A foreign credential evaluation for CPA candidates converts your international transcripts into U.S. semester-hour equivalents so a state board of accountancy can decide whether you qualify to sit for the Uniform CPA Examination. You order it from an agency your board approves, arrange for your university to send sealed transcripts (plus certified translations if the documents aren’t in English), and wait roughly six weeks after everything arrives. Budget several hundred dollars and start at least three to four months before you want to test.
Pick an Agency Your Board Actually Accepts
This is where candidates lose the most money. Every jurisdiction publishes its own list of approved evaluation providers, and a report from an unapproved agency is useless no matter how thorough it is. Check your state board’s list first, before you pay anyone.
NASBA runs its own service, NASBA International Evaluation Services (NIES), built specifically for CPA candidates. A growing number of jurisdictions require NIES exclusively and reject everything else.1National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. NASBA International Evaluation Services Requirements The advantage of NIES beyond acceptance is integration: it feeds directly into NASBA’s exam application system, which produces your Notice to Schedule.
Other boards accept evaluations from members of the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) or the Association of International Credential Evaluators (AICE). World Education Services (WES), a NACES member, publishes a CPA Supplemental Report that analyzes accounting and business coursework the way boards want it laid out.2World Education Services. CPA (Certified Public Accountant) Confirm with your board before ordering anything.
Ask for a course-by-course evaluation, not a general degree-equivalency statement. A report that says “equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree” without a credit breakdown won’t tell the board whether you have enough accounting, auditing, tax, and business hours to qualify.
Documents to Gather
Collecting documents takes longer than the evaluation itself, especially if your university is overseas. Start early.
- Official transcripts from every post-secondary institution you attended. Transfer credits listed on a later school’s transcript usually don’t count; the evaluator needs records from the originating institution. Transcripts must be sent directly from the registrar to the evaluation agency in sealed envelopes.1National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. NASBA International Evaluation Services Requirements
- Official degree certificates or diplomas, also sealed from the issuing institution.
- Mark sheets or grade reports, where your country issues detailed grades separately from the transcript.
- Government-issued identification, typically a passport, which you can upload through the agency’s portal.
The sealed-envelope rule catches people out. If you open the envelope, or if it arrives resealed, the documents get rejected and you go back to your registrar for a new set. In countries with slow or unreliable mail, that single step can add weeks. Contact your registrar early and specifically ask about sending sealed transcripts to a U.S. address.
If Your Documents Aren’t in English
Academic documents in any other language need certified word-for-word translations covering everything on the page: course titles, grades, institution names, and dates. You cannot translate your own records. Handwritten translations, translations of photocopies, and partial translations are rejected.3World Education Services. Translation Requirements for a WES Credential Evaluation
The translator must be a professional: a university language department, a certified translation agency, or a comparable professional service. NASBA offers a translation service priced by page count and document size, so asking your institution for concise originals can reduce the bill.4National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Credential Language Translation
Translations don’t need to arrive in sealed envelopes the way transcripts do. Most agencies let you upload them through the online portal. The translation must correspond to the original-language document, not to any separate English version your school issued.
Submitting the Application and What You’ll Pay
You apply through the agency’s online portal. For NIES, you enter personal details, your education history, the jurisdiction you’re applying to, and the purpose of the evaluation. Select CPA Examination as the purpose; that setting controls how accounting and business courses are broken out in your report.
A full NIES evaluation runs several hundred dollars; current pricing is on the NIES services and fees page.5National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Services and Fees Adding coursework to an existing evaluation later costs $130 through NIES rather than the full evaluation fee again.6NASBA International Evaluation Services. NASBA International Evaluation Services WES and other agencies have their own fee structures; compare only among agencies your board accepts.
Payment is due at submission. Keep the confirmation number and use the agency’s tracking dashboard to watch documents arrive.
How Long It Takes
NIES estimates six weeks of processing, and that clock starts when the agency has every required document in hand, not when you submit the application.7National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) If your university takes three weeks to mail sealed transcripts and your translator needs another week, your six weeks haven’t started yet.
Some agencies sell expedited processing, which shortens the review but doesn’t shortcut document verification. Practically, order the evaluation three to four months before your target testing window. Candidates who wait until they feel ready to study routinely miss their windows.
How the Report Reaches Your State Board
The agency sends the official report straight to the state board you named on the application. You can’t deliver it yourself. Boards only accept reports transmitted directly from the evaluator to prevent tampering.1National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. NASBA International Evaluation Services Requirements
You’ll get your own copy for reference. That copy is helpful for seeing how your credits were categorized, but only the version the agency sends to the board counts. Confirmation of delivery usually shows up in the board’s application portal or in an email from board staff.
How Long the Report Stays Valid
Reports expire, and delays in your exam plans can catch you out. NIES reports remain available to the destination board for one year after completion. If the board needs the report re-sent after that, you pay a duplicate report fee. After five years, the report expires entirely and you pay the full evaluation fee for a new one.8National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. International Credential Evaluation for CPA Examination and/or Licensure
Switching to a different jurisdiction after ordering can also mean requesting a new report to the new board, with additional fees even inside the one-year window. Pick your jurisdiction before you pay.
If Your Report Shows a Credit Shortfall
The report may find you short on accounting, business, or general education credits. This is common for candidates with three-year bachelor’s degrees from countries where that’s the standard, such as India or the UK; those degrees may not evaluate as equivalent to a four-year U.S. bachelor’s, leaving a real gap to close before you reach the 150 semester hours most jurisdictions require for full licensure.
If the board denies exam eligibility for insufficient education, you’ll need additional credits from an accredited institution. NASBA points candidates toward U.S. or foreign universities offering the needed courses and toward regional and programmatic accreditors for identifying acceptable programs.9National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Resources for Deficient Education Before you enroll anywhere, confirm with your board which specific courses will fix the deficiency. The wrong class costs money and months.
Once the courses are done, you don’t repurchase a full evaluation. NIES adds new coursework to your existing report for $130.6NASBA International Evaluation Services. NASBA International Evaluation Services
After Acceptance: Notice to Schedule
Once the board accepts the evaluation and confirms you meet the education requirement, you’re issued a Notice to Schedule (NTS), which authorizes you to book exam appointments at a Prometric testing center. NTS validity varies by jurisdiction, and the expiration date is printed on the notice. Miss it and you reapply and pay again.10National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. CPA Exam FAQ
The evaluation fee is one line item. You’ll also pay state application fees, which vary widely, and NASBA exam fees for each section. Budget the whole pipeline so you’re not scrambling once the NTS arrives.