Development and production sites for IT products can be evaluated and certified separately according to the Common Criteria. The operator of such a site can submit an application to the BSI for site certification according to the CC. This kind of site certification is typically aimed at reusing the results in later certification processes for IT products that are developed and produced at this site. With site certification, synergy effects can be achieved in the case of product certifications, for example, if different products of the same type and potentially from different development companies are produced at a single site.

For the evaluation, the CC supporting documents for site certification ( Supporting Document: Guidance for Site-Certification (SiteCert) - Version 1.1, see also the related Anwendungshinweise und Interpretationen zum Schema AIS 47 - Version 1.1) are applied in particular.

A site certificate is accounted for in a product certificate as part of product evaluation in the context of the "ALC (Lifecycle)" audit class in the Common Criteria. The special procedural rules for inclusion are set out in specific AIS documents.

While site certificates are not automatically covered by the international recognition arrangements, the reuse of the results of a site evaluation in a product evaluation is supported within the scope of these arrangements. The certification body assessing this inclusion will decide on a case-by-case basis.