Or “How long does it take to get authorized for a VCAP?” a.k.a. “Why isn’t my VMware authorization showing up at PearsonVue?”
Back in July VMware and PearsonVue (the exam provider for all VMware certification exams) had a systems change that eliminated the historic “VCP######” ID system. The main issue with the old system was both companies issued candidates a different “VCP######” account number and depending on the exam you would receive multiple accounts #s from each company which required keeping the different numbers in sync between the different accounts.
This system was done away with and replaced by a single VMW-########x-###### where the last six # are the same as the old VMware VCP ID. As an additional feature, exams are now authorized in about 15 minutes.
One of the most common problems now is some users attempting to register for an Advanced Exam (a VCAP- level exam such as VCAP5-DCA orVCAP-CIA) do not see the registration showing up at pearsonvue.com even after they request authorization and receive the email saying the authorization is ready. The usual answer in those cases is to create a new account at PearsonVue using the new VMW-########x-######.
While PearsonVue received the authorization request from VMware, the old account was never re-IDed to the new format and this is far faster than requesting Pearson to update the old account. Note that while the new account will not have the results of any previous exams, that is not really necessary as long as they are correct in your VMware.com account.
TL;DR:If you don’t sen your VMware exam authorization at PearsonVue, create a new account using the new VMW-########x-###### ID.