unable to contact GitHub Support because SMS verification is not supported in Hong Kong

[fryrice2000]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Other

Body

I am helping a friend contact GitHub Support to appeal a suspended account.

The reinstatement/support flow verifies the email address first, but then shows this message:

"Your account has been flagged, and we need some additional information before directing your support inquiry to the right place. Please provide your phone number below so we can verify you by SMS."

My friend is located in Hong Kong. According to GitHub's documentation, Hong Kong is not listed as a supported country/region for SMS authentication:

https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/securing-your-account-with-two-factor-authentication-2fa/countries-where-sms-authentication-is-supported

Because of this, they cannot complete SMS verification and cannot submit the support request.

We are looking for an official alternative way to contact GitHub Support or verify account ownership when SMS verification is required but the user's region is not supported.

The suspended account did not receive a suspension email, so there is no existing support thread to reply to.

We are not asking to bypass verification. The account owner is willing to verify ownership through an alternative method if GitHub Support can provide one.

I am intentionally not posting the account username, email address, phone number, or any private account details publicly.

[AnirudhMKumar]

You have run into a major, known system deadlock that has been heavily affecting developers in regions where SMS authentication isn't supported (like Hong Kong and China) when an account gets automatically flagged. Because the support form's anti-abuse wall mandates an SMS verification step but omits your country code, the standard appeal route is entirely blocked.

Here are the most effective community-tested workarounds to break this loop:

Submit a ticket from an active account (Your Account): Since you have a working account, you can open a ticket at the GitHub Support Portal. Frame the ticket as a Support Portal Accessibility Bug rather than a standard appeal. Explain that a user in an unsupported region is entirely blocked from appealing due to the SMS verification wall. Provide your friend's exact GitHub username and primary email address. Support agents can manually initiate a secure email thread with your friend to verify their identity (via SSH keys, billing info, etc.).

Borrow a phone number from a supported region: If your friend has a contact, colleague, or relative living in a supported region (such as the US, UK, etc.), they can enter that person's number just to clear the web form's anti-bot check. This phone number is only used to submit the ticket and will not be permanently tied to their GitHub account profile.

Try the "Cannot Sign In" flow in Incognito: Have your friend open a completely clean Incognito window and visit https://support.github.com/contact/cannot_sign_in. In some instances, navigating this specific path completely logged out will trigger an email verification fallback instead of the SMS wall, though this behavior can be inconsistent.

Hopefully, a GitHub moderator or a member of the Trust & Safety team spots this thread and can escalate your friend's account directly. Good luck!