The five credential statuses and what they mean for a relying party

A registry status is a decision input, not a decision. Active means the credential is in force as recorded by its source, and is the only status on which routine reliance is appropriate. Suspended means the issuing body has paused the credential; treat the underlying permission as unavailable until reinstated, and record the check. Expired means the validity period has lapsed; expiry is administrative, not disciplinary, but reliance requires renewal, not history. Revoked means the credential has been withdrawn; reliance is inappropriate, and where a revoked credential is presented as current, report it through the false-credential process. Not recorded is a query outcome rather than a status: the registry holds no record matching the query; it is not evidence the credential does not exist, and it is not confirmation that it does. Treat a not-recorded result as an unverified claim and resolve it with the issuing body directly. In every case, record the status, the identifier and the date of the check in the relying file: the status you relied on is the status at that moment, and statuses change.