Architecture News: 5-Year Limit for Architectural Licensing Expires

The United States’ National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) is retiring its rolling clock policy. Under this policy, individuals seeking licensure had a five-year expiration date on successfully completed divisions of the Architect Registration Examination (ARE). In other words, after passing the first of six ARE divisions, which are separate exams covering different aspects of a typical architecture project and current practice, exam takers would have five years to pass the other five ARE divisions. After five years, a passed division’s result would become invalid.

On April 30, 2023, a new policy will be enacted where division exam results will expire based on the exam version. In the new policy, passed ARE divisions will remain valid until the end of the next version of the ARE. For example, the current ARE exam version is ARE 5.0. Candidates who passed exam divisions in ARE 5.0 will have until the start of ARE 7.0 to pass all divisions before results expired.

NCARB has decided to retire the rolling clock policy based on research that indicated that this policy adversely affected women and minorities.

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Read more on NCARB’s policy changes on architectural licensing timelines.