1.2 Eligibility, Fees, and Pearson VUE Scheduling

Sitting the exam versus being awarded the CIA

Quick Answer: After CCMS approval you may sit Part 2 before you finish the experience requirement. The CIA is awarded only after exams and verified related experience. IIA Global list prices are application $120/$240 and Part 2 $280/$415 (member/nonmember). Authorization is 180 days or program end, whichever is sooner.

Candidates lose months by mixing three clocks: the program clock (three years from acceptance), the exam-authorization clock (180 days from that part's paid registration, or until the program expires if that date is sooner), and the experience clock (the years required for award). You can be fully eligible to sit Part 2 next month and still not be eligible for the letters CIA until a supervisor verifies related work.

Education paths and when experience is due

Unless you hold an active Internal Audit Practitioner (IAP) designation, proof of education is an entry requirement for the CIA program. Typical documents: a degree copy or official transcript (plus a legal-name-change document if the names differ), a university letter confirming the degree, or a letter from an evaluation service confirming degree level.

Related experience is broader than "I have Internal Auditor in my job title." The IIA lists: Internal Audit, Quality Assurance, Risk Management, Audit/Assessment disciplines, Compliance, External Audit, and Internal Control. A second-year external-audit associate, a compliance analyst testing control design, or a quality-assurance reviewer of operational processes can often count time that a candidate assumes does not count. Conversely, generic operations work with no audit, risk, compliance, QA, or control content does not become related experience because you hope to move into audit later.

ACCA and U.S. CPA notes (do not invent other waivers): ACCA qualified members may have both education and work-experience supporting requirements waived. Active U.S. CPA license holders may have the education supporting requirement waived. Those exemptions are PCB-granted and processed on the CIA application; they are not a reason to skip documenting identity or to assume every accounting credential works the same way.

Challenge pathway is not this exam. Qualified CPA/CA holders, CISA holders, and professionals with at least 10 years of related experience may have a one-sitting Challenge exam with its own fees, windows, and rules. Challenge candidates do not get the 12-month CIA program extension. If you are reading this guide, you are on three-part CIA Part 2, not Challenge.

Membership and who must already be a member

IIA membership is not a universal prerequisite to apply, but it changes the price and, in some countries, the right to apply at all. Candidates residing in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, or South Africa must be IIA members to apply for the CIA, CRMA, IAP, and CIA Challenge Exam. Elsewhere, membership is the discount lever: log in and confirm active membership before you pay. Membership status can take up to 15 days to flow into CCMS pricing. If the checkout price looks wrong, do not complete the purchase. Open a CCMS case. Sales are final.

Pricing on the IIA CIA page applies in the United States, Canada, and select other countries. Where exams run through agreements with National Institutes, local prices and taxes apply. Outside North America, confirm with your National Institute before you treat the USD table as your invoice.

The fee table and what "non-refundable" actually does

Part 1 is priced higher than Parts 2 and 3 on the published table. Do not assume every part costs $280. Applicable taxes may be added under local law.

Once you accept the price and complete purchase, the handbook rule is blunt: no refunds or credits, and fees cannot be transferred from one registration to another. Paying for Part 2 does not create a credit toward Part 3 if you change your mind. Paying as a nonmember does not become a member credit if your membership posts the next week. If the displayed price is wrong, stop and open a CCMS case before you click through.

The two calendars: 3 years and 180 days

You have three years from acceptance into the CIA program to complete program requirements (exams plus any remaining experience). That is the outer box.

Inside the box, each paid exam registration is an authorization: valid 180 days or until the program expires, whichever is sooner. If you do not sit during that authorization, the registration is forfeited. You do not get a free restart. You register again and pay the exam fee again.

Worked calendar: accepted 1 September 2026. Program end is 1 September 2029. You pay for Part 2 on 1 July 2029. Your 180 days would run to late December 2029, but your authorization is not a fresh 180 days past 1 September 2029; it dies when the program dies unless you have already purchased an allowed extension.

Extensions exist, and they are purchased before expiration in CCMS:

• One 12-month program extension for the CIA program. Not available for the CIA Challenge Program.
• A 75-day exam-registration extension for each exam registration, also purchased before that registration expires.

Treat extensions as emergency valves, not a study plan. Current extension prices live on the IIA's extension list; they are extra cash on top of the exam fee you already paid.

CCMS path from application to a seat

1. Gather proof of education (unless IAP) and a valid government-issued photo ID. The ID must match CCMS and will be checked at the test center.
2. Create or sign into CCMS, select the CIA program, submit the application, and pay the application fee.
3. Wait for approval email. You cannot register for an exam part until documents and application are approved.
4. In CCMS, Manage My Program → the exam under TEST → Register → pay the Part 2 fee → wait for the order-number confirmation. That confirmation starts the 180-day authorization.
5. Click Access Pearson VUE in CCMS. Choose date, time, and authorized center. Do not schedule a CIA seat from a generic Pearson login that is not tied to your IIA eligibility.

Pearson VUE will not invent an IIA authorization you have not paid for. The IIA will not hold a chair at a center you have not scheduled. Both systems have to agree.

Reschedule, cancel, no-show, retake

You may cancel or reschedule a confirmed appointment in CCMS or through Pearson VUE during the exam window. Pearson VUE charges $75 USD each time you change. Changes are allowed until 48 hours before the appointment. A confirmation email from Pearson VUE is the record; if you do not receive it, the change may not have posted.

Canceling does not extend the 180-day exam registration. If your authorization ends on 15 November and you cancel a 10 November seat on 8 November, you still must sit by 15 November or forfeit. The $75 bought a calendar shuffle, not more eligibility.

A missed window, a no-show after the 48-hour cutoff, or an expired authorization is a forfeited registration. Budget the exam fee again.

Retakes: wait at least 30 days after the most recent attempt—not 60. Maximum eight attempts per part inside the certification program. Register again and pay the Part 2 fee again. Delayed official scoring (Section 1.3) is designed so you receive the official result within three weeks, which is before the 30-day retake wait expires. You should not be guessing whether you passed in order to decide whether to book a retake; you wait for the official result, then use the remaining days of the 30-day wait to schedule if needed.

Scenario: the 23-hour cancel

A candidate's child is ill on Friday morning, the day before a 9:00 a.m. Saturday appointment. At 10:00 a.m. Friday they try to cancel. That is 23 hours out — inside 48 hours. Pearson VUE will not take a $75 change. Missing the appointment burns the authorization if they cannot sit, and the exam fee does not come back. The operational lesson is to treat the 48-hour line as a hard close, the same way you would treat a lockout on a trading desk: decisions after the cutoff are loss-control, not rescheduling.