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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 an actively licensed CPA from any jurisdiction.

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 to sit for the CPA Exam:

  • Bachelor’s degree or above with an accounting concentration or equivalent.
  • At least 120 credit hours.
  • Accounting course requirement:
    • 24 credit hours, including auditing, financial accounting, management accounting, and taxation.
    • The courses’ curriculum must go beyond 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 to International Candidates (Those with 3-year Degrees)

VA may still be accepting professional qualifications to some degree. If you have an SSN but are 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’s degree with an accounting concentration or equivalent.

Work Experience

  • 1 year of full-time experience (2,080 hours) in academia, a firm, government, or an industry position.
  • Your experience must include the substantial use of accounting, financial, tax, or other relevant skills.
  • The experience must be certified by an actively licensed U.S. CPA, but the CPA-holder can have a license from any jurisdiction.
  • The Virginia work experience requirements do not state that the person who verifies your experience must be your supervisor.

Ethics Qualifications

3. Virginia CPA Requirements on Residency & Age

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

4. Fees

The Virginia State Board of Accounting has the following fees:

  • First-time VA CPA Exam application fee: $120
  • CPA Exam fee per section: $238.15 ($952.60 for all 4 CPA sections)
  • If you fail an exam, there is a $20 re-take 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
  • Email: boa@boa.virginia.gov

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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