Common Issues in Authentication Applications (Guidance)

IAQG Authentication is continually working to improve its online application process and to clarify posted requirements. As part of this ongoing improvement effort, IAQG Authentication is sharing the following guidance regarding common issues encountered in submitted applications that require remediation or may result in application rejection. This is not a comprehensive list of all encountered issues.

Level 1 non-MRO Work Experience Criteria

IAQG Authentication requires Level 1 applicants to demonstrate “5 years of non-MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) ASD work experience within past 8 years.” This work experience must meet the following criteria:

Recognized “non-MRO ASD work experience” must be full-time employment or full-time contracting either from a major equipment manufacturer organization or major equipment integrator organization, an ASD Prime Organization, or an ASD Regulatory Agency outside of the MRO context. Applicants must demonstrate direct involvement in engineering, design, manufacturing, quality, or process control activities.

In addition, the following FAQs clarify related definitions:

Although applicants may have conducted work for organizations designing and producing parts for the ASD industry, and this work may even be safety critical with exacting standards/requirements (such as NADCAP) at a 9100-certified organization, this does not necessarily meet the eligibility criteria for Level 1 Authentication. In particular, applicants who work at sub-tier suppliers are typically NOT eligible under this criteria, even if such organizations may have, in some cases, been eligible under previous criteria. In this case, applicants would instead apply as Level 2 to start and could consider pursuing advancement in the future.

In addition, as noted in the requirements, the applicant’s work experience must be within the past 8 years, which is counted based on the date of application payment. Any work experience from more than 8 years in the past, even if otherwise meeting the above criteria, will be excluded from consideration. If provided work experience spans both inside and outside the 8 years range, only the portion of experience that occurred within the past 8 years will be considered. Only full-time employment or full-time contracting will be considered.

Level 1 applications that do not meet the Level 1 work experience requirements will be rejected. Applicants who submitted an application prior to the official launch of IAQG Authentication in early-September 2026 will be given the option to downgrade to Level 2 authentication or to re-apply later under grandfathering criteria. Rejected applications may also be appealed pursuant to the IAQG Authentication Appeals Policy.

Insufficient Audit Experience

IAQG Authentication requires all applicants to submit evidence for “15 audit days in qualifying full QMS audits within the preceding 2 years.” If applying to Level 1, this experience must be in a Lead Role.

If 3rd Party: Stage 2/Recertification or both parts of Surveillance for the same supplier/facility within the same certification cycle
If 2nd Party: Covering all AQMS/QMS requirements & processes

To be deemed “qualifying”, this audit experience must meet the following criteria:

Qualifying audits may be either second-party or third-party. For third-party audits, the applicant must be an employee or contractor for an accredited Certification Body. At least one of the provided audits must include Clause 8.3 Design & Development requirements. The auditor must participate in the full duration of the audit, according to their assigned role; if serving as an Audit Team Member, participation could exclude any activities only performed by the Lead Auditor. Partial audit days must be rounded down to the nearest half-day increment.

In addition, the following FAQs clarify related definitions:

What will be accepted for second party audits?

Common problems related to the application of this requirement include:

Including ineligible audits, such as Stage 1 audits, special audits, partial QMS audits, or first-party audits.
Failing to provide both matching Surveillance Audits for a given facility, as these two surveillance audits collectively form a “Full QMS” audit.
Including audits where the auditor only had partial involvement (such as only 0.5-day involvement).
Failing to include at least one audit with Clause 8.3 Design & Development requirements
Including audits further in the past than the preceding two years

When ineligible audits are included in an Authentication Application, the Application Review Team will exclude these ineligible audits from the minimum requirement calculation. If the remaining provided audits do not meet the minimum requirements, the applicant will be asked to amend their application. If the auditor did not conduct sufficient qualifying audits within the preceding two years, the application is subject to rejection.

Insufficient Independent Verification

IAQG Authentication requires all work and audit experience to be independently verified by an outside party via the Experience Verification process.

Common problems related the application of this requirement include:

Applicant used themselves as verification contact, which is not permitted. (Independent outside verification is required.)
Applicant used another IAQG Authentication applicant as a contact, which is not permitted. (Independent outside verification is required.)
Applicant used the same contact for all their provided work and audit experience, which is considered insufficient. (Independent verification is required from at least two distinct contacts.)
Applicant had a different party complete verification “on behalf of” the named contact, such as by providing a different person’s alternative contact information, which is not permitted. (The alternative email/phone fields may NOT be used by “alternative people,” just alternative contact information for the same named person. If the named person can no longer be reached to perform verification, this experience entry may not be included in the application.)

In case of insufficient independent verification, applicants will be requested to modify the contact people on their application to provide different contact people, which will trigger a new round of contact verification for the newly listed contacts. Applicants must seek express prior consent from each contact prior to listing them on an IAQG Authentication application.

Missing Lead Auditor Training Certificate

IAQG Authentication requires applicants to provide “evidence of passing an IAQG-approved ASD Lead Auditor Course and IAQG Auditor Authentication Course, including any applicable examinations.”

The requirements also clarify that:

To support an effective transition, evidence of successful ISO 9001 (QMS) Lead Auditor course completion will also be accepted for applicants who attend and pass the Aerospace Auditor Transition Training (AATT) course in 2026.

When submitting applications via IAQG Authentication, the IAQG AATT course is counted automatically as an application prerequisite, so it is not necessary to upload an AATT course completion certificate. Rather, applicants must upload a certificate for an ASD Lead Auditor course, or ISO 9001 (QMS) Lead Auditor course if within the time period.

Applicants who fail to upload the proper certificate will be asked to amend their application. Applicants who have not attended a qualifying course must do so prior to seeking Authentication via the IAQG Authentication criteria.