Credit for Registrants from Other Jurisdictions

A. Entry to IPENZ Professional Membership (MIPENZ)
B. Entry to IPENZ Technical Membership (TIPENZ)
C. Entry to IPENZ Associate Membership (AIPENZ)
D. Entry to the IPENZ Practice College
E. Entry to the Chartered Professional Engineer register (CPEng)

Introduction
Engineers coming to New Zealand who have been registered in another country on the International Professional Engineers Register (IntPE) or APEC Engineer Register will receive benefit when applying for IPENZ membership and/or Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) registration.  Provided the engineer concerned is in good ethical standing, entry into IPENZ membership is unlikely to require any further assessment of competence.

For entry onto the CPEng register there may be requirements if, in the relevant area of engineering practice, there are practices specific to New Zealand that the engineer must learn to be capable of fully independent professional engineering practice in New Zealand. In such cases, even with IntPE or APEC registration from his/her previous jurisdiction, registration will not be possible until the engineer can demonstrate knowledge of New Zealand standards, codes of practices and regulations that apply to his/her area of practice. The practice area in which this requirement is most demanding is structural engineering, an area in which New Zealand has stringent codes of practice governing seismic design. IPENZ uses the EMF and APEC Engineer agreements to minimise the amount of assessment, other than that of local knowledge.  When assessing applications from overseas, the extent to which an applicant has attained prior knowledge of engineering practice requirements specific to New Zealand and relevant to the applicant’s practice area will be taken into account.

Depending on the practice field, our expectation is that most candidates from overseas can gain the necessary knowledge by working collaboratively with New Zealand engineers for a period of time, normally less than 12 months.

A. Entry to IPENZ Professional Membership (MIPENZ)
(A.1.Via Professional Memberships/Registrations)

Engineers who are currently professional members/registered/licensed with the following organisations can gain entry into the class of Professional Member (MIPENZ) without further assessment of their competence.  In such cases evidence will be sought to confirm the nature and outcomes of the previous competency assessments undertaken, the currency of professional membership/s or registrations and the suitability of the candidate’s ethical behaviour:

• Professional member of Engineers Australia (MIEAust) plus CPEng OR MIEAust only if assessed before 2002
• Professional member of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (MHKIE)
• Professional member and Chartered Engineer (CEng) with any of the professional engineering organisations that are licensed members of the Engineering Council (United Kingdom) except Institute of Highway Incorporated Engineers, Institute of Plumbing, Institution of Railway Signal Engineers
• Registered Professional Engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa
• Professional member and Chartered Engineer (CEng) with the Institution of Engineers Ireland.

A.2. Via APEC and IntPE Registrants from Other Jurisdictions

Engineers on these registers will be granted entry to IPENZ Professional Membership without further assessment other than to ensure they are in good ethical standing. This applies to any engineer currently registered on the APEC Engineer Register or the Engineers Mobility Forum’s International Professional Engineers Register in any of the jurisdictions listed below:

B. Entry to IPENZ Technical Membership (TIPENZ)

Institutions recognized by IPENZ as having substantial equivalency of standards and assessment processes for Technical Membership are:

If you are a member of one of the above recognised engineering bodies in the specified membership class, then you are eligible for entry into TIPENZ via the “credit schedule”.  The credit schedule is a schedule where IPENZ gives “credit” for those who have demonstrated competence to a level equivalent to that required for TIPENZ.

C. Entry to IPENZ Associate Membership (AIPENZ)

Institutions recognized by IPENZ as having substantial equivalency of standards and assessment processes for Associate Membership are:

If you have attained one of the above membership classes with the related engineering body, you may apply for AIPENZ via the “credit schedule”.  The credit schedule is a schedule where IPENZ gives “credit” for those who have demonstrated competence to a level equivalent to that required for AIPENZ.

D. Entry to the IPENZ Practice College

Engineers who are eligible for IPENZ Professional Membership (under A. above), and who are currently competent according to the definition in the Practice College Rules (demonstrated their competence at a level equivalent to the IPENZ competence standard in the last five years), will be eligible for entry into the IPENZ Practice College. 

E. Credit Towards CPEng Registration in New Zealand Under the Chartered Professional Engineers of New Zealand Act 2002

E.1 Via Professional Memberships/Registrations

Professional memberships and/or professional engineering registrations from other jurisdictions that can be used to support an application for CPEng Registration are listed below.  The weighting given to this form of evidence will depend on how recently the assessment was performed, but applicants will be considered as having been previously assessed as meeting a standard substantially equivalent to the CPEng standard at some point in the pas.  Such applicants will have to demonstrate (typically through a desktop assessment only) that their practice since that assessment has been competent, and that they are sufficiently up to date through professional development activities to be able to practise competently and ethically:

E.1.a  Professional Members of IPENZ (MIPENZ) and/or engineers registered under the Engineers registration Act 1924 (Registered Engineers)

E.2.a  Engineers who are currently professional members/registered/licensed with the following organisations

• Professional member of Engineers Australia (MIEAust) plus CPEng OR MIEAust only if assessed before 2002
• Professional member of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (MHKIE)
• Professional member and Chartered Engineer (CEng) with any of the professional engineering organisations that are licensed members of the Engineering Council (United Kingdom) except Institute of Highway Incorporated Engineers, Institute of Plumbing, Institution of Railway Signal Engineers
• Registered Professional Engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa
• Professional member and Chartered Engineer (CEng) with the Institution of Engineers Ireland.

3. APEC and IntPE Registrants from Other Jurisdictions (refer Paragraph A.2 for listing of jurisdictions)

E.2. Queensland

Engineers registered as Registered Professional Engineers of Queensland (RPEQ) in Queensland who wish to be registered as CPEng can, under provisions of the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act (TTMRA), notify IPENZ of their wish to gain CPEng registration.  The philosophy underpinning the TTMRA is that if there is occupational equivalence in Australia and New Zealand, registration of an occupation in one country should be sufficient to enable automatic registration in the other.  The requirement to achieve occupational equivalence for RPEQs is that they must demonstrate competence in Element 2 of the CPEng competence standard, and that they have demonstrated their current competence by being assessed within the last five years.  Therefore, before being registered as a Chartered Professional Engineer, RPEQs must demonstrate their ability to comprehend and apply the underpinning principles of good practice for professional engineering that is specific to New Zealand.  Further, if assessment undertaken for a RPEQ was more than 5 years ago, he/she will require assessment of current competence before attaining registration – in the same way that a New Zealand CPEng must undertake assessment at intervals not exceeding 5 years to remain on the CPEng register.
The test for meeting Element 2 of the CPEng competence standard will depend on the RPEQ’s practice area and the extent to which there is New Zealand-specific knowledge of critical importance to competent practice within that area.  The assessment will be less onerous for those practising in areas where there is a high level of internationalisation in codes and engineering practice than for those practising in areas where there is a high level of NZ-specific codes etc.  Thus someone from a Civil/structural/geotechnical background will find the assessment more demanding than someone from say an information/software engineering background.
IPENZ will respond to notifications from RPEQs in one of three ways:
(i)      Register the RPEQ as CPEng where sufficient evidence has been provided to demonstrate that Element 2 has been met and the current competence requirement has been met; or
(ii)     Register as CPEng with conditions placed on registration with a requirement that the RPEQ provides additional evidence to achieve occupational equivalence; or
(iii)    Postponement of registration for 6 months with a requirement that the RPEQ provides additional evidence to achieve occupational equivalence.
Application for registration as CPEng under the TTRMA must be made using the CPEng Registration via Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act 1997 (CP103) form, and must be accompanied by the appropriate fee.