Hello All,

I'm a CPA-hopeful who's seeking licensure in NY State and I have a number of NY state specific questions. I'm hoping somebody who's well versed in the licensure requirements for NY can take the time out of their busy day to lend a rookie like me some help/guidance.

Allow me to provide some backstory.  I'm a semi-recent grad (May 2007) who graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration/Accounting.  Shortly after graduating with my undergrad degree I started going after the CPA Exam and by early Spring 2008 I had passed my final (4th) part.  At the time I was working for a CPA firm and gained about a year of public accounting experience before getting laid off right after tax season ended (April 2008).  Desperate for work at the time, I ended up going into private/managerial accounting to make ends meet. I have an additional roughly 4 years of experience here as well.

It wasn't until recently that I had heard that the licensure rules in NY state had changed effective August 2009.  My first question is - I had completed my 4th exam section back in early 2008... is that credit still acceptable today?  Also, the education requirement for the state changed from 120 to 150 hours in August 2009 but the Office of the Professions frequently talks about people being grandfathered in under the old education requirement clause.  Having passed the exam back in 2008, would that cover me?  In addition, I only have 1 year of public accounting experience.  I work with a lot of CPAs in my current position but unfortunately the person I report directly to does not hold the designation.  Would any of my time in the last 4 years count towards the experience requirement?  Would it count if a colleague (not necessarily who I report to) verified my experience?

If you read through all of that I want to thank you first off for your time.  If anyone well versed in the NY State CPA license requirements could provide me with any help/guidance I'd greatly, greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!