The other threads about this are over a  year old, so maybe somebody has more info now.

Why do I have to pay an application fee to be approved to take the CEH cert?

Is this just a money thing, or are they doing a background check to make sure you are not some sort of criminal? (Hacking). I have nothing to worry about, but I am curious. I am guessing it is a "we want your money since you studied on your own and did not buy our books/courseware." thing.

I have been told it takes up to a month after applying to be approved to take the cert. Can anyone verify this, and if true, why is that?

When I go to their site, and click on the link to fill out the application, it takes me to a different page with a huge list of things to buy. Anyone have the correct URL?

Trying to use their contact link gives this error!
While trying to retrieve the URL: https://www1.2checkout.com/cgi-bin/contactsales.2c?

The following error was encountered:

Connection to 192.168.0.120 Failed
The system returned:

    (111) Connection refused
The remote host or network may be down. Please try the request again.

Your cache administrator is webmaster.
Generated Sat, 23 Feb 2013 23:01:04 GMT by proxy.2checkout.com (squid)


This is from the contact us just under the homepage link on this page:
https://www.2checkout.com/2co/buyer/orderpage?sid=51789

Thank you,

Dalobo

I guess it's just money for checking the papers and perhaps your linkedin profile  Even though, I think those 500$ for the exam voucher, should cover that hilarious 100$ administration fee. On the other side, GIAC certifications does not have this fee, but they are like priced at 899$. On a third side, CEH is waste of time, unless it's a job requirement.

Having JUST gone through the process of being approved for self-study CEH examination, I know exactly what you mean. Here is the deal:

1. Go Here and fill it out: https://cert.eccouncil.org/Exam-Eligibility-Form

2. Someone will email you with the forms needed. Sign and fax them in, including the $100 billing form. Be sure to write your supervisor's contact info somewhere because there is no place for it. (Conflicting forms, I know).

3. They will email your supervisor with a PDF for him to fill out and fax in to them. Within 1 week, ask your supervisor if he's gotten this form. If not, email either "applicationservices[at]eccouncil[dot]org" or the person who contacted you, if they emailed you from their own address.

4. Within 2-3 weeks, follow up with same email addresses mentioned above and ask them if they have everything needed for testing approval processing.

5. Once they approve you via email, you will have to fill out the same "billing" form again for the $500 VUE voucher purchase.

6. Within 3-5 business days, you will receive your voucher number via email, along with your EC Council approval number that authorizes you to take the test.

7. Currently, I'm scheduling my test date now, hopefully for next week!

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It took me forever to get all of this done and I've complained to them in great detail about their lack of uniformity on the website with conflicting documents and link redirects that really detracts from the expected professionalism. Pain in the butt, and I'm really hoping that submitting my ECE's every year isn't equally painful.

So I'm pursuing the CEH courseware at night self-paced using a couple of video series. I noticed the "supervisor comment" above and was curious. Someone had told me a while back that there was some sort of requirement of years of experience before you could get approved to take this exam, is that true?
If so, I am wasting my time going for this cert.
I AM gaining a lot of knowledge so I don't consider that a waste of time. In fact, it has fueled my curiosity to the point where I will learn more about hacking regardless. But if learning the material and how to apply it is coupled with a requirement to work in the field then I have put the cart before the horse in some way. What would be a good certification path to actually get my foot in the door as a pen tester?
Any enlightenment/advice is greatly appreciated.

You have to have a supervisor vouch for your two years. Also, you will need to have a non free email address to apply. No hotmail or gmail, you have to have a business email address such as jdoe@microsoft.com or jdoe@ibm.com, etc.

Dalobo