Registering for the SOCPA Fellowship Auditing Exam: Eligibility, Fees, Exemptions and 2026–2027 Dates

Last verified: 31 October 2026. Eligibility, fees and dates can change, so confirm them on the Fellowship exam page on the SOCPA website before you apply and pay. This is an independent guide and is not affiliated with SOCPA, the National Center for Assessment or any government body, and it cannot register you for the exam.

Registration runs through two bodies: you apply and pay on SOCPA's e-services, then book your test venue on the e-services of the National Center for Assessment. Each sitting's registration window is only ten days long, and anyone who does not book a seat in the set period is counted as absent. Registration for the 22 December 2026 sitting opens on 5 November, a few days after the date of this guide.

The process at a glance

1. Check that your qualification falls in one of the two accepted groups (below), or that you are exempt from auditing (see the exemption section).
2. Register on SOCPA e-services during the announced window, upload your documents, choose «Fellowship exam», then your test city, the subject (auditing) and the payment type.
3. Applications are processed within ten working days of receipt. After acceptance you pay the exam fee and the fees for all subjects you registered.
4. After final acceptance, choose your test venue on the National Center for Assessment e-services, starting 21 days before the sitting period begins and for five days.
5. Sit the exam with your ID. Results are announced on a date set for each sitting (table below).

Who can register?

SOCPA admits anyone who wants the Fellowship certificate from the following two groups, according to the exam page and the application service page:

• Recognised qualifications: only educational certificates recognised by the Ministry of Education are accepted. If yours was issued outside Saudi Arabia, attach the equivalency decision or the certificate verification report instead of the declaration and authorisation form.
• Accounting hours: SOCPA has rules for completing the accounting hours and a list of accepted accounting courses, both linked from the exam page. Read them if your major is not accounting. SOCPA's 2026 professional exams guide shows an older number of hours, so go by the exam page and the application page (15 hours).

Exemption from auditing

Holders of the AICPA, ICAEW, CPA Canada and CPA Australia qualifications are exempt from the auditing subject if they earned the qualification by passing its exams. The exemption covers three subjects: auditing, financial accounting, and management and government accounting. An exempt candidate must complete the remaining Fellowship requirements within four calendar years and thirty days. Details and required documents are on the Fellowship exam page.

If you are exempt you do not need this guide for auditing. If you do not hold one of these qualifications you sit the full subject. The exemption does not come from studying, or from any qualification other than the four named.

Documents you need

• A colour personal photo.
• A copy of your bachelor's certificate.
• A copy of your academic transcript.
• A copy of your passport if you are not Saudi.
• A declaration and authorisation form, or an equivalency decision, or a certificate verification report.

You log in to e-services with your national ID or resident ID number and receive a verification code on your registered mobile.

Fees

Examples from these figures: registering for the first time for auditing alone costs 1,000 + 300 = SAR 1,300. Retaking it in a later sitting costs 500 + 300 = SAR 800. If you register a second subject in the same application, add SAR 300 for it. You must pay the full amount: a partial payment gets the application rejected for all registered subjects. A marks recheck is requested within two weeks of the results by email to exam@socpa.org.sa, with the recheck form and the fee.

Registering for auditing on its own

You may register for one or more subjects in a single application, so you do not have to apply for every Fellowship subject. Watch three things:

• Any change (adding or removing a subject, or changing the city) before the invoice is issued cancels the earlier application and the last one stands.
• Once the exam invoice is issued or the application is rejected, you cannot add or remove a subject. After final acceptance you can change the city or subject, subject to available seats, during the registration window, or postpone a subject or the whole exam.
• SOCPA may move your exam from computer-based to paper or the reverse, without your consent, depending on seat availability.

Auditing takes its own full day: multiple choice from 8:30 to 11:30 am, and the essay questions from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. Each subject in a sitting is on a separate day, so you can register auditing with another subject in the same sitting without a clash. In the December 2026 sitting auditing comes one day after zakat and tax and one day before management and government accounting.

Dates: December 2026 and 2027

Source: the exam schedule and registration dates on SOCPA's website. Each sitting runs four days and auditing is on the third. For the sitting whose period begins on 20 December 2026: financial accounting is on 20 December, zakat and tax on 21, auditing on 22, and management and government accounting on 23.

Choosing your test venue

The cities available on the National Center for Assessment site, subject to seat availability, are Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Makkah, Al-Ahsa, Qassim, Madinah, Tabuk, Abha and Majmaah (men only). The booking window opens 21 days before the sitting period begins and lasts five days. For the sitting whose period begins on 20 December 2026, count from that date and watch your email and text messages. If you do not choose a venue in that period no seat is booked for you and you are counted as absent.

Postponement, resits and how long a passed subject lasts

• Postponement: submit the request at least 25 days before the sitting period begins (before 25 November 2026 for the December sitting), then register for the postponed exam in the next sitting or the one after, so you may postpone for two consecutive sittings, for the whole exam or for a single subject.
• Resits: you may retake any subject in which you did not reach the pass mark, for the subject fee plus the exam fee for later sittings.
• Validity: the result of any subject you passed is cancelled if four calendar years and thirty days pass from passing it without passing all the Fellowship subjects, and you must sit it again. That period is your deadline for completing all six subjects.
• Pass mark: 60 out of 100, including at least 5 of the 25 essay marks. The multiple-choice part is 90 questions (75 marks) and the essay part 4 questions (25 marks). The subject is explained in the exam content guide.
• Calculator: SOCPA provides one in the exam hall.

Fee support

The Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) runs a professional certificate support programme that reimburses the cost of SOCPA Fellowship exam fees once you have obtained the certificate, up to SAR 30,000 per certificate. Details and eligibility are on HRDF's programme page.

After you register

• See where you stand with the 10 free questions, no sign-up.
• Plan your study up to the exam date in the study plan.

This is an independent guide and is not affiliated with SOCPA, the National Center for Assessment or any government body, and it cannot register you for the exam.