CCIEs Are Required to Recertify Every Two Years

Active CCIE status shows your commitment to maintaining expert-level knowledge in an industry critical to the success of virtually every organization. CCIEs are encouraged to continually expand their technical knowledge and are required to pass a recertification exam every two years. If you do not complete your recertification before the deadlines, your CCIE certification will be suspended and you and your employer will lose the benefits associated with your expert status. You have one year to reinstate your CCIE status before you becomes inactive and must begin the certification process all over again.

Recertification Deadline

Your recertification deadline can be viewed online anytime (with login) at Certification Status.
Subsequent recertification deadlines are always based on your original certification date, not on when you took your last recertification exam.

Recertification Details

To maintain active CCIE status, CCIEs are required to pass either a CCIE written exam of their choosing from among all of the currently available written exams, or a CCIE lab exam in a new track every 24 months.
CCIE certification automatically extends other Cisco Career Certifications, such as CCNP or CCNA.
Candidates can only apply one passed written exam towards recertification for every 24 month recertification period.
Candidates must wait five calendar days between attempts at the written exam.
Certification candidates are responsible for keeping track of their certification expiration dates. Please plan your recertification accordingly. If your CCIE recertification requirements are not completed on or before the certification's expiration date, your CCIE certification will be suspended for one year. Candidates have one year to recertify their CCIE certification by passing the required written exam. If a candidate does not recertify prior to the one year suspension period, all CCIE certification requirements must be completed again to obtain the certification (pass both the written exam and the lab exam.)
Be sure to use the same ID number you were assigned for your original qualification exam to ensure your profile is updated accurately. If you have any questions about which ID number to use, contact CCIE support.

Recertification Exams Available

Written exams are two-hour, multiple-choice exams available at any worldwide Pearson VUE testing center. Schedule and pay for exams online with the testing vendor.

Recertification Exams:	Exam Number
CCIE Routing & Switching Written Exam	#350-001
CCIE Security Written Exam	#350-018
CCIE Service Provider Written Exam options: Service Provider, Optical...... Service Provider, Cable......... Service Provider, WAN Switching.............................. Service Provider, Content Networking........................... Service Provider, Comprehensive....................	#350-020 #350-021 #350-023 #350-026 #350-029
CCIE Storage Networking Written Exam	#350-040
CCIE Voice Written Exam	#350-030

Verifying Recertification

Scores on written exams are automatically downloaded from testing vendors to the CCIE database, but may take up to 10 days to appear. To verify your status has been updated, review your Certification Status online (with login). You should see your updated status as “recertified.” If this is not the case, contact CCIE support for assistance.

Special Interest

Cisco TV Broadcast
“Recertification”
March 16, 2005
CCIE program manager, Maurilio Gorito, discusses CCIE recertification in a taped broadcast. View tape.

Suspended Status

Once your CCIE certification is suspended, you lose all CCIE benefits and CCIE privileges with Cisco.com until you recertify. After one year of suspended status, your certification becomes inactive and you will be required to retake both the written and the lab exam in order to restore your CCIE status.

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