I'll add just one more note to this. Not only does it depend on your certifying agency/entity, but that agency will vary in terms of whether they'll guide and support your efforts to tweak anything that needs tweaking, versus just giving you a "yes/no" answer. We went through the organic certification process a number of years ago with our state ag agency, which had an in-house organic certifying department. I wanted to keep things local. What I didn't realize is that they were, at the time, also woefully under-budgeted, which slowed everything down, loaded up the staffmembers with too much work, and also ruled out repeat site visits. We were given the option to fix our minor issues and then re-apply (by paying a new fee - ouch!) or just wait until the next year to try again. That ruling didn't come until September, and it's a one-calendar-year-to-the-next certification.
We opted not to try for that calendar year. We found out later that had we gone with one of the national-level certifying agencies, they can accommodate stuff like repeat visits, offering guidance on how to tweak, fix and/or improve things to green-light the inspection, etc. We will go through the certification process again, and when we do it'll be with one of the national-scale associations. Oregon Tilth is one that operates nation-wide and just happens to be regional for us anyway, with a very strong track record of working with growers and livestock owners. There are other such organizations.
If you are close enough to be filling out the paperwork, start talking to other folks in your area who are already certified (even if it's not hugelkulture). Most certified organic growers are very happy to talk to other prospective certified organic growers. See which certification entity they went with, and how much that entity was/was not able to hold their hand for the process. Rest assured that it's a lot of hoops to jump through, and for a lot of good reasons. It's supposed to be a challenge to get that certification. Just remember that some certification entities are better funded/staffed to help you get there.
I hope you go for it. Please let us know what you learn a long the way.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
