Your Path to Becoming a CA: Member or past member of a non-designated accounting body

You are a member or past member of a non-designated accounting body outside Canada (you have passed the final qualifying exam for membership in that body).

Step 1) Evaluation of Qualifications

You can ask the Institute to evaluate your professional education and practical work experience to determine if you are eligible for any exemptions from the professional education or practical work experience requirement. While you do not have to have your qualifications evaluated before you register with the Institute, you may wish to do so in order to help you make career decisions. The evaluation is free.

Exemptions from the Institute's professional education requirement (including the Core Knowledge Examination and School of Accountancy ) are very rarely granted. However, if you feel your qualifications are exceptional in comparison with other applicants from the same accounting body, you may apply for exemption from the professional education requirement.

Administrative staff at the Institute will make a preliminary decision about your eligibility for exemptions and will notify you in about three months. Then you will attend a hearing before members of the Applications Committee at the Institute's office in Toronto, Ontario.

At the hearing, you will be invited to present information that supports your request for full or partial exemption from the professional education and/or practical experience requirements. The Applications Committee will make a decision about whether you are eligible for any exemption.

There is a waiting time of approximately three to four months to schedule a hearing before the Applications Committee.

Application Process

You need to send to the Institute:

• A chronological résumé showing you have completed at least three years of work experience in accounting, business, or related areas.
• Letters from your previous employers providing details about your work experience.
• A letter from your accounting body certifying that you are a "member in good standing" (see Glossary) or that at the time your membership ended, you were a member in good standing.
• Documentation from your accounting body explaining its qualification process, including education and work experience requirements. (This information can be downloaded from your accounting body's website.)
• An official transcript of the results of your final qualifying examination from your accounting body. Be sure to send an original transcript. Photocopies are not accepted.

Step 2) Practical Work Experience

Your next step to becoming a Chartered Accountant is to obtain employment as a student CA in a public accounting office in Ontario and begin your practical work experience. There are approximately 600 firms in Ontario approved for training CA students.

To qualify as a CA in Ontario, you must complete 30 months of work experience in an Ontario public accounting office approved for training CA students. Your work experience must include 2,500 chargeable hours. Half of these hours must involve audits. You may be granted some exemption from the practical experience requirement, based on an evaluation of your professional education and previous work experience.

For more information about the practical experience requirement, see the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants publication CA Practical Experience Requirements.

Once you have obtained either full- or part-time employment as a student CA, you will be eligible to register with the Institute as a student candidate.

Employment Support for Newcomers

Communities throughout Ontario offer a variety of free and low-cost resources and supports to assist newcomers to find employment in their field. For information about employment programs, click here.

For more information about student CA jobs, click here.

Step 3) Registration with the Institute as a Student

To register with the Institute as a student candidate in this path, you must:

• be a member of a non-designated accounting body outside Canada
• be a resident of Ontario
• be employed in a public accounting office in Ontario approved by the Institute for training CA students

Registration Process

Send a completed student registration form to the Institute. Include with your registration form:

Proof of Identity

• A copy of your birth certificate, along with a copy of your passport, proof of Canadian citizenship, Permanent Resident Card, or Record of Landing in Canada

and

• If you have changed your name, a copy of your marriage certificate or other legal document relating to your name change.

Education

• An official transcript of all university courses you have taken as part of your degree. An official transcript has the official stamp or seal of your university. Photocopies of transcripts are not accepted.
• A university syllabus or course calendar from your university describing the courses you completed. If this document is not in English, you must send as well a notarized translation of course descriptions for all courses you completed.

Professional Membership

• If you have not already provided it, a letter from your accounting body confirming that you are a "member in good standing" (see Glossary). If you are not currently a member, the letter should confirm that you were a member in good standing up to the point when you stopped being a member. Be sure to send an original letter and not a photocopy.

Work Experience

• If you have not already provided it, a detailed résumé showing that you have at least three years of work experience in accounting, business, or related areas.

Step 4) University Course in Canadian Business Law

Take an approved university course in Canadian business law either before or after you register with the Institute. Review the Settlement.Org University Education page for more about universities in Ontario.

Step 5) Professional Program

Most student candidates enroll in the Institute's Professional Program at the end of their first year of practical work experience. The Institute's Professional Program has two components:

• the Core Knowledge Examination (CKE)
• the School of Accountancy (SOA)

Core Knowledge Examination

The Core Knowledge Examination (CKE) is a four-hour multiple-choice examination that tests your knowledge about the fundamentals of accounting. You must pass this examination before you are eligible to attend the School of Accountancy (SOA). You can write the Core Knowledge Examination in January or May.

School of Accountancy

The School of Accountancy (SOA) is a four-week period of full-time study in June. In the months before the School of Accountancy begins, you will be provided with readings and assignments to prepare for the School. The Institute also offers lectures and workshops during the winter months before the School of Accountancy to help you prepare.

End-of-School Examination

At the end of the four-week School of Accountancy, you will write the End-of-School Examination (ESE). This examination consists mainly of essay questions based on cases.

Step 6) Uniform Evaluation (UFE)

You can write the Uniform Evaluation (UFE) at any point after completing the School of Accountancy. The UFE is held over a three-day period and covers the basic knowledge needed by a public accountant working at an entry level. During the exam, you will write three papers, one paper each day. You will respond to descriptions of business situations that represent the kinds of challenges you have faced during your work experience or will soon be facing in your professional career as a CA.

The UFE is held every year in September at several locations across Ontario. To be eligible to write the Uniform Evaluation, you must successfully complete or be exempted from the Professional Program.

Step 7) Practical Work Experience

Complete your practical work experience requirement.

Step 8) Application for Membership

When you have completed all the requirements, you will be eligible to apply for membership in the Institute. This membership allows you to use the CA designation and the title Chartered Accountant. Also, the CA designation makes you automatically eligible for a licence to practise public accounting.

Application and Membership Fees for this Path

Note: Prices do not include GST.

	Jan. 1 - June 30	July 1 - Dec. 31
Student registration processing fee	100.00	100.00
Annual maintenance of student registration	250.00	125.00
Chartered Accountants Students' Association of Ontario (CASAO) annual membership	30.00	15.00
	380.00	240.00

Examination and Professional School Fees

School of Accountancy (including the Core Knowledge Examination and the End-of-School Examination)

1,450.00

 

Uniform Evaluation (UFE)

1,150.00

Membership Fees

Student admission (after fulfilling the student requirements)

500.00

 

Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (ICAO) annual membership

470.00

 

Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) annual membership

425.00