Submitting Your Educational Documents to the CBA

If you are applying for the CPA Exam for the first time, to avoid unnecessary delays in the processing of your application, we encourage you to request to have your transcript(s) and/or foreign evaluation sent to the California Board of Accountancy (CBA) prior to submitting your application.

If the CBA has previously qualified you to sit for the CPA Exam, you are not required to resubmit official transcripts and/or foreign evaluations.

Transcript Submission

Prior to requesting official transcripts(s), please confirm with your school that all earned credit and/or your conferred baccalaureate degree has been posted.

Applicants can submit official transcripts one of three ways, although Option 1 is the method preferred by the CBA:

  • 1. Electronic transcript submissions- must be processed and sent by one of these approved providers:
    • Credential Solutions
    • eScrip-Safe
    • National Student Clearinghouse
    • Parchment
    • The University of Texas, Austin

    When submitting the request for electronic delivery of your transcript(s) from one of these providers, you must provide the following email address as the transcript recipient: CBAtranscripts@cba.ca.gov. (Note that this email account is only used to accept official transcripts sent directly by the providers listed above.)

    It is your college/university that determines what official provider to use for submission of official transcripts. If your college/university does not use one of these providers, you must submit your official transcripts by mail (See options 2 and 3).

  • 2. Official paper transcripts- must be mailed directly from your school to the CBA at this address:

    California Board of Accountancy
    2450 Venture Oaks Way, Suite 300
    Sacramento, CA 95833
  • 3. Official sealed transcripts- can be submitted by applicant along with CPA Exam Remittance Form or Licensing Application.
    • To be considered official, the transcript must be in the original envelope sealed by the U.S. educational institution. If the transcript is not sealed, it will be considered unofficial, and the transcript will not be reviewed.

Transcripts received outside of these three options are considered unofficial and will not be reviewed.


Foreign Education Evaluation Submission

If you attended or graduated from a foreign school, you may satisfy the educational requirements based upon an evaluation of foreign transcripts by any of the CBA-approved foreign credentials evaluation services.

Which Foreign Evaluation Report Do I Order?

Once you have selected a foreign credential evaluation service, you will need to order your report. Different evaluation services use different titles/names for their reports. Be sure to order a report which includes the following:

  • For purposes of CPA Exam/licensure in California
  • Course-by-course listing of accounting-related, business-related, and general education subjects
  • Includes an Overall U.S. Equivalency Statement
  • Includes copies of support documentation
    • Support documentation are copies of the foreign transcripts used during the foreign evaluation service’s equivalency assessment

Delivery of Foreign Evaluations

Evaluations completed by the following providers can be submitted to the CBA electronically:

  • Academic Credentials Evaluation Institute, Inc. (ACEI)
  • International Education Research Foundation, Inc. (IERF)
  • NASBA International Evaluation Services (NIES)
  • World Education Services (WES)

For all other evaluation providers, you must request an official, sealed copy to be sent directly to the CBA at this address:

California Board of Accountancy
2450 Venture Oaks Way, Suite 300
Sacramento, CA 95833

Evaluations received outside of these two options are considered unofficial and will not be reviewed.