Criteria for WBENC Application Certification

 A minimum of fifty-one percent (51%) of the equity in any publicly-owned business must be owned and controlled by one or more women who are U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents, or a minimum of fifty-one percent (51%) of the equity in any publicly-owned business must be owned and controlled by one or more women who are U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents.

One or more of the ladies are in charge of management and day-to-day operations.

To guarantee that the applicant company meets the WBENC Standards, WBENC adopts a two-step approach. This will entail a comprehensive examination of the documentation provided as well as a site visit interview with the female proprietor (s).

WBENC Application Instructions:

Please read all of these guidelines before beginning the online WBENC application to ensure that your application is handled efficiently.

Obtain all of the necessary documentation. Please offer a detailed explanation for documents that do not apply to your organization, specifying which documents do not apply and why. Make sure that each document can be uploaded online. Required Documentation can be found here.

Examine your legal and financial documents to make sure they favor woman/woman ownership and management.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Add wbenclink@wbenclink.org to the safe sender list of the owner and contact. The owner and/or the application contact will receive notifications from wbenclink@wbenclink.org about the status of their certification application. The process depends on the receipt of these communications.

NOTE: Once your firm has been certified, the WBENC application will become your company's résumé. Please use both upper and lower case letters and be as detailed as possible when typing.

Use the email address of the female owner to register.

The application's username will be automatically allocated to the owner's entire e-mail address.

Make a password for yourself. Save your login and password; you'll need them to access your application record(s) and certificate after certification is granted.

Before you can access the application, you must first answer pre-qualifying questions to see if you meet the certification's minimum requirements.

The page for processing your application will appear.

You may complete the processing sections in any order, but you must finish them all before signing and submitting the application.

If you need to depart the system, please click Save Draft to avoid losing any data you've entered.

The proportion of the application that has been finished will be displayed in the status bar at the top of the page.

A green checkmark will appear next to each area as it is completed, and the status will be changed from Incomplete to Complete.

The system will ask if the nonrefundable processing fee will be paid by credit card or check before the application can be submitted. You will be able to apply once you have answered all of the questions. NOTE: If your firm chooses to mail in a check, processing will not begin until your allocated Regional Partner Organization receives the money.

DO NOT SIGN/SUBMIT THE WBENC APPLICATION unless the female owner has verified it for accuracy. Data modifications will not be accepted once the application has been submitted.

Please remember to preserve your login and password because you'll need them both after certification is granted.

To begin the online , go to www.wbenclink.org.