diff --git a/lms/djangoapps/verify_student/management/commands/retry_failed_photo_verifications.py b/lms/djangoapps/verify_student/management/commands/retry_failed_photo_verifications.py
index 3979e5d8507fd5b054aca3461184389ca6ab4a4f..d75e5a6335a3b9776d2747cb7972755f691bba0d 100644
--- a/lms/djangoapps/verify_student/management/commands/retry_failed_photo_verifications.py
+++ b/lms/djangoapps/verify_student/management/commands/retry_failed_photo_verifications.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
             dest='verification_ids',
             action='store',
             nargs='+',
-            type=int,
+            type=str,
             help='verifications id used to retry verification'
         )
 
diff --git a/lms/djangoapps/verify_student/models.py b/lms/djangoapps/verify_student/models.py
index 73f2e6b201cd51bab3d72b81aebd8fc8792616c1..9bcd1f4c058a89d4b80a618dfa5ab579f3f553ee 100644
--- a/lms/djangoapps/verify_student/models.py
+++ b/lms/djangoapps/verify_student/models.py
@@ -837,7 +837,7 @@ class SoftwareSecurePhotoVerification(PhotoVerification):
         face_aes_key = codecs.decode(face_aes_key_str, 'hex')
         rsa_key_str = settings.VERIFY_STUDENT["SOFTWARE_SECURE"]["RSA_PUBLIC_KEY"]
         rsa_encrypted_face_aes_key = rsa_encrypt(face_aes_key, rsa_key_str)
-        return base64.b64encode(rsa_encrypted_face_aes_key)
+        return base64.b64encode(rsa_encrypted_face_aes_key).decode('utf-8')
 
     def create_request(self, copy_id_photo_from=None):
         """
diff --git a/lms/djangoapps/verify_student/ssencrypt.py b/lms/djangoapps/verify_student/ssencrypt.py
index 0db7a231cd3cdf5d74a41fff61f77a9a76fd2088..3715055bb9a6db8c55d1bac60443e379d08496e5 100644
--- a/lms/djangoapps/verify_student/ssencrypt.py
+++ b/lms/djangoapps/verify_student/ssencrypt.py
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ def generate_signed_message(method, headers_dict, body_dict, access_key, secret_
 
     # hmac needs a byte string for it's starting key, can't be unicode.
     hashed = hmac.new(secret_key.encode('utf-8'), message.encode('utf-8'), sha256)
-    signature = binascii.b2a_base64(hashed.digest()).rstrip(b'\n')
+    signature = binascii.b2a_base64(hashed.digest()).rstrip(b'\n').decode('utf-8')
     authorization_header = u"SSI {}:{}".format(access_key, signature)
 
     message += '\n'