[sarahmaru]

I live in Louisiana, but my employer (private industry) is based in Georgia. Anticipating moving to GA as my career progresses, I applied to the Georgia board for my exams. I recently found out that, for my experience requirement, my direct supervisor must be the verifying CPA. In Louisiana, it just needs to be a CPA “in a position to know,” and though I work closely with several CPAs, my boss is not one. I also found out I’m lacking one upper level business law course to apply in Louisiana, which burns because my advisor and I should have caught it and dangit I already passed REG.
With that, I’m contemplating just applying in another state for which I can meet all requirements (thinking Washington). My question is, how weird is that? I can easily get a CPA to attest to my experience, but don’t want to seem like I’m trying to game the system. Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks!

[Go.For.Broke]

@sarahmahu I was somewhat in the same boat. After passing the exams, I knew I had met requirements (in my case, education requirements) in some states, but not in the state in which I reside and work (Georgia). I was tempted to just become a CPA in some other random state, and worry about obtaining GA license later on. However, I just bit the bullet, took some online classes to top off my education requirement, and got licensed in Georgia. If you don't plan to open your own tax practice or something like that anytime soon, then sure you can go ahead and get licensed elsewhere. However, my personal recommendation is that you be patient and fulfill the requirements of licensure in the state where you plan to reside and work. Again, it depends on what you plan to do with your license. Just in my personal experience, I like being licensed where I live/work.

In a nutshell, applying in another state isn't cheating the system at all. You're still a CPA which is awesome. I think either way is fine. Just wanted to share my personal experience/preference.

I know I kept repeating myself, but I hope this is a little bit helpful!

[Author]

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