Pearson VUE ID Requirements (2026): There Are Four Policies, and Your Exam Sponsor Picks One

The four Pearson VUE ID policies, side by side

Every one of these is a live document on Pearson VUE's own site, and all four carry the same version stamp: Version 1.0, 1 Nov 2023. They differ on exactly two axes, which is why the naming looks cryptic until you see them together.

The number is the government-issued test; the S is the second-ID test. Read that way, the four names stop being arbitrary. Note that Japan is carved out of all four — Pearson VUE directs candidates testing there to a separate policy.

The five rules that apply under every policy

These do not change between 1, 1S, 2 and 2S, and they are where most candidates actually come unstuck — not on the number of cards, but on the name printed across them.

• — The first and last name on the ID must match the first and last name you used to register. A married name on the licence and a maiden name on the registration is a failed check-in, not a discussion at the desk.
• — The ID must be original. A photocopy is not accepted, and neither is a digital ID — a driving licence in a phone wallet does not count, however official the app.
• — The ID must be unexpired. There is one exception, and it is written into all four policies: an expired ID is acceptable if you bring the renewal paperwork with it.
• — The ID must be issued by the country you are testing in. EU cards are accepted anywhere in the EU zone; otherwise, if you have no ID from the testing country, you need an international travel passport issued by your country of citizenship, with the details in Roman characters.
• — A government-issued local-language ID (one not in Roman characters) is acceptable only inside the country that issued it.

How to find out which policy your exam uses

Pearson VUE does not publish a master list mapping sponsors to policies, and its own test-taker pages send you back to the exam programme: "Get answers specific to your test from your exam program's homepage." That is the honest answer, and it is also the reason a generic exam-day article cannot help you.

In practice there are three places the answer actually lives, in the order worth checking:

• — Your appointment confirmation email. Where a sponsor has picked a policy, the confirmation usually names it or links the PDF directly.
• — The candidate handbook or information bulletin for your exam. Regulated licensing exams — real estate, insurance, notary — nearly always publish one, and it restates the ID rule in the sponsor's own words.
• — The sponsor's own exam page on pearsonvue.com (for example the CompTIA, AWS or state licensing landing pages). These carry the programme-specific policy, which overrides the general one.

Can you bring a calculator to a Pearson VUE test centre?

This is where assuming a vendor-wide rule gets expensive. The calculator policy is set per exam programme, and for the same vendor, in the same profession, it contradicts itself from one state to the next. All six of the handbooks below are Pearson VUE documents for a real-estate or insurance licence.

Read the top and bottom rows together: the financial calculator that Texas recommends you bring is the exact device Delaware confiscates and Idaho refuses at the door. Three of the six handbooks also add that a calculator malfunction is not grounds for challenging your result or claiming extra time, so a borrowed or unfamiliar device is a risk you carry alone.

Arrival time, and the cancellation window that is not 24 hours

Thirty minutes before your appointment is the consistent instruction across Pearson VUE's licensing handbooks — "report to the test center at least thirty (30) minutes before the examination begins" is close to boilerplate across the state programmes. That half hour is check-in, ID inspection, palm scan or photograph, and storing your belongings; it is not slack.

The cancellation window is the one people misremember, because the widely-quoted figure is 24 hours and the licensing handbooks are often stricter. Arkansas real estate requires 48 hours' notice to cancel or reschedule without penalty. Miss the window and the handbooks are uniform about the consequence: you are recorded absent and you forfeit the fee.

What actually gets you turned away

Every failure mode below appears verbatim in the handbooks, and every one of them ends in the same place — the fee is gone and you rebook and pay again. None of them is about the exam.

• — Arriving after your appointment time. Late candidates may be refused admission and forfeit the fee.
• — A name mismatch between your ID and your registration.
• — Bringing a digital or photocopied ID, or an expired one without the renewal paperwork.
• — Rescheduling or cancelling outside the change/cancel window — recorded as absent, fee forfeited.
• — Being caught with a prohibited item after check-in. The handbooks are explicit that a candidate found with one is dismissed from the test centre and forfeits the fee, which is a harsher outcome than being asked to store it beforehand.

Exams we cover that Pearson VUE delivers

Each of these has been verified against a Pearson VUE document during our fact-checking, which is what places it on this list. Open an exam to see its own fees, format and scoring — and, where the programme publishes one, its candidate handbook, which is where your specific ID and calculator rule is written down.

This list is derived from our own evidence trail rather than from a Pearson VUE directory, so it covers the exams we publish, not every exam Pearson VUE delivers. Vendors also change: the IRS Special Enrolment Examination moved from Prometric to PSI in March 2026, so confirm the vendor on your booking rather than assuming it from an older article. For the other two vendors' rules, see our PSI guide and our Prometric guide.

How we checked this

• — The four global ID policies were read directly from the PDFs Pearson VUE hosts on pearsonvue.com, retrieved 3 September 2026. Each carries the version stamp Version 1.0, 1 Nov 2023. Where this page states an ID rule, it is quoting one of those four documents.
• — The calculator, arrival and cancellation rules come from six programme-level candidate handbooks published by Pearson VUE for named state licensing exams, listed in full under Sources. We quote them rather than summarising them because the differences between them are the point.
• — We did not attempt to publish which policy each exam sponsor has chosen. Pearson VUE does not publish that mapping, sponsors change it without announcement, and a wrong entry in that column would be worse than no column — it is the one fact on this page that can cost you an exam fee. The section on finding your policy tells you where to look instead.
• — This page describes test-centre delivery. Online proctored delivery (OnVUE) runs a separate check-in with its own room and equipment requirements, and is not covered here.

Questions

Do you need two forms of ID for Pearson VUE?

Only under two of its four global ID policies. Policies 1S and 2S require a primary and a secondary ID; policies 1 and 2 require one primary ID only. Your exam sponsor chooses which policy applies, so the answer depends on the exam you booked, not on Pearson VUE.

Does a Pearson VUE ID have to be government-issued?

Under Global ID Policy 1 and 1S, yes — the primary ID must be government-issued, original and unexpired. Under Policy 2 and 2S it does not: the acceptable primary list there also includes school IDs, employer IDs, professional licences, bank cards and insurance company cards.

Can you use a digital ID or a photo of your licence at Pearson VUE?

No. All four global ID policies use the same wording — the ID must be original, and they name photocopies and digital IDs as unacceptable. A licence stored in a phone wallet does not satisfy the rule.

Will Pearson VUE accept an expired ID?

Yes, but only with its renewal paperwork. Each of the four policies carries the same note: expired IDs are acceptable if accompanied by renewal paperwork. Without that document an expired ID fails check-in.

Can you bring your own calculator to a Pearson VUE exam?

It depends entirely on the exam programme. Texas and Utah real estate handbooks recommend bringing a financial calculator; Delaware real estate and Texas insurance permit only a silent, non-printing calculator without an alphabetic keypad and specifically bar financial calculators; Idaho and Nevada real estate prohibit personal calculators and provide an on-screen one instead.

How early should you arrive at a Pearson VUE test centre?

Thirty minutes before your appointment. Pearson VUE's state licensing handbooks say to report to the test centre at least thirty minutes before the examination begins, to allow for check-in and identity verification. Arriving late can mean refused admission and a forfeited fee.

What happens if your name does not match your ID?

Check-in fails. The name-match rule is in all four policies, and the only route around it is an exception pre-approved by your exam sponsor at least five business days before the appointment. It cannot be resolved at the test centre on the day.

Sources

Every rule above is quoted from one of these documents. A vendor or licensing authority can revise any of them without notice, so the retrieval date is part of the citation.

1. pearsonvue.com Pearson VUE Global ID Policy 1 · Version 1.0, 1 Nov 2023 · read 3 September 2026

   “If your exam sponsor follows Global ID Policy 1, you must bring one primary ID to the test center”

2. pearsonvue.com Pearson VUE Global ID Policy 1S · Version 1.0, 1 Nov 2023 · read 3 September 2026

   “If your exam sponsor follows Global ID Policy 1S, you must bring one primary ID and one secondary ID to the test center”

3. pearsonvue.com Pearson VUE Global ID Policy 2 · Version 1.0, 1 Nov 2023 · read 3 September 2026

   “The ID must be original (not a photocopy or digital ID) and valid (unexpired).”

4. pearsonvue.com Pearson VUE Global ID Policy 2S · Version 1.0, 1 Nov 2023 · read 3 September 2026

   “If your exam sponsor follows Global ID Policy 2S, you must bring one primary ID and one secondary ID to the test center”

5. pearsonvue.com Texas Real Estate Candidate Handbook (Pearson VUE) · read 3 September 2026

   “Calculators are not required; however, they are recommended. Acceptable calculators include hand-held, battery, or solar-powered financial calculators used in real estate, finance, accounting, and business.”

6. home.pearsonvue.com Utah Real Estate Candidate Handbook (Pearson VUE) · read 3 September 2026

   “Acceptable calculators include hand-held, battery, or solar-powered financial calculators used in real estate, finance, accounting, and business.”

7. home.pearsonvue.com Delaware Real Estate Candidate Handbook (Pearson VUE) · read 3 September 2026

   “Calculators are permitted only if they are silent, hand-held, non-printing, and without an alphabetic key pad. Financial calculators are not permitted.”

8. pearsonvue.com Texas Insurance Candidate Handbook (Pearson VUE) · read 3 September 2026

   “Calculators are permitted only if they are silent, hand-held, nonprinting, and without an alphabetic key pad. Financial calculators are not permitted.”

9. home.pearsonvue.com Idaho Real Estate Candidate Handbook (Pearson VUE) · read 3 September 2026

   “Personal calculators are NOT permitted, but an online calculator is available as part of the exam.”

10. home.pearsonvue.com Nevada Real Estate Candidate Handbook (Pearson VUE) · read 3 September 2026

    “Candidates are not permitted to bring or use their own calculator. However, a calculator is built into the following Real Estate examinations listed below.”

11. home.pearsonvue.com Arkansas Real Estate Candidate Handbook (Pearson VUE) · read 3 September 2026

    “If you wish to cancel or reschedule your examination without penalty, you must do so at least 48 hours before the examination.”