Described herein are techniques for acquiring an image of a user's credential document through a user device. A method includes capturing information from a user interface regarding a particular type of credential document to be imaged, receiving a video stream of the user's credential document from a camera of the user device, displaying the video stream on a display of the user device, and determining whether a set of criteria for capturing the image of the user's credential document are satisfied. If the criteria are not satisfied, the method presents a first indication on the user device that the user's credential document is not ready to be imaged. If the criteria are satisfied, the method presents a second indication on the user device that the user's credential document is ready to be imaged and captures an image of the user's credential document.