Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The VAcertified Board of highly qualified business entrepreneurs assembled from around the world was brought together to ensure professionalism, fairness, equality and depth to the the certification process.  Below are the most frequently asked questions to help you through your decision making process to apply to become VAcertified.  Feel free to ask us your question if it is not answered below by contacting us.

Q. What areas does the Board evaluate in the application process?

A. The Board will ask you a series of questions in order to get an indepth profile of who you are based on your education, VA-related education, work experience, and professional accomplishments within the VA industry.

These are the areas we will assess via a series of questions with supporting documentation required during the certification process:

  • Government Education
    • High School Graduation
    • College/Trade Certifications
    • University Degrees
  • Virtual Assistant-related Education
    • VA Training Programs
    • Coaching/Mentoring Hours
    • Further Education
    • Certifications
  • Work/Professional Experience
    • Self employment history (Min. 1 year in business)
    • Client testimonials
    • Previous Admin/Corporate Work Experience
  • Professional Accomplishments
    • Online Presence
    • VA related Volunteer Work
    • Industry Participation
    • Industry Promotion/Growth

It is possible to qualify for certification if you rank low in one section yet rank sufficiently high in the other sections. You may be asked to provide information for each section from client testimonials to certifications you already hold.

Q. What are the formal education requirements? Does the formal education requirements have to be VA training?

A. No. Education does not have to be VA training. Having said that, there are no formal education requirements as the certification process looks at the entire package that is the applicant and deficiencies in one area can be compensated by higher point scores in another section. Do not concern yourself if you are missing information for specific sections. Remember, each Virtual Assistant will have a different story that the global Board will assess. For example, one applicant may have hours of VA training but no website presence; whereas another VA may have no VA training but has many clients and a website presence. Each may be eligible to be certified yet both have completely different backgrounds.

Q. Do you have any minimum requirements to pass?

A. Yes. Like all certifications, certain criteria must be met. Our certification program has been designed to ensure that if you have a weakness in one area, strengths in another can help compensate for that.

Please note: All applicants must be able to prove they have been in business as a Virtual Assistant company for at least one year.

Q. Is there a test to take?

A. No.

Q. Do any of my other VA certifications count towards this one?

A. Yes. Everything to do with your personal worth as a Virtual Assistant counts towards certification.

Q. Would you like some testimonials from clients? If so, will be you be contacting them all?

A. Testimonials from your clients can only further support your application and we suggest you provide as many as possible. We will contact as many as we need to ensure a consistency of client satisfaction.

Q. Why does it cost so much for the application fee and why must we pay upfront?

A. Even though the Board is made up of volunteers, at the end of the day there are still expenses that need to be covered for us to break even and provide this much needed global certification process to the Virtual Assistant industry. Overhead expenses like time to process the applications, website maintenance, shopping cart processes, bookkeeping, promotions, marketing, etc.  If we could provide this to you for free, trust us WE WOULD!  We’ve done our best to keep the costs as low as possible for you to be certified yearly within your industry.

With the exception of going to a restaurant or paying your monthly electric bill, payment is always made before receipt of a product.  It costs the same to process a qualifying application as it does one that unfortunately doesn’t meet our criteria at the present time.

Q. Why do I have to pay a non-refundable application fee only to have to provide an additional fee to re-submit if my application is not accepted?

A. Unfortunately, the costs to process each application are the same regardless of whether a person passes or fails. We do recognize the financial commitment and the possible frustration if you don’t get the certification during the first go around and we feel it is not fair to ask the applicant to pay the full amount to apply for certification again. For this reason, a reapplication fee within 6 months of original application date is only $35 instead of another $95. We will inform you on why your application was not approved and provide feedback as to what you can do to ensure a successful reapplication.

Q. Why does it take 6-8 weeks to process?

A. Due to volumes of applications and the time taken to research and validate all claims made in all applications, we did not want to have a short turn-around time and not be able to meet it. However, We do not feel that most applications will take this long to clear.

Q. Why is there a yearly recurring fee to keep my certification up-to-date?

A. This recurring fee each year helps us keep our database up-to-date with credible Virtual Assistants. Each year we take time to contact the Virtual Assistant to make sure they are still in business and keeping up to date with the VA industry through education and professional accomplishments and work experience.