From 060ef6168ae982b2a4805e4f94b745c832627dc7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Sergio Copeto <sergio.copeto@onfido.com>
Date: Wed, 6 May 2026 14:55:45 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Fix parsing of empty strings for dates

---
 src/main/java/com/onfido/JSON.java | 7 ++++++-
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/main/java/com/onfido/JSON.java b/src/main/java/com/onfido/JSON.java
index 156f2bd..bdcf017 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/onfido/JSON.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/onfido/JSON.java
@@ -612,9 +612,14 @@ public LocalDate read(JsonReader in) throws IOException {
                 case NULL:
                     in.nextNull();
                     return null;
-                default:
+                case STRING:
                     String date = in.nextString();
+                    if (date.isEmpty()) {
+                        return null;
+                    }
                     return LocalDate.parse(date, formatter);
+                default:
+                    throw new IllegalStateException("Expected STRING or NULL but was " + in.peek());
             }
         }
     }

From 158cd987048fd429537aeb74861e6273206b8283 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Sergio Copeto <sergio.copeto@onfido.com>
Date: Thu, 7 May 2026 09:58:43 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Added testing

---
 src/test/java/com/onfido/JSONTest.java | 16 ++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 src/test/java/com/onfido/JSONTest.java

diff --git a/src/test/java/com/onfido/JSONTest.java b/src/test/java/com/onfido/JSONTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a36c13e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/com/onfido/JSONTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+package com.onfido;
+
+import java.time.LocalDate;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+public class JSONTest {
+
+  @Test
+  public void parsesEmptyDateStringAsNull() {
+    com.onfido.model.Applicant applicant =
+        JSON.getGson().fromJson("{\"dob\": \"\"}", com.onfido.model.Applicant.class);
+
+    Assertions.assertNull(applicant.getDob());
+  }
+}