New Hampshire CPA Requirements (Rules on Exam and Licensing)
New Hampshire used to be a popular state for non-accounting major, because it only required 12 credit hours of accounting.
Since July 2014 when NH adopts the 3Es, there is no longer such an advantage. It’s fine to sit for the exam with 120 credit hours, but you must complete 30 accounting credit hours plus 150 hours overall to obtain the license.
After this change, there is little reason why international candidates would register through NH state board.
New Hampshire CPA Requirements
1. Education Requirements to Sit for the Exam
- Bachelor degree or above
- 120 semester units from an accredited university or educational institution
- Course requirement:
- Accounting: 12 semester units
- Non-accounting Business: 12 semester units
Note to non-US candidates:
- If you gain your degree outside the US, you will have to send your transcript to a foreign credential evaluation agency for evaluation.
- NH State Board accepts evaluations from 7 agencies. Please go to NASBA’s website on NH for details (link below)
- While not mandatory, you may choose to request a pre-evaluation from NASBA here.
Note to Indian BCOM + CA Candidates:
New Hampshire no longer accepts CA coursework as part of the educational requirements. Here is a direct quote from NASBA’s New Hampshire page:
Education requirements must be met through academic coursework completed at an accredited institution. Professional training is not acceptable toward these requirements. Coursework completed as part of a Chartered Accountant program is considered professional training and is, therefore, not accepted toward the education requirements for the U.S. Uniform CPA Examination.”
2. Additional New Hampshire CPA Requirements for Licensing
Education
You are required to obtain 150 credit hours to get the CPA license, including:
- 30 credit hours of accounting (include financial accounting auditing, taxation, and management accounting)
- 24 credit hours of business (include business law, business information systems, finance, professional ethics, business organizations, and economics)
Work Experience
- Public and non-public accounting experience is now accepted.
- Number of years required:
- 2 years with a bachelor’s degree
- 1 year with masters degree in business administration, accounting, finance or taxation
- Part-time work is fine but applicant must accumulate 2,080 hours each year with 1,500 hours in accounting & audit skills (essentially it is very much like full time)
- The work experience has to be supervised and verified by a CPA or equivalent (i.e. CPA in Australia, or CA in Australia, Canada, Ireland and Mexico)
- Only experience gained within six years immediately preceding the date application is received is acceptable for two year requirement and five years for one year requirement.
*Launched in Apr 2016* The NASBA Experience Verification service is now available to those who do not have access to an active U.S. CPA for verification.
Other Requirements
- Passing of the CPA Ethics Exam by AICPA NOT required.
- Social security number is NOT required for non-US license applicants.
3. New Hampshire CPA Requirements on Residency & Age
- US citizenship not required
- New Hampshire residency not required
- Minimum age: 21
4. Fees
- First-timers: $774 + application fee
5. Continuing Education
CPE is required for license holders. Click here for New Hampshire CPA CPE requirements.
6. Other Useful Information
7. Contact
New Hampshire Board of Accountancy
121 South Fruit Street
Concord, NH 03301
- Email: cpaes-nh@nasba.org, kimberly.ware@nh.gov
- Phone: 603-271-2219
- Fax: 603-271-7298
What if the New Hampshire CPA Requirements Don’t Work for Me?
Check out these pages to learn about the educational and experience requirements, with my recommendation at the end of the posts:
- CPA educational requirements: Rules, Obstacles and Solutions
- States with more flexible CPA experience requirements
- How to get extra credit hours for the 150-hour rule
If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment below, or visit my Facebook page.
* Photographs courtesy of meantux
About the Author Stephanie Ng
I am the author of How to Pass The CPA Exam (published by Wiley) and the publisher of this and several accounting professional exam prep sites
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I am eligible to sit for the exam in New Hampshire. Could I sit and pass the exam in New Hampshire, gain my year of experience and practice in Minnesota? Would I be eligible to get a MN license as soon as I pass the NH test? Or is there a waiting period that I would have to wait to get reciprocity?
Hi Scrum,
You can certainly gain your experience in Minnesota as long as your experience can be supervised and verified by an active CPA licensee. But then you’ll need to fulfill the requirement from New Hampshire and not Minnesota, which include at least one year of public accounting.
I am not totally sure whether New Hamphire is substantially equivalent, but it will be in a few years when it phases out the currently “easier” requirements (i.e. the 120 credit hour vs 150). But once you are in the game you will be grandfathered, no worries.
Cheers, Stephanie
Hi Stephanie:
Almost done with the Uniform examination (took REG last week, awaiting result, crossing my fingers). In the meantime, I am checking what are the next steps.
A little background, I applied to the NH before realizing the 2 year experience requirement. I worked with E&Y (Assurance and Advisory) for 8 years before joined my current employer here in DC. Thus I legally reside and work in the US. I do not intend to practice public accounting in the US. Just looking for a certificate. ECE’s evaluation came up with a 128 hour semester.
Is there any advice on which state to tranfer my credit to and earn the CPA certificate?
Arizona seems to be OK, provided I meet the 150 hours. “Pursuant to A.A.C. R4-1-343(B)(1)(b), any person signing a Certificate Of Experience who is not a CPA must have the education and experience similar to that of a CPA. If the signer is not a CPA, they must attach a resume and a job description to verify they have the education and experience to oversee a potential CPA candidate”. If AZ is the only solution available, any advice on how to meet the 22 hours gap?
Many thanks in advance.
Hi Indomitable Lion,
So I guess the issue is that you didn’t work in public accounting. In fact, there are other states that recognize non-public accounting experience, e.g. Illinois. Maybe you can give it a try?
The states mentioned here can be a good candidate as well provided you have SSN (sounds like you have).
Good luck!
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie – I have done B.com from Delhi university and M.Com from Annamalai university. Both were done through correspondence course. Additionally I have passed the final exam of ICWAI. I would like to know if my qualification fullfills the eligibility requirement for joining CPA and which state board should I apply. I am told correspondence course does not fullfill the 120/150 hours requirements and one needs to have completed graduation/post graduation through full time course.
Kindly advise
Thanks so much for your help
Hi Anand,
I am afraid the ICWAI doesn’t give you advantage in terms of getting qualified to sit for the CPA exam. But then, some of the courses taken may be used to count towards the educational requirements.
You are right correspondence courses (outside of the US in particular) do not count. Other than that, you will have to consult the professional foreign credential evaluator to see how much you can get in terms of credits.
Good luck! Stephanie
Hi Steph,
I am getting a HTTP 500 internal server error which I click on the links for CPA review courses and Yaeger review.
Thanks, Pradeep
Hi Prad,
Sorry — occasionally the server decides to take a break — but usually it’s up and well after a few minutes.
Hope you can get it through now? Stephanie
Hii Stephanie
I am a CA from India. I have completed my Bcom and soon expecting Mcom results. Is New Hampshire a right choice for me? And regarding work experience since I will be completing my Mcom do they consider Masters gained in India equivalent to that in US for 1 year work experience requirement or will I have to gain 2 years experience?
Hi Rags, since New Hampshire’s change of rules last year, it isn’t particularly attractive to international candidates. You can certainly apply through NH but they are now just the same as any other state boards following the standard 3E rules.
With the McOM you should be pretty ok with the educational requirements. The bottle neck is likely the experience. If you are looking for state boards with more flexible requirements, you can check out this page: https://ipassthecpaexam.com/cpa-experience-requirements/
Thanks Stephanie. But I read in your post that NH accepts public as well non public accounting experience. I thought it was flexible with educational and experience requirements. Is there something that I am missing out? Please let me know
Hi Rags, you are absolutely right on that, but many candidates chose NH because it used to require the least accounting hours (12). They have now changed it to a more standard 30 credit hours. Most other state boards also accept both public and non-public accounting experience so this is not something special that NH is offering. Regards, Stephanie
Ok. Thanks Stephanie. I will go through other state board requirements via link that you posted. According will consult u later.
Sure!
Hi Stephanie,
I’m a BCom and MCom qualified with a CA Final one group remaining. I had the following subjects in BCom and MCom course:
BCOM – TY (from pune university)
1) Business regulatory framework (Mercantile Law)
2) Advanced Accounting
3) International economics
4) Auditing and Taxation
5) Business Administration I & II
MCOM Sem III & IV
1) Business Finance
2) Industrial Economics
3) Advanced Auditing.
4) Specialized Auditing
5) Capital Market and Financial Services
6) Global Economic Environment
7) Recent Advances in Accounting, Taxation and Auditing
8) Project Work/Case studies
I’m currently working in Deloitte as senior auditor for the past 3 years and have plans to stay here for a while.
I want to apply for the CPA exam but not sure that which state would i be elligible for based on the Credits. Can you please help me with this. I am exactly not aware what are the pros and cons of each state that is selected for initial registration or for applying to be a member. As I hear from people, New Hampshire and Alaska are two suitable boards. But not exactly sure which is best for me.
Thanks in advance.
Shabbir.
Hi Shabbir, I can’t really tell for sure with only the title of the courses, but you can take a look at this page and check out the pros and cons (NH and AK are included). https://ipassthecpaexam.com/cpa-international-students/
Once you narrow down the choices, it is easier for me to help you out. Regards, Stephanie
Hi Stephanie,
Am planning to sit for the CPA exam but am still not sure which jurisdiction to choose.
I live in United Arab Emirates. Am a holder of Master degree in accounting. Am planning to work in a bank under a supervision of a CPA. So Do you think that New Hampshire is a good choice, as its education requirements suits me?
Regards,
Manal
Hi Manal, sounds like you are qualified for quite a few states. If NH works, sure 🙂
Here are the popular states for international candidates for your reference: https://ipassthecpaexam.com/cpa-international-students/
Hi Stephanie,
I am an international student you got his transcripts evaluated by NASBA in 2013 and met the 120 credit hours. Can I qualify as being grandfathered under the old rule before July 1st 2014 or do I need to follow the new rules for the 150 credit hour licensing requirement. I have never registered for an exam.
Hi Sam, if you didn’t pass the exam then, I don’t think you can get grandfathered, but please check with the state board to make sure. Regards, Stephanie
Sorry Stephanie the state I qualified for was New Hampshire.
Hi Stephanie,
Does the non-accredited credits count for the 150 credit rule?
Regards,
Prakash
Hi Stephanie,
I passed the exams with NH last march ( international candidate, Egypt), are there any deadlines to meet the license requirements?
I keep hearing that you mist get license before 3 years for international candidates or else you must retake the exams again but I can’t find this rule any where online, could you please advise ?
Hi Seif, you can check out the link to the rule here: https://ipassthecpaexam.com/cpa-exam-international-locations/ (under “for further information at the end). The good thing is that the state may not choose to implement this rule. It’s hard to tell.
Hi Stephanie,
Thanks for very helpful info. you provided on the web.
I live in Texas working under a Texas CPA. If i pass the exams from N Hampshire because currently i have 123 credits (got evaluation from NASBA for N Hampshire). After passing exam can i transfer my credits to Texas board and i get license from Texas state after completing my 150 credit requirements?
As i believe to practice in Texas you need to have a Texas board license, New Hampshire will not work…. rite ?
If I have completed my CPA exam from California prior to 2014, will I still be eligible to apply for New Hampshire CPA license. Do i still need to meet the 150 hour criteria for the license.