Continuing Professional Development practice standard v2.0 (in effect 2025-11-01) becomes enforceable 2026-11-01 at each licensed professional's next annual renewal. Built for Sahir Mathur, P.Eng., resident in Alameda, CA.
Bottom line
Yes — you almost certainly still have to do it, and you should not use non-practising status to dodge it.
Living outside Canada doesn't exempt you. The new out-of-jurisdiction exception is built for Canadian interprovincial mobility — it requires you to be registered and compliant with the regulator where you live. Unless you hold a US state PE licence with its own continuing-education obligation, there's no home regulator to defer to. The good news: the real workload is small — a set of online modules plus a one-page plan and two logged activities a year.
You can apply, and it costs nothing to ask, but on the published criteria you probably don't qualify. The exception (live as of 2026-08-24) is requested via myAPEGA → CPD dropdown → “Reporting CPD in Another Jurisdiction.” APEGA's wording requires that you:
The programme is framed as collaboration among the 12 Canadian engineering/geoscience regulators plus Engineers Canada. A US address with no state PE licence leaves nothing for APEGA to accept in place of its own standard. Worth one email to cpd@apega.ca — they explicitly invite eligibility questions, and if a US resident without a state licence can use it, this problem disappears permanently.
Correct instinct — and APEGA says the same thing in the standard itself. Section 5.0, verbatim:
“For a temporary withdrawal from practice, APEGA does not recommend that licensed professionals enter non-practising status for not meeting the requirements of the Continuing Professional Development practice standard. Licensed professionals must request permission from the Practice Review Board to return to practice from non-practising status, and they may be subject to practice conditions upon returning to practice.”
Getting back out is the expensive part: a Resume Practice Application, and if you've been non-practising 2 years or longer, a full record review plus a Work Experience Record. The PRB or Council can attach restrictions or conditions to your return. You'd be trading ~a few hours a year for a gate you have to ask permission to walk back through.
Section 5.0 also spells out the escape hatch you actually want: licensed professionals not practising full time stay compliant by completing the learning modules and tailoring the PACE plan to their own circumstances and abilities. The standard is explicitly designed to be satisfiable at low intensity. Do that instead.
The old hours-based self-reported CPD system is gone. v2.0 replaces it with two mandatory components, both due annually by your CPD due date (= your annual renewal/expiry date).
| # | Component | What you must do | Proof to keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Learning modules §3.1 |
Complete every module APEGA assigns you in the online LMS, annually. Assigned at the start of your CPD period. Five knowledge areas: Authenticating Professional Work Products · Duty to Report · Ethical Practice · Regulatory · Relying on the Work of Others and Outsourcing. | The LMS completion certificate for each module. Submit only if the PRB asks. |
| 2 | PACE plan §3.2 |
Write a new Personal Annual Competency Evaluation plan each year covering your current and upcoming practice areas, identifying the skills/knowledge you need, and recording completed activities with a written explanation of how each built your competence. Revise mid-year if your role changes. | The plan itself plus supporting docs for every activity. Keep old years' plans too. |
| 3 | CPD activities §3.2 |
Minimum two per year, logged inside the PACE plan: at least one technical activity, and at least one from regulatory / ethical practice / communications-management-leadership. Learning modules do not count toward this — separate bucket. | Provider, date, duration, plus evidence (registration confirmations, certificates, agendas, emails, calendar entries). |
| 4 | Declaration §3.0 |
In myAPEGA, by your CPD due date, declare that you created and followed a compliant PACE plan and kept a record of your activities. The declaration only appears ~2 months before your renewal date. | — |
Consequence of missing it — §4.0, verbatim
“Failing to comply with the requirements of the Continuing Professional Development practice standard will result in a loss of good standing. After a loss of good standing, a Practice Review Board (PRB) review may be initiated. Failing to provide adequate documentation during a PRB review will result in the cancellation of the licensed professional's registration.”
Correction to the earlier read: it isn't just a “not compliant” mark in your history. It's loss of good standing, and the cancellation path is explicit in the standard, not merely hinted at in an email.
Enforcement begins at your first annual renewal on or after 2026-11-01. The 2026-09-01 email is a 60-day warning aimed at people who renew in November.
Your renewal looks like April, not November — two Gmail signals on 2026-04-21: a “Required Actions in Your myAPEGA Account” notice at 16:26 and an APEGA receipt for $385.21 at 21:22. Dues plus required-actions on the same day reads as an April cycle, which would put your first enforceable renewal around April 2027 — roughly seven months out, not sixty days.
inferred This is deduced from a payment date, not confirmed. Log into myAPEGA and read the actual renewal date — every deadline below hangs off it. The declaration itself won't appear until two months before that date.
cpd@apega.ca asking whether a US resident without a state PE licence can use the out-of-jurisdiction exception. Draft is written and waiting on your go.📋 APEGA CPD — new standard, enforced from Nov 1 2026 Living in the US does NOT exempt you. The new out-of-jurisdiction exception needs you registered + compliant with the regulator where you live — no California PE licence means no home regulator to defer to. Don't use non-practising status to dodge it. APEGA's own standard (§5.0) says don't: getting back needs Practice Review Board permission, and after 2 yrs a full record review + Work Experience Record, with possible conditions on your return. What's actually required each year: 1️⃣ Complete APEGA's assigned online learning modules (5 knowledge areas) 2️⃣ Write a new PACE plan covering your practice areas 3️⃣ Log ≥2 CPD activities — ≥1 technical, ≥1 regulatory/ethics/leadership (modules don't count) 4️⃣ Declare it in myAPEGA by your CPD due date ⚠️ Miss it = loss of good standing → PRB review → failure to document = registration cancelled. 📅 Enforced at your first renewal on/after Nov 1 2026. Yours looks like APRIL, not November → ~April 2027. CONFIRM in myAPEGA.
cpd@apega.ca · 1-800-661-7020cpd@apega.ca, 2026-09-01 — “Enforcement of CPD Requirements Starts November 1”Confidence. Requirements, penalties and the non-practising wording are quoted directly from the v2.0 standard PDF — high confidence. The April renewal date is inferred from a dues payment and must be confirmed in myAPEGA. The out-of-jurisdiction read is based on APEGA's public wording; the authoritative criteria sit behind the myAPEGA login.
Last updated 2026-09-01, America/Los_Angeles. Not legal advice.