[lastsection4mee]

I would like to tell people about my experience with being certified in NY and what to look out for. I successfully completed the CPA exam in October 2012, received my one year of work experience in January 2013 and submitted my application for licensure that same month.

Literally almost every single thing that could go wrong when trying to get your license happened to me.

1) My college never sent my official transcript once I graduated.

2) NASBA never notified me they did not have an up-to-date transcript and sat on my application. It took three calls and seven emails to straighten the situation out and get a transcript sent to them so it could be forwarded to NYS.

3) My old firm incorrectly notarized Form 4B thereby deeming it null and void and requiring me to have them fill out another one. (The person filling out my experience form at my old firm sat on it for three weeks the second time)

4) After multiple calls to the NYS office of licensure I was told my application was at the board being reviewed. After a month, I called again and again they said it was at the board. Called again two weeks later and was able to be transfered to the board and they notified me it was basically just sitting there. No one had looked at it and although it looked like I had all the paperwork it was just sitting there not being reviewed. They tell me an evaluator will look at it this afternoon.

5) NYS evaluator notifies me that afternoon the person signing my experience form at my current firm is not licensed in NYS and therefore I need to obtain a new Form 4B. I notify him the Form 4B does not require a NYS CPA to sign off on the experience so I don’t understand what is going on. Another employee was just certified with the same person signing her experience form.

It has been over six months and I have still not received my license due to all these ridiculous issues.

A couple pieces of advice I would like to tell people who are applying for licensure in NYS.

Send all your paperwork to NASBA and NYS. What I didn’t know was NASBA sends all your paperwork to NYS once you are done with the exam. If you are missing any paperwork, NASBA will sit on it and not let you know you are missing anything. You won’t know you are missing things unless you call and continue to inquire.

Follow up with NASBA and NYS every week. Ask for a status update from each when you call and try to drill down as deep as you can to get to the person actually responsible for doing the work. For the state once you clear the Office of the Professions it will be sent to the board. I called the office of the professions at least seven times and got a different response each time, sometimes someone will actually look through your file and see whats going on, other times they will just tell you it’s going to the board, other times like recently they actually transferred me to the board.

Here is the number and extensions you will need for NYS.

Office of the Professions: Phone: 518-474-3817, ext. 270

Board of Accountancy: Phone: 518-474-3817, ext. 160

I would recommend to get the person to tell you as much as they can. Don’t take a simple answer of “oh it looks okay, it’s being sent to XXX.” I have literally spoken to every single person involved in the process from the people at NASBA to the people at the office of the professions and the people at the board of accountancy. Don’t wait a month thinking that everything is resolved and they will let you know if there is a problem because they won’t.

I hope this helps people who are applying in NYS because the process is a pain in the rear end and hopefully with this advice it will make it a little easier to navigate licensure if an issues arises with your application.