Whose CPD rules apply when you're abroad?
Your **home professional body's** rules apply, regardless of where in the world you're working. ACCA members are subject to ACCA's CPD policy whether they're in Glasgow or Singapore. ICAEW members must meet ICAEW's CPD requirement whether they're in London or Lagos. The host country may have its own regulatory CPD if you're performing regulated work there (audit, tax sign-off, insolvency practice) — but that's additional to, not instead of, your home body's CPD. Many accountants working abroad mistakenly assume the local body's rules apply; they don't, and continuing to log CPD only locally can lead to your home membership lapsing.
What activities count when based overseas?
Most local activities count toward your home body's CPD if they're relevant to your role. **Online courses + webinars** — fully count regardless of provider location; ACCA / ICAEW / CIMA explicitly accept international online CPD. **Local conferences + events** — count when topics are relevant to your work (IFRS, audit, tax) even if presented in a different jurisdiction's context. **In-house training at international employers** — counts the same as UK-based in-house training, with the same evidence rules. **Local body events** — e.g. a CPA Singapore event attended by an ICAEW member is fine for CPD logging. The relevance test is unchanged: would the content be useful to your professional role? Document the same way: certificate / attendance record, learning outcomes, time spent.
How do dual memberships handle CPD?
Dual or triple memberships (common: ACCA + AICPA via CGMA, ICAEW + CPA Australia, ACCA + CPA Ireland) trigger one set of CPD logging that typically satisfies all bodies, but each body audits independently. Three practical points. (1) **The strictest requirement governs your total volume** — if ACCA wants 40 units and ICAEW wants 40 hours, you do 40 (not 80). The same activities count for both. (2) **You may need to split categorisation** — ICAEW's required reflective documentation differs from ACCA's verifiable / non-verifiable split. Most members keep one master log with columns for each body's category. (3) **Practising certificate CPD** is separate. If you hold a practising certificate from any body, that body may require additional or specifically-categorised CPD on top of the membership baseline.
Frequently asked
What if the host country has mandatory local CPD for my role?
Then both apply. Common examples: registered tax agents in Australia need TPB-mandated CPD; auditors in most jurisdictions need locally-supervised CPD; insolvency practitioners similarly. These are additional to your home body's CPD. The good news is that most overlap — a course on local tax law counts for the host country regulator AND your home body's CPD if it's relevant to your role. Don't double-count hours, but do log them once and reference both bodies on the same record.
Does time-zone or language of training matter?
No, neither matters for CPD validity. Online courses recorded in any time zone in any major language are accepted. Many international firms now offer dual-language CPD content (English + local language). For accounting-body audit purposes, the content's professional relevance is what's assessed, not the delivery context. Document the language used if it's potentially relevant to verification (e.g. attending a Mandarin-language CPD session as a Hong Kong-based ICAEW member — note the language on the log).
What happens if I move country mid-CPD-year?
Your home body's CPD year doesn't pause or reset based on relocation. Continue logging activities in both locations toward the same year's requirement. If you change your tax residence or practising certificate location, notify your body — they may apply pro-rated requirements for partial years if you've moved across regulatory regimes. The annual CPD declaration at year-end is the same — you just log activities across both countries within the same calendar / membership year.