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International Designate Experience Review

This information is for candidates or prospective candidates in CPA Professional Education Program (CPA PEP) holding an international designation recognized by IFAC (The International Federation of Accountants). If you do not hold a designation and have questions regarding reporting on internationally accrued experience, please contact your provincial practical experience team to discuss your reporting options.

IFAC Designates have the option to apply for a full review of their international experience and could potentially receive credit for up to 30 months (the full CPA PEP experience requirement) with depth, breadth, core and enabling competencies, based on submission of required documents for the full review.

To be eligible for full review you must:

*If you do not qualify for a full review based on the dates of your experience, you may still qualify for a partial review.

The practical experience committee completes the full reviews. The results of your review will be available within four (4) months after the required documents are submitted.

IFAC Designates also have the option of a partial review and may still receive credit for 12 months duration towards the 30-month practical experience requirements. To be eligible to receive 12 months duration only, you must:

  • Be an international designate holding an IFAC designation.
  • Be enrolled in CPA PEP through CPAWSB, having been approved for admission into the program.
  • Have held at least one relevant international work experience position that lasted 12 or more months.*
  • Have submitted a resume to CPAWSB showing at least 12 months of international experience. Updated resumes can be emailed to cpaapplication@cpawsb.ca.
  • Submit the International Designate Experience Recognition Form. For partial review, former employers do not need to be listed. 

*Qualifying designates are still eligible for 12 months duration even if previous international experience ended over 7 years ago. 

Forms

At CPAWSB, International Experience Verification for IFAC designates is done through the Practical Experience Review Committee (PERC). PERC will assess to see if your international experience meets the technical level of a CPA in Canada, and will award recognition of experience duration and competencies, based on how well your experience matches the requirements.

To proceed with this review, you must submit three (3) documents to CPAWSB

International Designate Experience Recognition (IDER) Form 

This form requests your consent for your file to be reviewed by PERC and requires you to list all of your employers that will be submitting the second form (IPEV) on your behalf.

This is the only form required if you are submitting for partial review. 

Download Form

International Practical Experience Verification (IPEV) Form

This form must be submitted to all the previous employers you had identified on your International Experience Recognition (IDER) form. Please complete this form and submit to your previous employers to review and sign off on and then have them email it to cpaapplication@cpawsb.ca, cc’ing you to inform you of the receipt of the email. 

This form is required for full review – at least one IPEV must be from an employer with employment ending in the last 7 years.

Download Form

Enabling Competencies Form

On this form, you will need to answer questions in detail and submit them back to our office at your earliest opportunity.

This form is required for the full review. 

Download Form

All forms should be submitted by email to cpaapplication@cpawsb.ca.

To proceed with the review you must have submitted:

  1. A letter of good standing from your accounting body (required at admission into CPA PEP).
  2. A current resume outlining your international experience.
  3. The International Designate Experience Review (IDER) form.
  4. The International Practical Experience Verification (IPEV) form – one must be submitted for each employer identified on IDER form.
  5. Enabling Competencies Form.

If you’re struggling to fill out any of these forms we encourage you to review our FAQs.

Once the Practical Experience Verification (IPEV) forms from employers, updated resume, and the Enabling Competencies Form have been received, we will take your file to the next Practical Experience Review Committee (PERC) meeting. Once your provincial CPA body has made a final decision, you will be notified of this decision in an email.

Contact Us

Contact Us

If, after reviewing our FAQs, you still have any additional questions please email us at cpaaplication@cpawsb.ca.

Review the FAQs