[foyboyusc]

Hey guys,

I just found out tonight that I may have misunderstood the experience requirements. I passed everything last year, and during the course of taking the exam I found out that I was five hours short of the 36 hours (my fault, I never counted and took an advisors word who said I had enough to get my license.) So fast forward to now, I am in the middle of taking six hours from LSU online to get my license. I have had my experience for several years through two companies I’ve worked for previously. I re-read the experience tonight, and this is the first time I caught that the experience has to start after you complete the required accounting courses. Has anybody found themselves in a similar situation? And what did you do about it if you did?

[Anonymous]

Experience has to start after education? I've never heard of that before. Tell us what state you're in and someone here may be able to help. But I recommend calling your state board and speaking to someone directly.

[foyboyusc]

I am in South Carolina. I had not heard that before either, I just read it on the letter they sent me from the state congradulating me on passing all four sections and telling me what I needed to do next to get my license. It was just one sentence that said “Please note that experience does not count until after satisfaction of the education requirements” That being said, I researched it further and from the wording I can find online on SC websites, it appears you only have to have the education requirements that are required to only sit for the exam, which I did have at the time of my experience. I am going to call and verify though, I hope that's right, I've been freaking out a little since I read that 🙂

[wizards8507]

This might be expensive but consider this:

Transfer your passed exam scores to a state without experience requirement.

Get licensed in THAT state.

Transfer your license back to the state you live/work in.

NY CPA

[Anonymous]

@wizards8507

Which states do not require the work experience for the license, I thought all states required it?

[wizards8507]

New York has one but it's not nearly as strict as what you described:

Experience Requirements

An applicant who meets New York's 150 semester hour education requirements for licensure must present evidence, satisfactory to the State Board for Accountancy, of one year of full-time experience (or the part-time equivalent) providing accounting services or advice involving the use of accounting, attest, compilation, management advisory, financial advisory, tax, or consulting skills under the supervision of a certified public accountant licensed in one of the U.S. jurisdictions or a public accountant licensed in New York State. Acceptable experience may be earned in a public accounting firm, government, private industry or an educational institution.

Full-time employment is considered to be a 5-day, 35-40 hour week, excluding overtime. Acceptable part-time (no less than 20 hours per week) experience will be considered on the basis of one week of experience for every two weeks worked.

NY CPA

[Author]

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