[Matt]

I just recently moved to PA and am studying for the BEC portion of the exam. I passed FAR in another state in June. In PA you are required to submit 3 character references with signatures of people who have known you for at least 3 years in the state of PA (One of them has to be a CPA). The problem is, I just moved here and I don’t know anyone. Has anyone else experienced something like this?

[AusNat]

Look at the regulation and see if there's a “reasonable exception” clause. Moving to PA recently would likely qualify – this is hardly a unique situation. Then contact the board and ask if they can advise you on whether that's the case. I'd expect you'd be allowed to submit references that meet the qualifications except for being PA residents, or potentially those and a reference from a PA coworker/employer who meets the other qualifications but hasn't known you for 3 years.

The backup plan if that failed would be getting licensed initially in either your home state or where you went to school, and then applying to transfer your license under PA's reciprocity rules after working for a while. Each state has a procedure for this. I've had several coworkers do this when our state was being nitpicky about accepting out of state education credits – they went through the licensing process in the state they went to undergrad in (but tested here, it doesn't matter where you actually sit the exams), then applied for a license here under reciprocity after a year or two. It didn't have any effect on their careers and was less of a hassle than petitioning to get their undergrad credits accepted.

[Author]

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