If you are a member in good standing of a Recognized Accounting Body, you may qualify for registration as an applicant under the Recognized Accounting Body pathway.

The requirements to be met to apply to register as an applicant and to qualify for admission to membership in CPA Ontario are set out in Regulation 6-2: Applicant Registration

List of Recognized Accounting Bodies:

• LÍnstitut des Reviseurs dÉnterprises de Belgique
• Ordre des experts comptables de France
• The Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants
• The Netherlands Institute of Chartered Accountants (Nederlandse Beroepsorganisatie van Accountants)

Registration Eligibility

In order to qualify for registration as an applicant you must:

• be a member in good standing with a Recognized Accounting Body ; and
• not have been registered with CPA Ontario or another provincial body as a student in the five (5) years prior to, or at the time of, writing any part of the normal qualifying examination(s).

In addition to the above, if you wrote one (1) or more part(s) of the normal qualifying examination of the recognized accounting body while:

• you were a resident of Canada; or
• after you became a resident of Canada; or
• after you returned as a resident to Canada,

Then you must have obtained either: 

• a university degree from a degree-granting institution of higher education outside Canada as a result of having attended the institution in person for classroom instruction on a full-time basis; or
• at least one (1) year of full-time practical experience in accounting in the country of the Recognized Accounting Body.

Please note that "becoming a resident of Canada" means the date of landing in Canada as evidenced by government documentation, excluding any period of time of temporary residency in Canada under a temporary visa or student visa following the expiry of which residency in Canada ceased or ceased for a continuous period of at least one year prior to returning to Canada.

If you are a member in good standing of a Recognized Accounting Body but you do not meet the eligibility criteria set out in Regulation 6-2, you may be eligible to complete the CPA Certification Program via the Member of Accounting Body Outside Canada pathway.

How to Register

To register with CPA Ontario as an applicant under the Recognized Accounting Body pathway, please submit the following:

• an International Candidate Application Form;
• a Certification of Membership Form (Appendix I of the International Candidate Application Form contains this form.) All applicants are required to provide confirmation that their membership in a Recognized Accounting Body is in good standing. Such confirmation must be provided by the Recognized Accounting Body in prescribed form and should be sent directly to CPA Ontario by mail or email from the accounting body. If the Applicant is submitting the letter with their application, the original is required. Applicants are solely responsible for contacting their accounting body and requesting such confirmation. CPA Ontario reserves the right to contact the Recognized Accounting Body specified above or any other professional or regulatory body and to make enquires and/or obtain information in relation to this application;
• an International Candidate – Application for Registration form (this form is temporarily unavailable);
• fee remittance – see below;
• sign and date CPA Ontario's Academic Code of Conduct and abide by it;
• Proof of legal name
• a detailed chronological résumé listing all work experience;
• letter(s) of good standing from all other professional accounting bodies in which you hold membership (originals must be submitted with your application or they can be sent directly by mail or email from your accounting body);
• a Practical Experience Certificate for Internationally Trained Candidates (form is available here: International Experience Form)  for all relevant accounting experience to demonstrate that the experience requirements have been met; and
• Residency Documents: documentation showing the date you first landed in Canada, documentation showing the year you first filed a Canadian Income Tax Return, copy of Canadian Customs and Immigration Landing Documents (if applicable), copy of Canadian VISAs held (if applicable), copy of passport page(s) containing immigration stamp(s) to support Canadian entry/exit dates and/or residency pattern at the time of writing the normal qualifying examination(s), memorandum prepared on a supplementary sheet outlining, in sufficient detail, your residency pattern at the time of writing the normal qualifying examination(s). The memorandum must also provide clarification as to whether you maintained a home or mailing address in Canada at the time of writing the normal qualifying examination(s).

For more information on how to access your records, please see our Access to Records Policy

Submission Instructions

All documentation must be provided in English. You are responsible to have documents officially translated if necessary.

Your application will not be considered complete until all information and documentation has been received. It is your responsibility to ensure the application is complete and accurate and is received by the Registrar.

Submit your application via email or regular mail. Information completed via affidavit and containing a notary or commissioner stamp or seal must be submitted in original form by regular mail.

  ITAregistration@cpaontario.ca
 CPA Ontario
69 Bloor Street East
Toronto, ON M4W 1B3
Attention: Registrar’s Office

Upon receipt of your complete application for registration, you will be informed within eight to twelve weeks of the Registrar’s decision on registration.

Prescribed Practical Experience Requirement

Upon receipt of a completed application for registration, you will have your application and supporting documents assessed by the Registrar to determine if you meet the prescribed practical experience requirement.

The determination to be made is whether you have acquired, as a result of your professional qualification(s) and previously acquired experience in accounting, the depth and breadth of competency development required at the time of admission to membership as established by the CPA Practical Experience Requirements (CPA PER).

Program Requirements

Once you have been approved for registration as an applicant, you will be required to successfully complete the CPA, CA Reciprocity Examination, Part I (CARE). After successful completion of the CARE, if you have fulfilled or been exempted from the prescribed practical experience requirement, you will be eligible to apply for membership as a member in CPA Ontario. Members are awarded the Chartered Professional Accountant and Chartered Accountant designations and are therefore entitled to use the initials CPA, CA in Ontario.

In order to maintain your membership with CPA Ontario, you will be required to successfully complete the CPA Reciprocity Professional Development Course (CARPD) by the second anniversary of the date of admission to membership. CARPD consists of approximately 20 hours of online study in Canadian tax, law and ethics in a modular form. There are no exemptions from this requirement.

Fees

Individuals applying for registration as applicants are required to remit the fee indicated below. The fee amount includes HST and must be remitted by credit card or by cheque made payable to Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario. The total fee consists of the following:

*If your registration application is denied or is deemed incomplete and returned by CPA Ontario, the Initial Administration Fee plus applicable taxes will be considered forfeit (non-refundable). All other fees that have been paid plus applicable taxes will be refunded with the incomplete application.

**This fee covers the period July 1 to June 30.

Fees associated with admission to membership and annual member dues are as follows:

Please refer to Regulation 4-2, Dues for a complete listing of dues and fees, including the CARPD course.

An applicant may be responsible for additional costs imposed by external parties. These costs are not levied by CPA Ontario and are beyond CPA Ontario’s control. Therefore, CPA Ontario is unable to advise applicants of the total gross or net costs (after taking into account reimbursements or other subsidies made available by external parties) of the registration and qualification to membership processes. All costs levied by CPA Ontario have been approved by Council and are found in Regulation 4-2, Dues.

Appeal Rights

A decision of the Registrar not to register or reregister an individual as an applicant may be appealed by the individual to the Membership Committee. The parties to an appeal are the individual appealing and the Registrar. The appeal shall be conducted in accordance with the Rules of Practice and Procedure. The decision of the Membership Committee is final.

Decisions relating to assessment of experience are eligible for a review. Reviews of these decisions may take place upon request and if additional or new information is provided.

Requests to consider alternative documentation

In extraordinary circumstances where required documents are not obtainable for reasons beyond their control, applicants can take steps to explore acceptable alternative documentation. Requests to consider alternative documents are assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Please contact Student Services at transcriptregistration@cpaontario.ca for more information prior to submitting your application.