Complaints and Appeals.

Scope: Appeals Versus Complaints.

This policy covers two different things, and it is worth being precise about which one applies before you write in. An appeal challenges a decision. A complaint raises a problem. AICA handles both through the same intake address, but they are reviewed differently.

What can be appealed

• Exam results. A pass, fail, or scoring outcome you believe was reached in error under the published exam policies and the relevant certification's assessment blueprint.
• Procedural or proctoring issues. A concern that the exam was not delivered or proctored under the conditions AICA requires of its Authorized Training Partners, in a way that may have affected your result.
• Conduct findings. A measure applied against you under the Code of Professional Conduct, including an advisory notice, suspension, or revocation.

All three are decided, and appealed, through the AICA Certification and Standards Authority, the internal governance function that owns the standard and makes certification decisions independent of the training partner who delivered the exam.

What is a general complaint

• A service issue: something that went wrong in registration, payment, scheduling, or communication with AICA.
• Staff conduct: a concern about how you were treated by AICA or by an Authorized Training Partner acting on AICA's behalf.
• Website or platform problems: a broken form, a verification issue at aicauthority.org/verify, or a similar technical fault.

A general complaint does not challenge a certification decision, so it is not reviewed by the Certification and Standards Authority in the same way an appeal is. It is still logged, acknowledged, and answered. See Section 5.

How to File an Appeal.

An appeal must be submitted in writing to sophia@aicauthority.org. AICA does not accept appeals by phone or informally through a training partner, because an appeal needs a written record to be reviewed properly.

File your appeal within 30 days of the decision you are appealing. This 30 day window is a standard reasonable period; it is not published elsewhere on the site as a fixed statutory deadline, and AICA will use its judgment where a candidate has a genuine reason for a short delay. An appeal filed well outside this window may not be accepted, so write in as soon as you decide to appeal.

Include the following so the appeal can be reviewed without a back-and-forth for basic information:

• Your full name and the email address used to register.
• The credential or exam reference: which certification, and the date of the exam sitting or the decision being appealed.
• The grounds for appeal: what you believe was reached in error, and why, in your own words.
• Any supporting detail relevant to the grounds, for example a description of a proctoring issue if that is the basis of the appeal.

An appeal is a request to review whether a decision was reached correctly under the published policy and standard. It is not a request to retake the exam, and it is not a negotiation over the difficulty of the questions or a preference for a different outcome.

What Happens Next.

• Acknowledgment. AICA acknowledges receipt of your appeal in writing.
• Review. The appeal is reviewed by the AICA Certification and Standards Authority, the same internal body that owns the standard and made the original decision, working from the record and the evidence rather than reopening the exam itself.
• Decision. The Authority communicates its decision in writing, with reasons. The decision addresses whether the original outcome was reached correctly under the applicable policy; it may uphold the original decision or correct it where an error is found.

AICA does not publish a fixed number of days for this process on this page, because the time a review takes depends on what is being reviewed. You will receive an acknowledgment promptly, and the Authority's written decision once its review is complete.

Retake Policy Cross-Reference.

A retake is not an appeal, and the two should not be confused. If you did not pass an exam and have no concern about how the decision was reached, the retake route, not the appeals route, is what applies to you.

The retake terms, published in full on exam policies, are the same for every AICA credential:

• A waiting period of 14 days must pass before a reattempt.
• A maximum of 3 attempts is permitted in any 12 month period.

If you believe your result was reached in error, for example because of a procedural or proctoring issue, use the appeals route in Section 2 instead of, or alongside, scheduling a retake. Filing an appeal does not pause or extend the retake waiting period unless the Certification and Standards Authority says otherwise in its written decision.

General Complaints.

General complaints, service issues, staff conduct concerns, and website or platform problems, use the same intake as appeals: write to sophia@aicauthority.org, describing what happened and, where relevant, when.

AICA commits to acknowledge every complaint it receives and to respond in writing once it has looked into the issue. A general complaint does not go through the Certification and Standards Authority's appeal review, since it is not a challenge to a certification decision, but it is taken seriously and answered by AICA directly.

What AICA Will Not Do.

To keep this process fair to every candidate, there are things AICA will not do, even on request:

• Retroactively change a decision without new evidence. A decision already reviewed and upheld will not be reopened on the same facts a second time.
• Provide extensions beyond stated policy. The 30 day appeal window and the retake terms in Section 4 apply consistently; AICA will not grant an open-ended extension because it was asked.
• Discuss another candidate's case. Every appeal and complaint is confidential to the person who raised it. AICA will not share details of, or comment on, another candidate's result, appeal, or conduct matter, including to explain your own outcome by comparison.

Status and Revision.

This is version 1.0 of the AICA Complaints and Appeals policy, effective 11 July 2026. It sits alongside Curriculum Standard v1.0, published 10 July 2026, and is owned by the Certification and Standards Authority. It is reviewed annually, and where it is revised, the version and effective date on this page are updated. This policy does not alter the retake terms or the appeals route already published on exam policies; it explains how to use them.