Canadian Immigration and ACCA, CIMA, CFA or CMA

[Toronto_Boy]

Dear Friend

Many job ads in Canada ask for CIA designation. However I don't know it's prospects from immigration to Canada or European countries point of view. Following job sites may help you to evaluate job prospects of CIA certification in Canada.

http//www.workopolis.com/work.aspx?action=Transfer&View=Content/Common/WorkLoginView&lang=EN

http//www.monster.ca/

CIA is an internal auditing certification. It's job postings would not be as many as generalized accounting designations like CA, CGA, CMA. You may compare the number of job postings for these designation on above job sites.

Regards

[Friend]

Thank you toronto_Boy for timely resopnse and valuable inputs.

[gajini]

Dear canada boy
Thanks for your time and for giving me such useful information. However I wanted to ask that is it necessary for me to give SAT to apply to a good university e.g for univerity of toronto and e,g if I inshallah will become an immigrant of canada then will I be charged international fees till I get a citizenship or will i be charged local fees. Moreover right now I am not an immigrant, therefore will I have to apply to canada university as an international student

[Toronto_Boy]

Dear gajini

I don't know about SAT or other requirements. Please check directly from university website.

Immigrants pay local fees, NOT international student fees. But you will have to wait for a year to get student loan once you land here as immigrant.

You may start admission process now from Pakistan, but even if they ask you to deposit International fees, you may delay that till you get immigrant status and land here. After that ask university to change your status to immigrant and then pay your local fees from your pocket because just after landing you won't be eligible for student loan. You have to wait for 12 months after landing. Meanwhile if you don't wanna waist your time then you may pay from your pocket, but it would be local fees, NOT international fees.

Your questions are much university requirements specific. Please contact them directly.

Regards

[gajini]

Dear canada boy
Thank you for your information. However I still have one more query. My father is CA of Pakistan (Qualified) and ICMA (Qualified). If inshallah I get the immigration then what is CA equivalent to in Canada. I read your first message of 2008 that there is no value of pakistani CA in Canada therefore what should he do to get a respectful job in Canada? Will he have to do any course. Please tell me a course or degree which is easy for him because his age is 50 or any other degree equivalent to CA.

[Toronto_Boy]

Dear gajini

All 3 Canadian accounting associations are independent, seperate, and having no direct relationship with Pakistani accounting associations. Some of the options are;

(1) I heared that these days ICAEW has opened its membership for ICAP full members. ICAEW also has reciprocity arrangement with CICA (Canadian CA). So, one option is, he may get ICAEW's membership first to use it as route to CICA. But first he would have to satisfy ICAEW's requirements, then if CICA accepts him then he can sit for reciprocity exam. Biggest hurdle is most likely CICA would not accept his Pakistani experience to award CICA's membership. So, just like others, he would have to get a job in CICA approved ATOs to satisfy experience requirement. Moreover, he would have to pay ICAEWs membership fee for rest of his life without getting any benefit in Canada, in addition to CICAs membership fees which itself is expensive. This option is quite lengthy, risky, costly in long-run, and difficult.

(2) As member of ICMA(P), enterance exam for Canadian CMA would be exempt for him, which is normally a biggest hurdle for CMA Canada students. So, he can directly start 2 year CMA Canada program. Total cost would be arround Cad$ 9,500 for two years, but it is quite doable option if one can afford. Student may get study loan from bank also for this program but have to repay later in easy installments with interest+principal.

(3) Get exemption in CGA and take remaining courses. Least cost, flexible option, but final level courses can be nightmare considering age and family responsibilities.

(4) He may write CPA (AICPA) exams too, provided he evaluates himself whether he can satisfy/match educational and experience requirements of any typical State Board of accounting. He may get at-least certificate only from two tier State, if he does not satisfy experience requirement of that specific State. Still he would have to satisfy educational requirements for that specific State to sit in the exam.

(5) CIA can be one option too.

(6) Do nothing. Just try to find and do jobs based on Pakistani designations. He would be at-least called as educated and foreign experience holder. If luck permits, he may get a good job.

One thing is clear, it would be a fun for you here, but its gonna be a roller coaster ride for him. In my opinion he should not wind-up his business or job in Pakistan for at-least 6 months he would have lived here.

I hope it helps.

Regards

[gajini]

Dear Toronto Boy

I am really thankful for your information. However all these options are not easy for my father and would require some time to do it. Can you tell me any short courses ( of couple of months)that he can do in order to have a job right at the time when we enter canada. Please tell courses which can be done from Pakistan. One more question is that is CPA recognized in Canada. I heard it is only useful in U.S.A.

[Toronto_Boy]

Dear gajini

Unfortunately, I don't know any such short course. Perhaps, SAP may help. But no guarantee.

Without doing any course, he is still eligible for formal white collar (both accounting or non-accounting, private or public sector, and industry or public accounting) office jobs here and should apply for ALL of them as soon as he lands here. As I said earlier, he is educated and qualified enough to apply for them and InshaAllah he would get one. The only thing I am saying is, most likely he would not get the same level of job he is used to do in Pakistan, and his future career would likely be limited without having some Canadian designation in future or without working toward those.

Once again, I say, he is qualified enough for white collar jobs, and he can apply for jobs very next day of landing, but he would have to make a plan for his future/career in North America and he would have to get pressure to upgrade himself here. It depends on him how does he do it and takes some time (could be years of part time study).

Yes, CPA is recognized in Canada, both for Gov't and private jobs, however employers are more inclined toward Canadian designations. As two economies are highly linked and all big and medium Canadian businesses operate on both sides of border, CPA is quite known among Canadian employers and Canadian designated accountants.

One last thing, all systems here are computerized including accounting, and I hope same would be the case at-least for accounting/book keeping systems in Pakistan. So, a candidate for accounting jobs in Canada must have hands on skills on MS Word, Excel (at-least intermediate level), Outlook, computerized accounting software (like MS Great Plains, Quickbooks, AccPacc, Simply Accounting etc. etc.), and CaseWare, ACL for public accounting jobs .

Regards

[gajini]

Dear canada boy
Thank u again and again for your information. my father has got enough knowlege of what to do. Now I want to ask about my future prospective. As you know that I am an A level student. You told me about the universities but to broaden my choices I wanted to ask you about ICAEW from Canada. Is it possible for me to directly do ICAEW from Canada????? Please tell me the procedure and the fee structure of doing ICAEW? I have heard that there are some very good firms such as ernest and young and pricewaterhouseCoopers.

[Toronto_Boy]

Dear gajini

Yes all Big4 and other firms are here.

Perhaps you may take ICAEW exams here somehow, but I don't know about ICAEWs ATOs here. You would have to check with ICAEW directly how can you do it in Canada. Though I know people who had ICAEW's CA when they came here and converted into CICA's CA, but I never found a person directly working for ICAEW here. However, I don't know the whole world here. So there may be some people but at-least I never heard of. Either students here study for Canadian designations or US designations. Moreover, remember that if you get ICAEW first while living in Canada then CICA would not award you CA through reciprocity. However, if you get CICA first while being here then you may get ICAEW later.

In any case you would have to go to university or college here. During that time you may find out your options for ICAEW or others.

Regards

[aaddaam]

thanks for the guidance Toronto boy -)

[gajini]

Dear toronto boy
thank you for your help. This means that my first target in canada should be to get admitted to a good university and then look forward to ICAEW, or CICA. Well if my father wants to do CICA then what is the procedure for him? Will he be exempted from some of the papers? Are CICA papers held in Pakistan? You are right that he can get white collar job but we donot want to leave our chances to 50/50. What do you think he should do to be guaranteed a good job in canada?

[Toronto_Boy]

Dear gajini

Please check CICA requirements, procedure, and exemptions at following and other related links;

http//www.icao.on.ca/Admissions/OccupationalFactSheet/1010page1361.aspx

No, CICA exams are only held in Canada. I am sorry, I have no idea about any such thing which can provide a guarantee.

He may come here first alone during April to October, live here for about 4 to 6 months to apply for the jobs and to see responses, then may decide future course of action.

Best Regards

[gajini]

Dear toronto boy

[gajini]

dear toronto boy
thank u for your help. If i want to do CICA then what is the procedure. do i have to cmplete my bachelors fisrt. what is the time period. can it be done from pakistan