Why I Can't Donate Money By GitHub Sponsors? (Account Restrictions)

[Mike-Solar]

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I live in China and my collage haven't been sanctioned by the United States. But I can't change my payment information and I can't donate money via GitHub Sponsors. Why? I've submitted two tickets but one month passed and nobody replied.

[Talha-Dogan]

Hi there! 👋

I understand how frustrating it is to wait over a month without a reply.a

The reason you are likely facing this issue isn't necessarily because your specific college is sanctioned, but because automated payment systems (like Stripe or PayPal used by GitHub) often flag accounts from certain regions for a manual "Trade Compliance Review."

When an account is flagged for compliance review:

1. Payment methods are locked: You cannot add cards or sponsor anyone until a human reviews the account.
2. Support delays are normal: Unlike technical support tickets, compliance tickets go to a specialized legal/compliance team. Unfortunately, the queue for this specific team is currently very long, and wait times of 30+ days are not uncommon.

My recommendation:

• Do NOT open a new ticket: Opening a 3rd ticket often merges with the old ones and pushes you to the bottom of the queue.
• Check your spam folder: Sometimes the compliance team asks for a document (like an ID) and the email gets lost.
• Wait it out: Since you have already submitted the ticket, your account is in the queue. They will eventually clear the flag if your college is indeed not on the Entity List.

Hang in there!

[aryannten]

This usually happens due to regional and compliance restrictions, not because of anything specific to your account or college.

GitHub Sponsors is subject to U.S. export control laws and sanctions. Even if you personally or your institution are not sanctioned, GitHub may still restrict payments from certain regions or payment providers if they can’t complete the required compliance checks. In some cases, GitHub blocks the ability to add or change payment methods or to sponsor accounts from those regions altogether.

A few important points:

These restrictions are often automatic and region-based, not manual account bans.

GitHub uses third-party payment processors, and their limitations can also prevent Sponsors from working in certain countries.

Support responses for sanctions or compliance issues are often slow because they require review by legal/compliance teams.

Unfortunately, there’s no user-side workaround. The only way this can be resolved is through GitHub Support, and even then, they may confirm that Sponsors is simply unavailable in your region.

In short: this is almost certainly a compliance/payment restriction tied to location or payment processing, not a mistake on your part.

[roshanthm]

You may not be able to donate through GitHub Sponsors due to one of the following reasons:

Your GitHub account is new or has limited activity
GitHub has placed temporary restrictions for security reasons
Your account is not eligible to sponsor yet
Payment method is missing or not supported in your country
You are trying to sponsor from a region where GitHub Sponsors is not available

What you can do:

Complete your GitHub profile
Stay active on GitHub (commits, repositories, contributions)
Add or verify your payment method
Wait a few days and try again
Contact GitHub Support if the issue continues