Posted on: 08-10-07 12:10:26
Friends, I am Indian Chartered Accountant with more than 19 years of experience. Currently working in Bahrain and moving to Canada in May 2008.
I am curious to know the market for Indian Chartered Accountants without acquiring canadian professional qualification.
Finance and Accounts professionals with a good work experience have pretty good opportunities here. If you are unable to find a good permanent job initially, there is no harm working with Accountemps for a few months. You get a good work exposure and the Canadian experience required for a fixed job. So good chances and All the Best!
Subbu1962
You are an Accountant from India. I could only guess that you are about forty years of age, with 19 years of service in the industry.
You are moving to Canada because of the educational priorities of your children. That is a best and a worthy project in life. I see you have two budding scientists in the family.
I think that Mathematics is your main 'forte' and you have facts and figures at your fingertips.
All these key features that you have mastered will surely come in handy once you start in the work force here.
Things are improving in the right direction for the new immigrants, but not to an extent that you want to see it happen, in the evaluation of the educational qualifications. Hence you will have to bank on the expertise of the people who have similar education as you have and how they have overcome that hurdle, but accepting it gracefully and bowing down to the local professional bodies.
It might take under an year for you to do all that is required, as you have six months lead time prior to your arrival here. If you can get proper guidance from one that is currently pursuing the courses and completing the requirements, drops a note and extends to you his helping hand, then you will get an excellent start. You will also need to understand the local terminology and tables and charts in your field and the local rules and laws that help us govern, and more so the accounting principles and the taxation. So an year after the study and qualification, will get you to a level where you can stand and claim an excellent posting, in good standing and a salary suitable for that post.
As Mel06 points out you can hold temp position for a start through Accountemps and progress in your studies ably and complete the required courses in good time. Soon after that you can find suitable posting in an accounting department and receive a handsome salary to start and move on in life till retirement.
Please take this as an inspirational one and hope some one who is listening in on this will step in and help you further your career. A little bit of networking is needed to accomplish all of this. So, find the group and link up with them.
Success comes to those who persevere.
Good Luck in you landing and may you experience a great future here in Canada.
Freddie.
1. Mel06, Thanks for your reply. Very encouraging. Definitely you have added positive flavour to my decision. Thank you once again.
2. Freddie, Most of you guesses are right. Somehow I felt that you know me. Even the fact that I have two daughters was a right guess. I sincerely hope that your positive wish also turns out to be the right guess!!!
I completed my CA in Mysore and worked for some time in India. I am in Bahrain for the last 10 Years. I am basically a commerce graduate and a Law graduate as well. I don't know being qualified so much is an advantage or a disadvantage.
As suggested by you and many, I would take up some part time job related to my profession and focus more on getting canadian professional qualification like CFA or CMA. I am also keen to know the excemptions that I would get in these exams including CGA based on my indian qualifications.
Anyone can throw light on this? If so I will be extremely thankful.
With regard to upgrading qualifications, I would suggest that you complete the CPA in the States PRIOR TO landing in Canada. Also ensure that the State Board that you obtain your CPA designation from provides Canadian CA's with reciprocity (most do) and that they will accept your experience verified by a foreign trained accountant.
Assuming that you will land in Ontario, it would be possible for you to obtain your (Canadian) CA designation by reciprocity (you will have to write a 2 day exam to get your designation, though). THIS ONLY APPLIES IF YOU OBTAINED YOUR CPA DESIGNATION BEFORE LANDING IN CANADA. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ontario will accept your foreign experience as long as it was accepted by the State Board in the States that grants you your CPA designation. The CA is the premier accounting designation in Canada, and will significantly enhance your marketability.
While the process might seem convoluted and lengthy, it isn't; especially for a person with appropriate experience. The systems here are geared towards practical knowledge rather than learning by rote. The CPA itself shouldn't take more than 15 weeks to complete (from start to finish) and there are preparatory courses such as the Becker Review available in India and the Middle East.
If you need more info, try browsing the website of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ontario, and send them an email; they will describe the process (of obtaining the CA designation in Canada) in more detail. For the CPA, you will have to locate information from the websites of each individual State Board - Indian CA's usually go to either Colorado or Delaware.
If you have been exposed to International Accounting Standards / International Financial Reporting Standards while in Bahrain, you will be at an advantage when you come into the market as Canada transitions to IFRS over the next few years.
Hope this helps.
Dear Crenshaw, Thank you very much for taking time to reply and clarify me.
My problem is I have just 4 months to conclude my affairs here in Bahrain and then I am proceeding to India. I am planning to stay there for a month to accomplish some very important domestic tasks. After that I will proceed to Canada. My PR Visa expires in the first week of May 2008. As mentioned by you it takes atleast 15 weeks to attain US CPA. So tht seems very difficult from the availability of time to me. Just being Indian CA, I don't what exemptions I would get to approach Canandian CA.
Recently, I read somewhere on the net (I will try to provide the link) which says that ICAI has come to some understanding with CGA of Canada. According to that Indian CAs have to write only 5 papers instead of 16. If this is true, do you think it is a good idea to get this certification first?
Second thing which is impressing me is the bullish stock market all over the world including Canada. I also see the lavish salaries and benefits of Financial Analysts. As such I am seriously looking at Canadian CFA which would open the gateway for me into this field. I have written to them to know about th possible exemptions I might get.
I hope you will enlighten me further on these issues.
Thanks once again for your help.
Quote:
Originally posted by subbu1962
Dear Crenshaw, Thank you very much for taking time to reply and clarify me.
My problem is I have just 4 months to conclude my affairs here in Bahrain and then I am proceeding to India. I am planning to stay there for a month to accomplish some very important domestic tasks. After that I will proceed to Canada. My PR Visa expires in the first week of May 2008. As mentioned by you it takes atleast 15 weeks to attain US CPA. So tht seems very difficult from the availability of time to me. Just being Indian CA, I don't what exemptions I would get to approach Canandian CA.
Recently, I read somewhere on the net (I will try to provide the link) which says that ICAI has come to some understanding with CGA of Canada. According to that Indian CAs have to write only 5 papers instead of 16. If this is true, do you think it is a good idea to get this certification first?
Second thing which is impressing me is the bullish stock market all over the world including Canada. I also see the lavish salaries and benefits of Financial Analysts. As such I am seriously looking at Canadian CFA which would open the gateway for me into this field. I have written to them to know about th possible exemptions I might get.
I hope you will enlighten me further on these issues.
Thanks once again for your help.
I do not want to discourage you but grass looks always green on the other side.
CFA would take 3 years (at least to complete) and you will not get the designation right away as you need to have Canadian work experience to attain it. The costs is around $10K. Let us know if you get the exemptions and my understanding is that there are three exams and each conducted in June every year (except level 1 that is conducted twice in a year).
CGA would be good option but if you are Indian CA then you will be given expemtion till Level 3 or 4 which means to write seven to eight exams to qualify. Each exam costs $400 on average plus the annual fee of $600K. It is not like CA that you prepare and write eight exams in two days and pass. Before qualifying for each exam you need to write 10 assignments and if you pass them then you qualify to write an exam.
As a CPA, you will get some more exemption in CGA but it does not matter whether you do it before landing or after the landing.
CICA - Forget it - Waste of time and money. Even if you do your CPA before landing they will assess your experience and it is highly unlikely that you can get an exemption in training for more than six months.
