There is one application form. The same form is used by interns and architects of various backgrounds. Call NCARB for an application, or print it out off the NCARB web site: http://www.ncarb.org. If you do not have a professional degree, NCARB can send you the NCARB Education Standard, which describes options for meeting their requirements.

The Council’s only members are the architectural registration boards in the United States, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands. If you meet the requirements for education, experience, examination, registration and good character, you can be certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). Apply to NCARB and they will compile a verified record of your qualifications (known as your Council Record). When you meet NCARB’s standards, you will be approved for certification. The certified Council Record is used in support of your application for reciprocal registration in any jurisdiction.

Without a professional degree from a program accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting board (NAAB), you may satisfy NCARB’s education standard if you meet any of the "grandfather" provisions that expire July 1, 2000. If you do not yet qualify for certification, NCARB can compile your verified credentials, evaluate them and transmit them to any of the 22 U.S. jurisdictions that accept such a non-certified Council Record in support of an application for reciprocal registration.

The requirements for certification are discreet. In addition to exams and registration, you must meet standards for education, training and good character. These standard are outlined in NCARB’s Handbook for Interns and Architects available upon request from the N.M. Board of Examiners for Architects, e-mail: pamedina@state.nm.us.

Certification recommends you to any board for registration. Twenty-one of NCARB’s member boards require the Council Certificate as the exclusive method for interstate registration. However, each architectural registration authority has its own requirements and they may differ from NCARB’s. The state board determines whom it registers to practice architecture within it jurisdiction. An overview of each state’s requirements is listed in NCARB’s free publication Member Board Requirements, and is available at the NCARB office.

NCARB relies upon the specific information requested on NCARB forms to support their verification process. These forms become part of your official Council Record, which, in theory, must satisfy 55 boards’ requirements for reciprocity, so NCARB requires all information be submitted only on their official forms.

NCARB is committed to protecting the health, safety and welfare of the public by requiring comprehensive experience for certification; therefore, NCARB requires all applicants to demonstrate diversified training. Many architects have satisfied this requirement by participating in IDP.

For those applicants who did not go through IDP, NCARB requires that they demonstrate their experience was equivalent to that required in IDP, but having actually participated in IDP is not a requirement. In addition, 15 of NCARB’s member boards require such training for reciprocity.