Create your Apple Developer account and invite OpenCourt

Set up the Apple Developer account your branded (white-label) iOS app is published under, and give OpenCourt access.

Your branded app is published on the App Store under your business's name, not OpenCourt's. Apple requires the business whose content is in the app to own the developer account that submits it — so you create the account, then invite us in. After that we handle the build, submission, and every update. You won't touch it again except to renew once a year and accept the occasional Apple agreement.

Budget 2–4 weeks end to end. This is the longest-lead item in your app launch and none of it can be rushed, so start it the day you sign with us.

Enroll as a Company / Organization, not an Individual — an Individual account puts a personal name on your App Store listing instead of your company's, and only an organization account lets you add OpenCourt to your team. Use your exact registered legal name — Apple rejects trading names and DBAs.

Before you begin — gather these

  • Your legal entity name, exactly as registered — including the suffix (Inc., LLC, GmbH). Not your DBA, not the name on your sign. This becomes the "seller" name on your App Store listing.

  • Your D-U-N-S number — a free, nine-digit business ID Apple uses to verify your company. You may already have one. Look it up (or request one free) with Apple's D-U-N-S lookup tool — through Apple's tool a new number takes about 5 business days, plus 2 more for Apple to sync it. See our D-U-N-S guide. This is the longest-lead step, so do it first.

  • An Apple Account with two-factor authentication turned on, registered with the enroller's legal first and last name — not a nickname, not the company's name. (Turning on two-factor authentication requires an Apple device, and it's different from Apple's older "two-step verification.")

  • A work email on your company's own domain (you@yourcompany.com). Gmail/Yahoo/Outlook addresses are not accepted. Apple emails a one-time code to it mid-flow.

  • A live website on that same domain. A Facebook page, an Instagram profile, a "coming soon" placeholder, or a registrar parking page will all be rejected.

  • A phone number Apple can reach you on.

  • Signing authority — the person enrolling must be able to legally bind the company to contracts (owner/founder, executive, or a delegated signatory).

  • Documents, scanned and ready (Apple asked for all three on our last run): your government-issued photo ID, proof you work for the company (employment verification), and one business document for the entity — Articles of Incorporation, business license, Certificate of Formation, charter documents, notarized partnership papers, or a reseller/vendor license. Colorado and Florida only: E-File Articles of Incorporation and Certificate of Status. Nonprofits: also your IRS tax documents.

  • USD 99 for the annual membership — you don't pay until Apple approves you.

Nonprofit, school, or government facility? You may qualify for a fee waiver — ask us and we'll point you at the right form.

Step 1 — Register as an Apple developer

Go to developer.apple.com/register. This is the free Apple developer registration — the front door to enrollment, not the paid membership itself.

Click Continue. You'll be taken to the Apple sign-in screen.

Step 2 — Create the company's Apple Account (or sign in)

If your company already has an Apple Account it wants to use, sign in. Otherwise click Create Your Apple Account.

Use a fresh Apple Account tied to a company email, not someone's personal one. This account becomes the legal owner of your app. It must be registered in the name of the person authorized to accept Apple's agreements — Apple's later identity check compares this name against the documents you submit.

Step 3 — Fill in the account details

Enter the authorized person's legal first and last name, country/region, birthday, the company email address, and a password. Apple emails a verification code to that address — enter it to confirm the email, finish creating the account, and turn on two-factor authentication if prompted.

First and last name must be the person's legal name — no nicknames, and never the company's name in the name fields. Getting this wrong is one of the most common causes of a delayed approval.

Step 4 — Agree to the Apple Developer Agreement

Once your account is created and you're signed in, Apple shows the Apple Developer Agreement. Read it, choose whether you'd like marketing emails (either is fine), and click Agree.

Step 5 — Skip the profile prompt

Apple offers to set up a personalized "developer profile." You don't need it for this — click I'm not interested (or "Remind me later").

Step 6 — Start the enrollment

On your Account page, find the Join the Apple Developer Program box and click Enroll today.

Step 7 — Continue enrollment on the web

Apple suggests enrolling through the Apple Developer app, but the web works fine. Click Continue enrollment on the web.

Step 8 — Confirm your personal information

Enter the authorized person's legal name (as shown on their government-issued ID), phone number, and address.

You can't change your name after you click Continue, so get it exactly right. Apple will ask this person for a photo ID later in the process — the name here must match that ID.

Step 9 — Select "Company / Organization"

Under I develop apps as, choose Company / Organization.

This is the most important choice in the whole process. Picking Individual puts a personal name on your App Store listing instead of your company's, and switching afterward means a support ticket and a manual migration. Choose Company / Organization.

Apple then lists what you'll need to finish — legal entity status, authority to sign, a website, a work email, and a D-U-N-S number (with a Check now link to look one up). Click Continue.

Step 10 — Enter your legal entity name and D-U-N-S number

  • Legal Entity Name — include the entity type (Inc., LLC, GmbH). Apple's own hint: "Include the entity type, such as Inc., LLC, GmbH, etc."

  • D-U-N-S® Number — the nine digits from your lookup.

  • Solve the image captcha (letters aren't case-sensitive; you can switch to audio or request a different image).

Click Continue.

Type the name exactly as it appears on your D-U-N-S record — "Inc" vs "Incorporated" is enough to fail the match. Apple's sidebar also warns that sole proprietors and single-person companies in regions that don't recognize them as legal entities will be listed under the enrollee's personal name instead.

Step 11 — Confirm your address (pulled from Dun & Bradstreet)

Apple pre-fills your address, city, state, ZIP, and region straight from your D&B record — and these fields are read-only. You cannot type over them.

If the address is wrong, you have to fix it at Dun & Bradstreet, not at Apple. Use the "update your D&B profile" link on this screen, wait for D&B to process the change (up to 2 business days to reach Apple), then come back and continue the enrollment. This is the single most common place companies get stuck — an outdated address on a D&B record nobody has looked at in years.

Step 12 — Website, phone, signing authority, and work email

Scroll down and fill in:

  • Website — your company's public site, on your own domain.

  • Phone Number — with country code.

  • Confirm your signing authority — pick one: "I am the owner/founder and have the authority to bind my organization to legal agreements" or "My organization has given me the authority to bind it to legal agreements."

  • Your Work Email — must use your organization's domain. Click Send code, then enter the one-time code Apple emails you. Continue stays greyed out until the code is verified.

Step 13 — Save your Enrollment ID

You'll see "Your enrollment is being processed" with an Enrollment ID and a read-only summary of everything you submitted. Apple's message: "Once we verify your authority to sign legal agreements, we'll email you with instructions on how to complete your enrollment."

Write the Enrollment ID down and send it to us. Every support request and every email from Apple references it, and it's the fastest way to unstick a stalled enrollment.

Step 14 — Send Apple your documents

Expect an email within a few days saying Apple can't verify your identity and your association with the enrolling entity, asking for documents. This is routine — it is not a rejection. Ours read:

"Please provide a copy of the following documents so we can continue processing your enrollment: Applicant's government-issued photo ID; Applicant's employment verification; One of the following business documents for [YOUR COMPANY]: Articles of Incorporation, Business license, Certificate of Formation, Charter documents, Partnership papers (must be notarized), Reseller or vendor license. For Colorado and Florida only: E-File Articles of Incorporation and Certificate of Status. And IRS tax documents for Non Profit/Not-for-profit Organizations."

Upload at developer.apple.com/contact/file-upload.

Enter your name, then add one file at a time with Choose file, and use the Notes field to label each one ("Government issued ID", "Company articles of organization"). Click Add another file for each additional document, then Continue.

  • Accepted formats: JPG, PNG, TIFF, PDF

  • Max 5 MB per file — phone photos of documents often exceed this; compress them first

  • Documents must be in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Anything else needs a solicitor-certified English translation.

Apple may also email that it needs to speak with you by phone to verify your authority — that's routine too, not a problem. You request the call yourself: go to Apple Developer Support → Contact Us → Membership and Account → Program Enrollment → Phone → "Call Me." The phone option only appears during Apple's US business hours; outside those, use the email form and ask for a callback with your number and timezone.

Step 15 — Approval, license agreement, and payment

Once Apple verifies everything, you'll get an email with next steps: review and accept the Apple Developer Program License Agreement, then purchase the USD 99 annual membership with your card. Organizations can't pay before approval, so this email is the green light.

Turn on auto-renew. If the membership lapses, Apple removes your app from the App Store until it's renewed. If you don't get a membership confirmation within 24 hours of paying, contact Apple Developer Support with your Enrollment ID.

Step 16 — Invite OpenCourt to your account

Once your membership is active, add us so we can build and publish your app:

  1. Open App Store Connect and go to Users and Access → People.

  2. Click the + button above the list of users.

  3. Enter apps@getopencourt.com and assign the Admin role.

  4. Make sure every item in Access to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles is checked — we need it to create the signing certificates and provisioning profiles your app requires. Without this, we won’t be able to publish the application.

  5. Click Invite.

  6. Switch on automated publishing: go to Users and Access → Integrations → App Store Connect API and click Request Access. Only the Account Holder (the person who enrolled) can do this.

That's your final step — there's nothing to send us. Clicking Request Access just lets your account generate publishing keys; because OpenCourt is now an Admin on your account, we create and manage that key ourselves. From here we build, submit, and update the app — send us a quick note that you're done and we take over.

Keeping your app live

After launch, two things stay yours because the stores only let the account's owner do them:

  1. Renew the membership every year (keep a valid card on file — auto-renew is safest). A lapse pulls your app from the store until it's paid.

  2. Accept Apple's Program License Agreement updates when they appear. Apple pushes new terms a few times a year, and until someone at your company clicks accept, we can't ship updates to your app.

Troubleshooting

  • "Your organization is not listed as a legal entity." Your D&B record shows a different legal status (often sole proprietorship) or hasn't been verified. Fix it with D&B using your business registration documents. A true single-person business has to enroll as an individual.

  • The pre-filled address is wrong and I can't edit it. By design — see Step 11. Update your D&B profile, wait for it to sync to Apple (up to 2 business days), then resume.

  • Apple is asking for documents. Normal — see Step 14. Not a rejection.

  • My website got rejected. It must be live, on your own domain, with real content and contact information. Social profiles and placeholder pages don't count.

  • Apple called and we weren't ready. That's the routine verification call — confirm you're an owner or officer of the named company. If you missed it, request another via Contact Us (see Step 14's callout).

  • Nothing has happened in two weeks. Contact Apple Developer Support with your Enrollment ID, or request a phone call: Contact Us → Membership and Account → Program Enrollment → Phone → "Call Me" (US business hours only; otherwise request an email callback).

  • We can't find the Request Access button. Only the Account Holder (the person who enrolled) sees it — make sure you're signed in with that Apple Account.

Already have a personal Apple Developer account?

If the Apple Account you sign in with already has an individual Apple Developer membership, Apple offers "Change from an individual to an organization account" instead of a fresh enrollment.

It lists the same requirements — legal entity status, authority to sign, a website, a work email, and a D-U-N-S number — with a Check now link to the D-U-N-S lookup. Click Continue.

On this path Apple requires the enroller to be the organization's owner/founder — stricter than a fresh enrollment, which also allows a delegated signatory. If the person who holds the personal account isn't an owner, it's cleaner to start fresh from a different Apple Account (Step 1).

From here you're back on the main flow at Step 10.