utf8 error

When ICEGATE emails that your filing "File is not UTF-8 encoded" or "failed due to UTF-8 encoding validation … at line <n> and position <n>", it means a character in the file is not plain text—typically a value pasted from a PDF, Word, or an email, such as a curly quote, long dash, degree sign, accented letter, or non-breaking space—and the file was saved in a Windows encoding instead of UTF-8.

ICEGATE turns the whole file away before reading any of the filing, so no acknowledgement or field-by-field list is coming, and nothing was filed.

To fix it:

1. Drop the file on SCMTR JSON upload (signed in at SCMTR JSON upload) to see every character that is not plain text listed by line and column, along with the field it sits in and what to type instead. (Alternatively, you can find it in Notepad++ without the app). Match it to the email by the line; the email's "position" counts bytes from the start of the file, not characters along the line.
2. Retype the value by hand where the file was made, rather than pasting it again.
3. Create the file again and sign it again. Never edit a signed file directly, because one changed byte breaks the signature.
4. Re-file with a new control number.

Filings made directly on this platform should not encounter this issue, as typing or pasting into any field converts those characters to plain text as you go, and values from an imported file or the address book are flagged before you sign.