The CPA Exam 30-Month Rule: When the Clock Starts, Which Boards Still Say 18, and the Extension Routes

For twenty years the rule was 18 months. Pass your first section and the clock started; fail to pass the other three inside a year and a half and the first one fell off, and you sat it again. In April 2023 NASBA's board amended the model rule to 30 months, and moved the start of the clock from the day you sat the section to the day its score was released.

That sentence contains the whole change, and also the reason so much advice about it is wrong. NASBA writes the model rule. It does not write the law in any state. Each of the 55 boards of accountancy adopts the change through its own process, some by a vote of the board, some by a regulation that needs a public comment period, some by an act of the legislature. NASBA set a target of 1 January 2024 and asked boards to be done by 1 July 2025. Most are; the reason to read this article is to find out how to confirm that yours is, and what the rule does once it applies to you.

What the rule says

The Uniform Accountancy Act model rule, as amended, gives a candidate 30 months to pass all four sections, counted from the date the score of the first passed section is released. Three features matter more than the number.

The clock starts at score release, not at the sitting. Under the old rule the 18 months ran from the date you took the section. Scores are released on a rolling basis, often a few weeks after the sitting, and the amendment moves the start of the window to the release date. Every day between sitting and release is now outside the window.

Each section keeps its own date. The window is rolling. Credit for a section is valid for 30 months from its own score release, and you need all four valid at the same moment. If the oldest expires before the fourth is passed, you lose that one section, not the other three, and the window is now measured from the next-oldest score.

Boards, not NASBA, own the credit. In NASBA's words, "the Boards of Accountancy are the only entities with the authority to grant, extend or void examination credit." NASBA recommends, boards decide, and expired credit "cannot be transferred between jurisdictions."

Why boards differ, and how to check yours

The gap between the model rule and your board is procedural, not philosophical. A board that can amend its rules by vote adopted 30 months quickly. A board whose credit period is written into a statute had to wait for a legislative session. A board with a mandatory notice-and-comment process sat somewhere between the two. NASBA's own summary, a year after the amendment, was that "some jurisdictions have already implemented this; others are working through legislative processes."

Retake guides that still say 18 months are therefore not wrong everywhere; they are wrong for most boards and right for a few, and the only way to know which group yours is in is to ask the board. The reliable sources, in order:

Source	What it tells you
Your board's website, exam or licensing page	The credit period as the board applies it, and any transition rule
NASBA's jurisdiction page for the board	Requirements as NASBA's CPA Examination Services administers them for that board
Your score notice	The expiry date of each section as the board has calculated it
NASBA's blog posts on the amendment	The model rule and its history, not any board's adoption

The score notice is the one candidates overlook. It prints an expiry date for every passed section, and that date is the board's own reading of its rule. If it says 30 months from release, your board has adopted the rule for you, whatever a forum says.

Gulf candidates have one more variable. Most sit through one of the large international-friendly jurisdictions rather than through a state they have ever visited, and the credit rule they get is that jurisdiction's, not the one where they may eventually work. Which boards to consider is covered in the requirements guide for international candidates; the credit period is one of the criteria that guide lists, and after the 2023 amendment it is a smaller differentiator than it used to be.

The 2024 transition, and what it settled

The amendment arrived alongside the 2024 redesign of the exam, and the two changes were handled separately. For the redesign, NASBA and the boards agreed a blanket rule: "any candidate with valid, unexpired credit on January 1, 2024, would be granted an extension to June 30, 2025," and NASBA reports that this was adopted "by all Boards of Accountancy." Every candidate with live credit at the start of 2024 was carried to mid-2025 regardless of their board's 18 or 30 months.

That extension has now run its course, and it is worth knowing about only because it explains why a candidate who passed FAR in late 2023 may have had credit until June 2025 that no rule in a guide could account for. Nothing similar is in force today. The credit period that applies to a section passed in 2026 is the board's own rule, 30 months in most jurisdictions, measured from the score release.

Extensions and appeals

There are two routes when a section is about to expire, and neither is generous.

A board extension for cause. Boards extend credit for documented hardship: a medical event, military service, a natural disaster, a documented failure by the testing vendor. The application goes to the board, not to NASBA or Prometric, and it needs evidence dated inside the window. NASBA's Credit Relief Initiative of 2020, a recommendation to extend credits nearing expiry, is the precedent, and NASBA notes that "not all boards adopted this recommendation." A board that did not extend during a pandemic will not extend because a candidate ran out of time.

Resitting the expired section. This is what actually happens in most cases. The section is re-registered, the fees paid again, and the credit clock for that section restarts at its new score release. For a Gulf candidate that is the NASBA section fee plus the US$390 international surcharge, roughly SAR 2,830 in fees per resit, set out in How Much the CPA Exam Costs from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

Planning inside the window

Thirty months is generous for a candidate who sits a section every four to six months and passes most of them. It is tight for a candidate who fails twice, works full time and needs a Discipline that is offered four months a year. The plan should be built from the constraints inward.

Constraint	What it does to the plan
Discipline windows	BAR, ISC and TCP are offered only in January, April, July and October. A Discipline failed in October cannot be resat until January, and its score arrives after that.
Score release lag	A retake decision waits for the score. Weeks between a sitting and its release are weeks the window keeps running for the sections already passed.
The oldest section	Its release date is the deadline for everything. Write it down on the day it arrives.
Two failures	Each costs a sitting, a score wait and a rebooking. Two failures on one section can consume eight to ten months.

The practical rule that follows is to sit the sections with the highest failure risk early, when their expiry cannot yet hurt anything, and to place the Discipline where a fail still leaves one more window before the oldest section expires. Sequencing the CPA Exam Around the Discipline Windows lays out the orderings that satisfy both; Failed a CPA Section? covers the retake decision itself, including when the window argues for switching to a different section first.

Three things that do not change the clock

Candidates ask about each of these, and the answer to all three is no.

Transferring to another jurisdiction. Live credit can usually be transferred; expired credit cannot, in NASBA's words, "be transferred between jurisdictions" to revive it. Moving boards does not reset the window.

Licensure requirements. The 30 months governs passing the exam. The ethics exam, the experience requirement and the 150 hours are separate, and a candidate who passes the fourth section on the last day of the window has passed. Getting the CPA Licence from the Gulf picks up from there.

Rebooking quickly. A candidate may retake a failed section as soon as the score is released and a seat is available; there is no longer a per-window limit on attempts. Speed helps the plan, but it does not lengthen the window.

Where to practise this

The window rewards candidates who pass sections on the first attempt, and first-attempt passes come from practice volume with explanations rather than from more reading. Prepito's courses for FAR, AUD, REG, BAR, ISC and TCP are built around timed practice and mistake review, and the CPA programme covers six course options, with each paid subscription covering one course.

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Sources: NASBA, announcement of the UAA Model Rule 5-7 amendment (April 2023), NASBA, CPA Examination credit extension policy, NASBA, three different credit extensions (April 2024), NASBA CPA Examination jurisdiction pages. Adoption is decided board by board and changes as rules are finalised; confirm the credit period on your board's own page and on your score notice before planning around it.