The principles of the present invention provide for delegating certificate validation. A client computer system sends a certificate validation request to a server computer system over a trusted link. The certificate validation request includes at least enough certificate information for a certificate authority to identify a digital certificate that binds a sending entity to a private key. The server computer system checks a validation path to determine if the digital certificate is valid and at least one certificate revocation list to determine if the certificate has been compromised. The server computer system sends a certificate status indication to the client computer system over the trusted link. Accordingly, the resources of the server computer system, instead of the client computer system, are utilized to validate a digital certificate. Further, digital certificate validation can be delegated to a server computer system that attempts to pre-validate a digital certificate.