Get Your First Washington State License as an Out-of-State Candidate

To apply for your first Washington State CPA license as an out-of-state CPA Exam candidate, you will need to:

1. Meet the education requirements.
   • Submit official college transcripts and/or a Foreign Education Evaluation Report from a Board recognized evaluation service showing that you completed the Washington State Board of Accountancy's education requirements in effect at the time you first sat for the CPA exam.
   • You may apply course work taken after first sitting for the CPA exam and prior to submitting an application for licensure. 
   • If NASBA International Evaluation Services (NIES) evaluated your education previously for another jurisdiction, you will need to have NIES complete a Change in Jurisdiction Evaluation for Washington State before submitting your education to us.
2. Pass the CPA exam.
   • Use this form to submit your CPA exam scores directly from other State Boards.
3. Meet the experience requirements. 
   • Submit a complete Experience Affidavit by upload to your online application. 
     • Read and complete the Experience Affidavit carefully. If any information is missing or incomplete, you will be required to submit a new experience affidavit with new signatures.
     • The Experience Affidavit must be signed with a handwritten signature by both the applicant and verifying CPA. Typed or electronic signatures are not accepted.
   • Submit your resume or summary of key job responsibilities by upload to your online application.
     • Your resume or summary of key job responsibilities must contain enough detail to clearly demonstrate that you met each of the required competencies listed on the experience affidavit.
4. Complete a course covering the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct (8 hour minimum course length) and achieve a score of 90% or better on the examination.
   • The course purchased through the AICPA or WSCPA is titled: Professional Ethics: The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' Comprehensive Course (For Licensure).
   • The course completion certificate with a score of 90% or better must be uploaded to your application.
5. Watch the video, Washington CPA Essentials. 
6. Complete the required Continuing Professional Education (CPE), only if it has been more than four years since you passed the CPA exam.
   • Upload the following CPE documentation to your online application.
     • A Course listing which includes course title, course provider, date completed, and CPE hours earned for each completed course.
     • The CPE course completion certificates or other acceptable CPE documentation, as described in WAC 4-30-138, for each course completed.
7. Review an example of your first CPE reporting period.
8. Verify that you have met the good character requirements by answering the questions on your CPA license application.
9. Complete and submit the license application through our online services. ***We strongly suggest you use a personal email address to set up your Secure Access Washington account.***

CPA licenses will not be issued between November 1 and December 31 due to the 20-hour minimum annual CPE requirement.  Applications can be submitted but will not be approved until the beginning of January. 

You may not use the title CPA until your license has been posted in the Board's licensee search.

If you submit college or university transcripts and CPA exam scores and do not submit an application for initial licensure within two years, your documents will be administratively destroyed per our records retention schedule.