Completing Investigator onboarding

Investigator onboarding is a short multi-step flow that sets up your account so the marketplace can list you and so the operations workspace knows who you are. You only do it once. Until you finish, NearbySpy keeps redirecting you back to the next required step. See Why you land on Client vs Investigator dashboard for why.

What onboarding asks for

• Name and title. Your real legal name and a short professional title. Title presets cover the common cases (Private Investigator, Licensed PI, Investigative Specialist).
• Location. A primary city or service area. By default your exact address is private; only the area you serve is public. You can adjust this on the address step.
• Specialties. The case types you take (surveillance, infidelity, missing persons, background checks, corporate, legal support, insurance, asset locates, and so on). Pick the ones you actually do; do not pad the list.
• License details. Your PI license number, issuing state or jurisdiction, and expiration. Clients filter by license, so this is non-optional for being found.
• Website (optional). Paste the URL without https://. We show https: as the leading prefix automatically and store the full URL.
• Profile basics. Headshot, short bio, contact preferences. Profiles with a photo and a 2-3 sentence bio rank and convert dramatically better than blank profiles.

How long it takes

About 8 to 12 minutes of focused effort if you have your license number handy and a profile photo on the device you are using. If you do not have a photo ready, finish the rest first and come back. Your profile is editable from Investigator settings after onboarding.

Privacy choices on the address step

The address step defaults to private. That means your service area is shown publicly (a city or radius) but your exact street address is not. Most field PIs leave this as private. Only flip to public if you are running a brick-and-mortar agency and want walk-in business.

Saving and resuming

Each step saves as you advance. You can step backward to fix something; the progress nav supports forward and backward navigation. If you close the tab mid-flow, sign back in and you will resume on the next required step. Nothing is lost.

What unlocks when onboarding is complete

• Your dashboard's full Cases workspace.
• A public profile that can be discovered through search and Marketplace browse pages.
• The ability to be invited as an Operator on another Investigator's Case.
• Access to billing and subscription upgrades. See Understanding Billing.

If you imported your listing instead

If we already had a listing for you that you claimed, onboarding is shorter. We ask you to confirm details we already have and verify ownership. See Claiming an imported listing for the claim flow and Website verification in listing claim for the verification step.

Where to go next

Read Checklist before your first Case, then open Using the Create Case wizard when you are ready to take work in.