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Virginia CPA Requirements (Rules on Exam and Licensing)

Virginia CPA requirementsVirginia State Board does not require 150 credit hours to sit for the exam, and your experience can be verified by a non-CPA.

This means VA is one of the state boards with more flexible licensing requirements.

The catch: Virginia strictly requires either a valid Social Security Number, or a Virginia Control Number ( i.e. Driver’s License or Learners Permit number) to sit for the exam.

Virginia CPA Requirements

1. Education Requirements to Sit for the Exam

A candidate is required to fulfill all of the following:

  • Bachelor degree or above with accounting concentration or equivalent.
  • At least 120 credit hours.
  • Accounting course requirement:
    • 24 credit hours including auditing, financial accounting, management accounting, and taxation.
    • must beyond principles or introductory accounting.
  • Business course:
    • 24 hours.
    • As many as 6 hours of accounting courses (not included in the 24 hours of accounting courses) may be considered for the business course requirements.
  • Pre-evaluation service is available*

* Note from VA State Board: To complete a request, mail a request for the pre-evaluation service, along with the unofficial transcripts, an email address for correspondence, and a check for $25 made payable to The Treasurer of Virginia to the VBOA. Do NOT email or fax transcripts. The VBOA is not responsible for sensitive information transmitted electronically.

Note to International Candidates (Those with 3 year Degrees)

VA may still be accepting professional qualifications to some degree. If you have a SSN but stuck with a 3 year degree, give VA a try. Please refer to this sharing by Chee Kin, a very helpful CPA on my facebook page.

To Stephanie and her readers

This just came to my attention on linkedin and it provides further evidence that the VA state CPA board accepts certifications and is not adamant on a 4-yr bachelor’s degree. I edited this person’s response. He is a CA (Scotland) and has a 3-yr bachelor’s degree. Quote:

“……I went ahead and ordered a second evaluation, from ECE for Virginia based on Chee Kin’s advice. This came back much more helpful than my NASBA evaluation as they have awarded my CA sufficient credits to enable me to meet all accounting and business requirements and the 150 hour rule just with that and my 3 year UK bachelors degree – I didn’t submit my a levels as that would have delayed the process significantly while o waited for the transcripts.

Chee Kin I can’t thank you enough for your enormous help.

For anyone else looking to make the same move I can only recommend you do NOT use the NASBA evaluation service – they claim to be experts but woefully underestimated my qualifications – CA was only rated as 15 credits in accounting – and were unhelpful when I questioned this…..”

Moral of the story. VA is a super friendly state as far as education requirements are concerned if you have an SSN!

2. Additional Educational Requirements to Get the License

Education

  • Fulfill 150 credit hours requirements.
  • Bachelor degree with accounting concentration or equivalent.

Work Experience

  • 1 year of full-time experience in public or non-public accounting as well as academia in accounting.
  • The supervisor needs to verify the experience but the supervisor does not need to be a CPA.
  • Part time work is allowed as long as a supervisor can attest to 1 year of accounting experience with at least 2,080 work hours.
  • If the licensee does not apply for the license in the same calendar year he/she passes the exam, he/she must meet the CPE requirements of 40 hours per year up to 120 hours.

Ethics Qualifications

3. Virginia CPA Requirements on Residency & Age

  • US citizenship is not required
  • VA residency not required
  • Minimum age: none
  • Social Security Number or Virginia Control Number is required for both sitting for the exam and obtaining the license.

4. Fees

  • First-timers: $774 + application fee

5. Continuing Education

CPE is required for license holders. Please click here for Virginia CPA CPE requirements.

6. Other Useful Information

chee-kinI have one very helpful reader, Chee Kin, who got his CPA license from Virginia as an international candidate. He has been extremely helpful to fellow readers via my Facebook page. Feel free to drop a note there if you have specific questions on Virginia CPA exam requirements.

Other links from official sites:

7. Contact

Virginia Board of Accountancy
9960 Mayland Drive, Suite 402
Henrico, Virginia 23233

  • Phone:
    • General Information: (804) 367-8505
    • CPA Examination Services: (804) 367-1111
  • Fax: (804) 527-4409

What if the Virginia CPA Requirements don’t Work?

Check out these pages to learn about the educational and experience requirements, with my recommendation at the end of the posts:

If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment below, or visit my Facebook page.

About the Author Stephanie Ng

I am the author of How to Pass The CPA Exam (published by Wiley), and I also passed all 4 sections of the CPA Exam on my first try. Additionally, I have led webinars, such as for the Institute of Management Accountants, authored featured articles on websites like Going Concern and AccountingWeb, and I'm also the CFO for the charity New Sight. Finally, I have created other accounting certification websites to help mentor non-CPA candidates. I have already mentored thousands of CPA, CMA, CIA, EA, and CFA candidates, and I can help you too!

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