Anthropic’s updated policy, effective Nov. 12, ties Claude eligibility to user location and company ownership.
Anthropic’s rules make both residence and ownership relevant: people and businesses in unsupported areas are ineligible, as are overseas companies controlled from those areas. China is on the unsupported-region list. Identity checks can follow access from one of those areas or unauthorized resale of Claude access.
Users described different outcomes. One Claude Max 5x user said a review accepted a Chinese passport, yet access was later revoked. Another user recounted an Oct. 31 approval followed by a second review on Nov. 12 and account closure. Other users said they kept using Claude after checks involving Chinese passports.
In posts dated Nov. 11, users reported new identity prompts. Some said their paid access had lasted a year or longer; others said Claude Code work was interrupted.
Anthropic began introducing identity screening in April. Depending on the case, users may be asked for a government ID and a selfie. Users also reported being unable to revise a selected document type when asked for a second ID, and support pages that repeatedly redirected them.
By Nov. 12, Anthropic had released no total for identity checks or account closures.
