[Arthi]

Hi all, I am a Chartered Accountant (ICAI, India). I have a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from India as well. I also have an MBA in General Management from a US University. I live in Texas and have over 10 years of work experience in the US and India. Which is the best jurisdiction to apply for writing CPA Exams and subsequently obtaining a license. Can I apply directly to the Texas State Board as they don’t go through any international evaluation? Or if not, which states will work the best given my educational and work experience. NASBA asks to mention jurisdiction when I try to apply for an evaluation. Thank you.

[Recked]

It is usually best to apply and become licensed in the state that you live and practice.
Do you have enough accounting credits between your commerce degree and MBA program to qualify?
From what I have heard the Chartered Accountant program is way more intense than the CPA exam, so hopefully you qualify to sit.

[Arthi]

Thank you. I think I will be ok with the 150 hours requirement and may even be fine with the accounting credits needed between the three qualifications I have. I am a bit concerned about one year of work ex under a licensed CPA. I don’t have that although I have worked in finance and accounting all my life. I have worked tons with CAs but not directly reported to a CPA. I was looking at whether any state is a bit more lenient about industry experience rather than non attest accounting experience under the supervision of a CPA.

[vbmer]

I think you will need to provide more details on your educational background down to the accounting credit hour level for the best answer. I assume, given that you have a US MBA, you got a detailed evaluation of your foreign education, which should give you an idea of where you stand for accounting credits. With what little detail you've given so far, I suspect you will at least need to take a credit US tax course for the vast majority of, if not all, jurisdictions. Not all states require work experience to be under a CPA, and many states have relatively low accounting credit requirements.

DC, Wisconsin, Washington, and Massachusetts might be good fits.

https://www.thiswaytocpa.com/ is an official AICPA site that outlines exam/licensure requirements by state.

[Arthi]

Thank you. I just had to send in my transcripts for the MBA program, there was no evaluation needed or done at that time. I have course names but in India, we don’t get credits or hours, I have done plenty of advanced financial and management accounting, auditing and taxation courses, but will definitely have to go through some sort of evaluation program here so as to convert all of that to equivalent credits/hours.

[aspencookie]

Alaska is your best bet.

[Recked]

You'll want to look into the NASBA education evaluation services as well as the NASBA experience verification service (along with researching which states accept that).
Some states accept the NASBA experience verification in place of work experience under a licensed CPA.

[notme]

Someone recommended Maine as they were a bit liberal in terms of the requirements. You need to send your International transcript to NASBA to be evaluated. Believe it or not but mine took approximately 3 months before they got back to me. And then you can decide which state you will meet the requirements. I think some States have an initial transcript review (domestic transcript) and will let you know if you have met the requirements before submitting an official application. This costs about $50.

[Arthi]

Thanks. I went ahead to submit an evaluation request for Virginia as the requirements seemed to be most favorable for my case. I have submitted a rush request through FACS as I read the regular service is taking really long, so I’m hoping it will get done in 10 business days.

[Author]

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