What are the new changes to the PMP Application in 2022?
What has changed with the PMP application process as of 2022?
As I explain below, the PMP® application system and online forms changed radically in June 2020 including a new recommended minimum of 200 to 500 words for each project description. Furthermore, in 2022 the PMP application review and audit system radically changed, even though the published PMP experience requirements did not change.
We’ve updated and thoroughly tested our FastPMP PMP Application tools to ensure you can get your application approved with minimal hassles and have now helped hundreds of applicants get their PMP application approved quickly. You don’t need to rely on outdated advice or templates from people who don’t understand the real reasons why some applications are quickly approved and others are rejected or held up in ongoing audits.
What were the major changes to the PMP online application forms?
Here is our analysis of what has changed with the PMP Application:
- the 550-character limit of the project description field is replaced with a new required minimum 100 words and the suggestion that a typical description is between 200 and 500 words. See my post on how to write 200-500 word project descriptions.
- you won’t have to report the hours you worked or separate them into each PMBOK domain area. PMI realized that most people didn’t keep a record of hours and forced them to guess at it. It’s great to no longer have to do that guesswork since it never mattered how many hours you report in each process area anyways.
- you won’t have to include contact details, addresses, phone numbers, or emails in the initial application. If you are audited, PMI will ask for this information, so you should still prepare them to be contacted by PMI and make sure they agree with your application.
- you won’t be asked your role on the project. Obviously, it was “Project Manager” — that was always a trick question.
- the “Industry” field is renamed “Organization Primary Focus” and contains more possible answers.
- there are a few new fields to enter including: project methodology (e.g., waterfall, agile, or hybrid); project team size; and project budget. These may be used for statistics as well as to decide if your application is credible.
What stayed the same with the PMP application?
Based on our research and testing so far, what hasn’t changed is:
- the project description field will still be one of the most important items that the PMI reviewers use to decide if your experience looks like it meets their criteria and expectations. PMI will continue to send rejection emails if they decide your application does not qualify for whatever reason (most commonly replying that some of it sounds like “operations” rather than a qualifying “project”).
- the other fields will continue to be an important source of data for deciding whether your application qualifies.
- the PMP application requirements, review, approval, rejection, and audit processes do not appear to be changing.
What changed with the PMP application review and audit process in 2022?
Based on our experience with PMP applications in the review process, there were big changes to how PMI reviews and audits applications:
- The initial PMP application review is now usually done much quicker than the previously stated 5 working days. Before, PMI seemed to sit on applications for a while and then send the email notification of approval or rejection exactly 5 days later.
- Currently, many applicants get notified of an audit, approval, or rejection at any time up to 5 days after submission. In many cases, no email was received so you need to just keep checking status in your account dashboard on my.pmi.org.
- The audit process changed in May 2022 to be fully online using e-signatures instead of by mail. A normal audit involves uploading your education documents to my.pmi.org and having that system send a copy your project details for each project on your PMP application to someone who can verify the accuracy of your project description and details. You can download our updated PMI Audit FAQ for a lot more information on how to respond to or avoid a PMP application audit.
As always, we continue to update our advice and tools based on our experience with the hundreds of PMP applications we work with. If you are qualified but don’t want to waste time or money trying to convince PMI of that, just click the awesomely unfancy button below to get started.
