You can get reciprocity in some other states without a professional degree. In some it is simply a matter of paying a fee and having proof of your CA license transmitteed, while in others you would be required to provide an IDP record showing that you have as much experience as that state requires for people without professional degrees, and in still other states you would be required to provide references and in some you would have to be interviewed by the board and possibly submit work samples....

In many other states you can't get reciprocity without a professional degree.

You can have an NCARB council record established in order to record IDP units (and this would be required by some states if you applied for reciprocity) even though without a professional degree you wouldn't be considered by NCARB to have completed IDP.

The last issue is with NCARB certification: many states now require an NCARB certificate for reciprocity. Many others have different application procedures for people with or without certification - with the process being longer and in some cases more expensive for people without.
NCARB certification requires: proof of a license in at least one state, completion of the ARE, completion of IDP, and an accredited professional degree.

Summaries of all states' licensing board requirements are at: http://www.ncarb.org/stateboards/index.html
Be sure to look specifically at the requirements for applying for reciprocity, as these differ in many states from the requirements for applying for initial licensing.
Also make sure to check with the state's board directly, because the info on NCARB's site is abbreviated, and in some cases leaves out information or is out of date.

after 5 years of having a license you can pursue a broadly experienced architect (BEA) certificate from NCARB and i believe you can skip IDP at that point. this will open up some more reciprocity opportunities for you. the BEA process looks formidable and whether this is a good "professional" route is another discussion; there are some threads to dig through on the subject.

But the BEA process itself is only acceptable to some states. Also: in their last newsletter NCARB profiled a person in California who successfully got through that process. The process itself took longer than 3 years - in other words longer than IDP should take in the first place - and he was required to provide documentation of his 20 years of experience, submit to interviews, etc. It's not an easy process and NCARB doesn't let many people get throuh it successfully.

Also: to qualify for NCARB's BEA process without an accredited professional degree one must document 8 years of continuous fulltime practice. With a professional degree the requirement is 6 years.

I think you may be confusing California's option for people with 5 years of practice to bypass the internship requirement (though they still must document their 5 years of practice) - but this has no bearing on other states' reciprocity or on eligibility for NCARB certification.

that's with an accredited pre-professional degree, aluminate. to go through the bea process with a professional degree would be silly, now wouldn't.

again, looks "formidable" and opens up "some" more reciprocity opportunities.

and that's wouldn't it, not wouldn't

isn't a bea cert an ncarb cert? so if a state accepts the ncarb position for licensure requirements then no problem. if the state has requirements beyond ncarb (as many do) then you may run into problems with the lack of a pro degree.

Aluminate:

While it's technically possible to finish IDP in just under 3 years if employed full time, it's virtually unheard of for anyone to do it that fast. You'd have to find a firm that was really willing to tailor your employment expeirence to make every hour count toward IDP and you'd probably still end up working a lot of overtime.

waxwings: yes, you're right - 6 years with a pre-professional degree (as long as it qualifies as a "4" component of a 4+2 program.) 8 years with other 4-year undergrad degrees.

A bea certificate is indeed an NCARB certificate, but the states are still far from uniformly agreeing to accept an NCARB certificate with no other stipulations. Some states do accept an NCARB certificate as their "primary" means of determining eligibility for reciprocity. But others have their own regulations that differ from NCARB's or that add additional stipulations, so no, an NCARB certificate is not at this point a guarantee of reciprocity in all states (though it is NCARB's intention that eventually it should be.)

For example: I recently applied for reciprocity with a neighboring state. I do have an NCARB certificate but was still required to submit transcripts directly to that state because that state's regulations require an NAAB-accredited degree unless the applicant has a certain number of years of experience (more than what is minimally required for BEA status.)

bryan4arch: no argument about the realistic length of IDP. I've stated several times on this site that NCARB has published 7.5 years as the recent average length of time between graduation and completion of the ARE. I just meant that since the "poster child" architects that NCARB features in their own publications take 3 years to get through the BEA paperwork and interview process it is clearly quite time-consuming. Also, the years of experience listed are just the minimums to be allowed to apply for the BEA process, whereas NCARB has sole discretion as to whether each person's experience measures up for certification purposes. In practice they rarely approve BEA status for people with less than 10 to 20 years of experience.

My intention wasn't to discourage the original poster from going through the BEA process - just trying to give him some general info as to how to check each state's rules and give a general idea of some of the implications of getting registered in CA without an NAAB degree.

You're not stuck, but it may take some wiggling in certain states. I've found evidence that it's possible to get licensed even in a state according to both NCARB and that state's own website does NOT allow experience as an alternative to a professional degree. Here is an exerpt from Jan. 2006 meeting minutes of that state (This is public information but I felt weird posting names on this site):

1D. Application of Mr. Candidate2 for admission to the Architect Registration Examination. Mr. Board Member1 explained Mr. Candidate2's educational background noting the differences between his background and that of Mr. Candidate1. He also reviewed his employment background noting that he has eight years of experience working directly under a licensed architect and that this time is approximately double that required by NCARB for their internship requirements. NCARB has certified his internship but Mr. Candidate2 does not meet their educational requirements. Mr. Board Member1 believes that Mr. Candidate2's work experience gained beyond the four years needed by NCARB qualifies him to sit for the Architect Registration Examination and that this additional experience compensates for his lack of a professional degree. As such, Mr. Board Member1 recommended to the Board that Mr. Candidate2 be allowed to sit for the examination. The Board voted, unanimously, to allow Mr. Candidate2 to sit for the Architect Registration Examination. (Board Member2/Board Member3) It is noted that Mr. Board Member1 abstained from the vote.

It sounds like, even though the NCARB certificate is the norm, that states (or atleast this one) do show some latitude with regard to professional degree vs. non.

That state's website (in the "regulations" section) states:

"Any individual wishing to be admitted to the examination and unable to satisfy the requirements of Section 20-289-3a(b)(2)(A), may apply to the Board for a determination of his eligibility for admission to the examination. The Board may allow such individual to be admitted to the examination if the Board determines that circumstances exist that warrant said individual's admission to that examination and the individual is determined, by the Board, to possess sufficient credentials in the areas of education, experience and training. "

So in fact it is not really against this state's written rules for someone without a professional degree to be granted an initial license in the state (which is what the candidate in the above example is applying for.) However, if you look at other minutes from previous board meetings you'll find that the situation becomes more complicated in this state in the case of people applying for reciprocity who do not meet this state's standard requirements. In at least one case this state has allowed such a person to get a license there, but did so by treating the candidate as someone applying for their initial (first) license in the state, because the rules did not allow for reciprocity....

Another thing this particular state's minutes reveal is that in such a "non-standard" case this process of applying to the board for an exception often spans 2 or 3 board meetings - which is quite a long time because this board only meets 5 to 6 times per year.

Another thing that is demonstrated by this case is that NCARB's list of state boards' regulations doesn't always include all exceptions, which is why it's important to check with the state itself.

A BEA certificate is one type of NCARB certificate, but it's not the same kind as an NCARB certificate gained through the usual channels. This is why if you go to NCARB's comparison of state regulations: http://www.ncarb.org/stateboards/MBRfaqrecip.asp you'll see that there is a question (#15) about whether the state accepts a record based on the BEA process. There are about 30 jurisdictions that will, 7 that definately won't, and all of the others may under some circumstances but have state-specific criteria.