Qualified Signer

A qualified signer is a recipient who signs with a qualified electronic signature (QES) under the EU eIDAS regulation. A QES has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature in every EU member state.

A QES needs a qualified certificate and a signing key from a qualified trust service provider (QTSP). You bring the provider. SignatureAPI runs the envelope, the ceremony and the PDF signature, and reaches your provider through a signing worker. In test mode, the SignatureAPI sandbox worker signs instead, with certificates that are not qualified.

New to qualified signatures? Start with What are qualified signatures? and the quickstart. Need country-specific compliance, such as Mexico NOM-151? That’s an attestation.

Qualified signer vs. signer

	Qualified signer	Signer
Signature level (eIDAS)	Qualified (QES)	Simple (SES)
Signer identity	Verified by the QTSP	Recorded by the ceremony’s authentication
Signing certificate	Issued to the signer, reported on the recipient	None
Routing	Sequential only	Sequential or parallel
Places	Exactly one signature place	Any places
Deliverable	One PDF with every document, no audit log	Configurable
Recipient type	qualified_signer	signer

The ceremony

The ceremony starts like a signer’s: consent, review, adopt a signature. When the qualified signer finishes, their provider may ask them to confirm their identity, then asks them to approve the signature. SignatureAPI then embeds the signature and the ceremony completes. See How it works.

Creating an envelope with a qualified signer

Set "type": "qualified_signer" and "scheme": "eu_eidas", the only scheme available. Set routing to sequential explicitly, and give the qualified signer exactly one signature place.

// POST https://api.signatureapi.com/v1/envelopes
// X-API-Key: key_test_...
// Content-Type: application/json

{
    "title": "Privacy Policy",
    "routing": "sequential",
    "documents": [
        {
            "url": "https://pub-9cb75390636c4a8a83a6f76da33d7f45.r2.dev/privacy-placeholder.pdf",
            "format": "pdf",
            "places": [
                {
                    "key": "signer_signs_here",
                    "type": "signature",
                    "recipient_key": "client"
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "recipients": [
        {
            "type": "qualified_signer",
            "key": "client",
            "name": "Jane Doe",
            "email": "jane.doe@example.com",
            "scheme": "eu_eidas"
        }
    ]
}

A qualified signer accepts the same ceremony, delivery_type and signature_options properties as a signer. To check identity before the ceremony opens, see Identity check.

Envelope rules

Each qualified signature covers the document exactly as it stands at that signer’s turn. That limits the rest of the envelope:

• routing is sequential.
• No recipient is a regular signer. Approvers and preparers are allowed, and automatic signers are allowed before the first qualified signer.
• Only the first recipient can have places other than signature or initials.
• No envelope_completed_date place, no attestation, no deliverable password, and the deliverable includes every document.
• A live envelope needs an active signing worker connected for live mode.

A broken rule returns 422 Unprocessable Entity. Envelope rules lists each rule with its error.

The signing certificate

Once the qualified signature is embedded, the recipient’s certificate describes the certificate that signed:

{
    "id": "re_00ZeZjRaXCgT30n1eBx53N",
    "type": "qualified_signer",
    "key": "client",
    "scheme": "eu_eidas",
    "certificate": {
        "subject": "C=DE\nCN=Jane Doe",
        "issuer": "C=DE\nO=Example Trust Services\nCN=Example Qualified CA",
        "serial": "5F2C1A9BE4D07B3A",
        "valid_from": "2026-08-05T10:15:00.000Z",
        "valid_to": "2027-08-05T10:15:00.000Z"
    }
    //...
}

• subject and issuer list the certificate’s name attributes, one per line, in the order the certificate holds them.
• serial is the serial number in uppercase hexadecimal.
• valid_from and valid_to are the certificate’s validity dates.

The deliverable

The deliverable is a single PDF with all of the envelope’s documents, and it has no audit log: a standard deliverable becomes simple. Each qualified signature is embedded as a PAdES signature, the standard format for signatures inside a PDF, so PDF readers list it in their signature panel.

Test and live mode

	Test mode	Live mode
Signing worker	The SignatureAPI sandbox worker, unless you connect your own	Your own worker. Required
Certificates	Issued by a sandbox certificate authority. Not qualified	Issued by your QTSP
Legal effect	None	Qualified electronic signature

See Go live.