Samples of PMP Application Rejection and Failed Audit Emails

Samples of PMP Application Rejection and Failed Audit Emails

Can you send me a sample PMP application or template?

No! Because my mission is to help people get their PMP application quickly and basing your application on another PMP application is one of the most proven ways to have your application rejected or to fail an audit. I will share sample rejection and failed audit emails below so you can see what happens when you don’t take crafting your unique and personalized PMP application seriously.

First though, here’s something most PMP exam prep instructors won’t tell you about PMP applications: it’s actually a lot harder to get your application approved than just filling out some sample template. It might have worked when your PMP Course Instructor got certified, but today PMI reviewers are trained to reject PMP applications when they or their review system spot certain things like plagiarism, copy-and-pasting, project descriptions that they decide sound like “operations”, etc. etc. 

Having your PMP application rejected or failing a PMP application audit is actually more common than you might think. And it doesn’t matter if you have lots of great project management experience — we have found that senior PMs often have a harder time getting their PMP applications approved than junior PMs because their applications tend to focus on leadership and outcomes and other things that the PMI reviewers don’t care about.

Below are some actual samples of PMI’s PMP application rejection emails that people we help have shared with us over the years. Read about what happens when PMI decides that your experience doesn’t qualify for the PMP for various reasons. Note that the reasons for rejection given in these emails do not always correspond to any official published policy about what PMI considers acceptable or unacceptable project experience. In our experience, trying to fix the issues raised in PMI’s purposely vague rejection emails is a waste of time because the resubmitted application will often be rejected for different reasons. It is much better to just completely rewrite your application using our help. As you can read in the samples below, resubmitted PMP applications usually face an automatic audit and much more scrutiny. When you fail the audit for a resubmitted application, PMI may warn that “Your application has been moved to a pending status for the final time so that you may address the aforementioned concerns.” We’re not sure what this really means, but it doesn’t sound good!

Some PMP Application Rejection Emails:

Here are some excerpts of rejection emails from the PMI Reviewers:

An initial PMP application rejection email (with typically vague rejection reasons)

Dear ****** ***********,

Thank you for your interest in the Project Management Professional (PMP)® Credential. We are in receipt of your application and have identified the following concerns:

1. Project Management Experience – The project work experience you documented as projects does not meet our requirements as written; it appears from the deliverables you documented that they are operational and administrative in nature. Using the principles of project management in operational and administrative tasks can be very effective, but does not provide the professional project management experience required for the PMP credential.

2. Project management experience that is non-compensated project management related services volunteered to a recognized community or charitable organization does meet PMI’s project management experiential requirements.

Note: we’re not really sure what the 2nd issue means because PMI does accept some types of volunteer projects if done in a professional setting (not student projects). Contacting PMI doesn’t help clarify the situation as they will just give you another reason for rejection.

A second email saying the PMP application has been closed

Thank you for your interest in the PMP Credential.

We regret to inform you that, following a thorough review, your PMP application has been closed because:

The project descriptions you documented do not meet our requirements as written. It appears from the deliverables you documented that they are operational and administrative in nature. Using the principles of project management in operational and administrative tasks can be very effective, but does not provide the professional project management experience required for the PMP credential.

We hope that once you are able to meet the eligibility requirements, you will reapply.

Please contact us at [email protected] if you have questions or concerns.

Thank you,

PMI Program Administration Team

Note: if you want to make sure PMI doesn’t arbitrarily decide your project experiences were “operational and administrative in nature”, just use our FastPMP Wizard™ or FastPMP Concierge™ service.

A warning that a resubmitted application was not accepted for the final time

Thank you for your interest in the Project Management Professional (PMP)® Credential. We are in receipt of your updated application and have identified the following concerns:

Project Management Experience – The deliverables documented seem to be operational and administrative in nature. While you may have used the principles of project management in accomplishing the goals and objectives of the organization, it appears that you were executing the operational and administrative tasks in your role. Using the principles of project management in operational and administrative tasks can be very effective, but does not provide the professional project management experience required for the PMP credential.

Your application has been moved to a pending status for the final time so that you may address the aforementioned concerns. To edit your application, please use our online certification system at https://certification.pmi.org. You may also view and download a copy of your submitted application. When complete, please submit your edited application. Upon review of your re-submitted application, you will receive notification of your eligibility status via e-mail. If the information received is not sufficient, your application may be formally rejected.

Thank you,
PMI Program Administration Team

A failed audit email (with vague concerns that the experience sounds operational)

We regret to inform you that, following a thorough review, your PMP application has been closed because:

The project descriptions you documented do not meet our requirements as written. It appears from the deliverables you documented that they are operational and administrative in nature. Using the principles of project management in operational and administrative tasks can be very effective, but does not provide the professional project management experience required for the PMP credential.

We hope that once you are able to meet the eligibility requirements, you will reapply.

A failed audit email (explaining you didn’t act like a Project Manager)

Thank you for your patience and for returning your audit materials prior to the deadline date.  We regret to inform you that, following a thorough review, your PMP application has been rejected.  Based on our review of your application we have determined that you currently do not meet the minimum eligibility requirements for the credential since you did not act in the capacity of Project Manager.

As stated in the PMP Handbook, all eligible credential applications are subject to auditing to ensure that all educational and experiential requirements established by PMI are upheld, and that the integrity of the globally recognized credentials are maintained.  While the selection process for an audit is primarily random, PMI reserves the right to select any candidate to be audited at any time during the credentialing process, including after the credential has been bestowed.

All candidates are asked to adhere to PMI’s rigorous eligibility requirements; failure on our part to uphold these requirements jeopardizes the integrity of the PMP credential.  As such, we will be unable to approve your application at this time.  Your application audit has been failed due to “no fault,” meaning that you were unable to comply with the candidate audit due to your application not meeting the minimum eligibility requirements.  There is no penalty period associated with this, and you may re-apply when you are able to meet the minimum eligibility requirements.  Should you choose to re-apply, your new application will again be audited.

Various other generic concerns raised in PMI’s rejection emails

  • project domains (Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, Closing) and domain-specific deliverables are incomplete
  • project management methodology used is unclear
  • without clear project domains we are unable to determine if a project is valid.
  • wherever work hours are claimed within a domain, elements of that domain as detailed in the PMBOK Guide or the PMP Exam Content Outline must also be conspicuous in the description.
  • the content within the experience descriptions indicated providing valued project support, and that you led some aspects of each project, but did not demonstrate serving as project manager, leading and directing all phases / domains for which experience hours were claimed.
  • the experience items provided did not demonstrate that you led and directed using skills specific within the PMP Examination Content Outline.
  • it was unclear if each experience represented an individual project.

You can avoid these problems by using our FastPMP Wizard to help generate your PMP application or sign up for FastPMP Concierge and we will draft your application for you.

 

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