How to transfer CPA exam credit to another state

Passed sections do not follow you automatically. They are records held by the board you sat under, and moving them is a request you make, through one of two routes that depend entirely on which jurisdiction you are leaving.

Can you transfer CPA exam scores to another state?

Yes, and the direction matters more than most candidates expect. You can transfer scores INTO any of the 55 jurisdictions, but you can only transfer OUT of 36 of them through NASBA. 19 jurisdictions do not appear as an origin at all, and a candidate who passed sections there has to ask that board directly.

Which states make you request a CPA score transfer from the board directly?

19 of the 55: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, US Virgin Islands, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming. NASBA states the rule on its own service: if your jurisdiction is not in the list, "you will need to contact your board office directly."

What does a CPA exam score transfer cost?

One fee or the other, never both. Where NASBA runs the transfer it costs nothing. Where the board runs it, the board's fee is the only fee, and it varies: California $25, Illinois $30, North Carolina free, Texas $40, Virginia $25, Wyoming free. The rest publish no figure, so ask before you post anything.

Should you transfer CPA scores before or after passing all four sections?

After, and there is a rule behind the advice that most sites do not mention. NASBA's candidate FAQ tells a candidate mid-exam to "continue to take the exams as a Georgia candidate and once you have passed all your CPA Exams, then transfer those scores to Tennessee and apply for licensure at that time." Two things sit behind it. Applying to a new jurisdiction means a new education evaluation, which "takes time away from your conditional credit for the two sections you have passed." And you are not permitted to hold both candidacies at once, which is the part that turns this from prudence into the only clean route.

Can you be a CPA exam candidate in two states at once?

No. NASBA states it without qualification: "a person may not be a candidate for more than one jurisdiction at the same time." Most boards never repeat that in their own rules, but NASBA's policy does not depend on your board restating it. California and Oregon do codify it, and both word it per section: you may not hold an open Authorization to Test for the same section in two jurisdictions at once. The detection is not theoretical either. California's rule lets the board suspend an Authorization to Test on a report that NASBA's National Candidate Database "has identified that the applicant holds another open ATT for the same section of the exam."

Does moving to another state change your CPA credit window?

It can, and this is the part worth checking before you move rather than after. The credit window is a property of the jurisdiction you are a candidate of, not of the sections you hold, and a transfer neither resets nor pauses the clock: the board you move to applies its own rule to the sections you already passed. 51 of the 55 run 30 months, and 4 do not. Hawaii runs 18, Indiana runs 36, South Carolina runs 36, Washington runs 36 months. That is a spread of 18 months between the shortest and the longest, so moving can shorten or lengthen the time you have left. Hawaii is the sharpest case: it runs the shortest window and starts its clock when you SIT a section rather than when the score is released.

Is a CPA score transfer the same as CPA mobility or reciprocity?

No, and they are easy to confuse because both involve two states. A score transfer moves your exam credit while you are still a candidate. Mobility and reciprocity are about practicing across state lines once you are already licensed. If you have not passed all four sections yet, the one you want is the score transfer.

NASBA's two systems disagree, and these 10 are where it showsDistrict of Columbia, Guam, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Wisconsin. Each appears in the store's origin list, while NASBA's own Interstate Authorization Fee Schedule routes its transfer of grades to the board. The schedule also still prints $25 against jurisdictions the store now handles free. Being absent from the store list reliably means the board handles it; being present does not reliably mean NASBA does. If you are in one of these 10, ask the board before paying anything.

Origin and destination lists read from the NASBA score transfer service and cross-checked against NASBA's Interstate Authorization Fee Schedule, both read 2026-09-20. Timing advice and the one-jurisdiction-at-a-time rule from the NASBA CPA Exam FAQ, which is where NASBA keeps several rules the Candidate Guide never states. The two boards that codify that rule are California, 16 CCR 8.2, and Oregon, OAR 801-010-0050, amended effective 1 February 2026. Board fees are from each board's own site. Every route claim was handed to a second pass instructed to refute rather than confirm it, which is how the "NASBA is free and the board charges on top" reading was caught: the two routes are mutually exclusive and the board fee is the only fee. Credit windows are from PocketCPA's own 55-jurisdiction survey.

Studying for the CPA exam

PocketCPA covers all six CPA exam sections with 11,896 questions, each cited to the specific standard or statute it tests, and 1,071 lesson pages written from primary source text. A nine-item sample of every section is open with no account. See also the NTS, rescheduling fees and retakes, when the 30 month window starts and CPA requirements by state.