RULES TO BE FOLLOWED BY ARCHITECTS IN

UNITED STATES
Foreign Architects
There is no reciprocal registration between foreign countries
and United States except for Canada. You cannot practice
architecture in a U.S. jurisdiction without acquiring a license to
practice in that jurisdiction. Each of the 50 states, the District of
Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands has an
architectural registration board that regulates the profession in
their jurisdiction.

Foreign Architect Path to Certification

NCARB offers an alternative for certification through our foreign
architect path to certification. At a minimum, this program
requires:

Education: Have a degree from an

accredited/validated/officially recognized architecture program
that leads to registration/credential in a foreign country.

Registration: Hold a credential in a foreign country that has

a formal record-keeping mechanism for disciplinary actions in
the practice of architecture.
Please note: Not all states accept the NCARB Certificate
through the foreign architect path.NCARB does advocate for
acceptance of the Certificate based on this program, but
licensure is solely decided by individual boards. This list is
subject to change without notice.

Standard Path
If you do not qualify for the foreign architect path or
choose to pursue the traditional path toward licensure, the
three main requirements you must fulfill to be licensed in

a U.S. jurisdiction include education, experience, and

examination.
Recognize that not all jurisdictions have adopted NCARB's
education and experience standards.
All questions regarding your eligibility must be directed to
your jurisdictions registration board.
Your first step will be to apply for an NCARB Record.
If applying as a foreign architect candidate, please select
the Foreign Architect option. If applying for the
traditional path of EESA/IDP/ARE, please select the
Intern option.

Education
Many registration boards require applicants to have a
professional degree from a program accredited by the National
Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). Foreign-educated
individuals who do not hold such a degree should have their
education evaluated by NAAB through their Education
Evaluation Services for Architects (EESA) program.

Applications for an EESA must be requested

from:
National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB)
1101 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 410
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 783-2007
Fees for this service will be billed to you directly by NAAB,
which is not affiliated with any architectural registration
board.
The application for an EESA can be accessed online here.
*Please note that New York does not accept an EESA. While the
majority of registration boards have identified that they will
accept this credential to satisfy the education requirement, this

is subject to change and is at the sole discretion of each

registration board.

Experience
Most registration boards have adopted the training
requirements established for the Architectural Experience
Program (AXP). The rules of the AXP are explained in
Architectural Experience Program.

Examination
Every registration board requires interns to pass the Architect
Registration Examination (ARE) to qualify for registration in
the United States. All Canadian provinces also accept the ARE
to become licensed.

POINTS TO REMEMBER

In the United States, people wishing to become licensed

architects are required to meet the requirements of their
respective state.

Each state has a registration board to oversee that state's

licensure laws.

National Council of Architectural Registration Boards is a

non-profit professional association created in 1919 to help
ensure parity between the states' often conflicting rules.

The registration boards of each of the 50 states (and 5

territories), member boards.

NCARB issues a national certificate to qualified licensed

architects.


The NCARB certificate is recognized in most licensing
jurisdictions for the purpose of granting licensure by
endorsement or reciprocity.

Requirements vary among jurisdictions, and there are

three common requirements for registration: education,
experience and examination.

About half of the States require a professional degree from

a school accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting
Board (NAAB) to satisfy their education requirement; this would
be either a B.Arch or M.Arch degree.

The experience requirement for degreed candidates is

typically the Intern Development Program (IDP), a joint program
of and the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

IDP creates a framework to identify for the intern architect

base skills and core-competencies.

The intern architect needs to earn 700 training units (TUs)

diversified into 16 categories; each TU is equivalent to 8 hours
of experience working under the direct supervision of a licensed
Architect.

The states that waive the degree requirement typically

require a full 10 years' experience in combination with the I.D.P
diversification requirements before the candidate is eligible to
sit for the examination.

California requires C-IDP (Comprehensive Intern

Development Program) which builds upon the seat time
requirement of IDP with the need to document learning having
occurred.

All jurisdictions use the Architect Registration Examination

(ARE), a series of seven (formerly nine) computerized exams
administered by NCARB.


The NCARB also has a certification for those architects
meeting NCARB's model standard: NAAB degree, IDP and ARE
passage.

This certificate facilitates reciprocity between the member

boards should an architect desire registration in a different
jurisdiction.

All architects licensed by their respective states have

professional status as Registered Architects (RA).

Depending on the policies of the registration board for the

state in question, it is sometimes possible to become licensed
as an Architect in other ways: reciprocal licensure for over-seas
architects and working under an architect as an intern for an
extended period of time.

Length of the typical licensure process depends on the

particular combination of education, experience and pace of
examination of a candidate.

It is typical that the entire licensure process takes at least

7 to 11 years to complete; including five years of study (5 years
for B.Arch, 3 years for M.Arch, 6 years for a "four-plus-two"
program), three-plus years of experience (meeting exact IDP
requirements in each category), and often a year or more to
take and pass the seven ARE 4.0 exams.