Internationally Trained Accountants

If you hold an accountancy designation from a country other than Canada and want to become a Canadian CA, you must apply to the Provincial Institute of Chartered Accountants/Ordre where you live, or intend to live. Do not submit your application to The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA).

Canada’s Chartered Accountancy profession is organized both nationally and provincially. Each of the 10 provincial chartered accountants institutes has the responsibility and authority to admit members and student members, and to determine practice requirements and the discipline of members and students. You receive your membership in the CICA automatically from your membership in one of the provincial institutes. In addition to setting admission standards, the provincial institutes are responsible for the education and examination of their candidates. The admission standards of the provincial institutes are uniform in general, but differ in detail. Once you have attained your Canadian CA designation, this uniformity allows you to work as a CA throughout the country.

The CICA is the national body and is responsible for:

• overseeing the establishment of auditing and accounting standards, research, the coordination of the qualifying UFE;
• coordinating the qualifying Uniform Evaluation (UFE) administered in the provinces and territories;
• developing courses for the continuing education of chartered accountants; and
• publishing material on auditing, accounting and business matters.

CA Reciprocity Examination

The CA Reciprocity Examination (CARE) allows Canadian provincial CA institutes to measure the professional competence – from a Canadian perspective – of members of accounting bodies outside Canada, which have been assessed by the International Qualifications Appraisal Board as having education, examination, and experience requirements substantially equivalent to the Canadian CA qualification program. CARE examines candidates on their knowledge of Canadian taxation and business law, and the Canadian CA profession’s rules of professional conduct.

If you are an internationally trained accountant who wants to join the Canadian CA program, click here for more information.