so a card can be genuine and still not meet your site's rules. Know which rule applies on each job.

If you find a fake

Don't put the worker on site. Report suspected fraud to the issuing education center, or to OSHA through the Outreach Training Program's fraud reporting process, and keep a record of what you checked and when.

Make verification routine

The fraud survives because checking gets skipped in the rush to staff a job. Make it part of onboarding: verify the card at hire, record the card number, issue date and issuer, and track any refresher dates your sites require.

CrewVerify's certification tracking stores each worker's cards and expiration dates and can warn, or block check-in, when a required certification is missing or expired, so the check happens at the gate instead of during an audit. Read more about fake cards and credential fraud.

CrewVerify checks required certifications at check-in, before a worker sets foot on site. Start a free trial.