PMP Certification Overview
Ensuring you meet the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification requirements is the first step to becoming PMP certified. PMP eligibility is based on academic education, project management experience, and project management professional training. Once you have satisfied the eligibility criteria, you can submit your application online via PMI’s online portal. A small percentage of applications will be put through a random auditing process, more information about this below. After approval, you can take your PMP exam at your nearest Prometrics testing center. The computer based exam allows you to receive your score immediately. Upon passing, you are approved to use the PMP credential for 3 years. During this time must earn 60 professional development units (PDUs) to maintain your PMP status for an additional 3 years.
For complete eligibility documentation, please review the PMP certification requirements within the Project Management Professional (PMP)® Handbook.
| Eligibility Requirement | Four Year Degree | Secondary Degree* |
|---|---|---|
| Years of Project Management Experience | 3 Years (36 Months) | 5 Years (60 Months) |
| Hours Leading & Directing Projects | 4,500 Hours | 7,500 Hours |
| Hours of Project Management Education | 35 Hours | 35 Hours |
* A secondary degree is defined as a high school diploma, associate's degree, or global equivalent.
PMP Application Audit Process
Why Does PMI Audit PMP Applications?
In order to maintain the integrity of the PMP certification and enhance the credibility of PMP Certification holders, PMI routinely conducts random audits of a certain percentage the PMP exam applications. Although PMI does not publish what percentage gets audited, our 13 years of experience shows about one in four or five of the applications get audited.
How Will I Know If I'm Being Audited?
Generally, you will not know you are audited until your application has been accepted and you have been authorized to pay. Once you complete the payment, you will be informed if you have been selected as an audit candidate within a few minutes via email or the online application portal. If you receive an email with an approval code or receive an approval code within your PMI application portal then you have not been audited and can schedule your PMP exam at your convenience.
I'm Being Audited by PMI, What Do I Do Now?
While the auditing process may appear intimidating just from the phrase, it is not as long as you follow the steps outlined by PMI. As part of our application prep tool assistance process we provide several tips that will simplify this process and will make it easy for you to navigate.
Once PMI informs you of your audit, you will be able to download the audit package. This audit package will contain instructions for providing verifications for the various items submitted with your PMP application. PMI will require you to provide proof of:
- Academic Education:
- This could be a copy of your education stated in your application. If you do not have a copy of the certificate or if the certificate is too big to copy, PMI will accept transcripts. Most schools and universities will provide a means of verification upon request.
- Project Management Education:
- This refers to the 35 contact hours of training you have included in your PMP exam application. Most companies will provide a certificate and a copy of this certificate should suffice. If you did not receive a certificate as part of the training, a letter from a manager and/or training group indicating the DETAILS of the training will be required. Please ensure it states the number of hours you spent in training. The training must be in areas related to project management in the 5 process groups.
- Project Management Experience:
- As part of the PMI audit package stated above, you will be able to download individual Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of files of each of your position experience to verify. This document details your experience, requests the supervisor’s contact information, and provides PMI’s contact information.
- When verifying your experience, it is essential that the supervisor:
- Legibly signs all the position(s) experience
- Puts the signed document in an envelope
- Seals the envelope and signs across the flap
- And, sends the signed envelope back to YOU and not to PMI!
- The last step is critical since PMI states on their website that they sometimes get individual envelopes from supervisor. PMI prefers all experience verification envelopes are sent at one time.
- Tip: If there is one supervisor who was your manager at many positions, they can fill-out the information and sign one of the position verification forms and initial the rest.
- Tip: Make sure you put all your verification forms in one single big envelope and overnight it with signature required. This will ensure you have proof it has been received.
- Send the information to PMI's Global Operations Center:
- PMI Global Operations Center
- 14 Campus Blvd.
- Newtown Square, PA 19073-3299 USA
How Long Is The Audit Approval Process?
Although PMI’s official line is that it will take then 5-7 days to approve the application, we have seen that applications verifications sent overnight get approved within only a couple of days.
Approval & Eligibility Period
It generally takes PMI® 5 business days to review your application and respond. Once your application is approved you will receive an invitation to pay for and schedule the exam. You will schedule your exam with Prometric at prometric.com. You will have one year to take the exam after your application has been approved and may take the exam up to three (3) times during the eligibility period.
