Reciprocity With the U.K.: How to Take Advantage of the New Agreement

On Feb 16th, 2023 the UK and US regulatory bodies of architecture, ARB and NCARB [with hyperlinks] signed a Mutual Recognition Agreement, allowing eligible architects on both sides of the Atlantic to be able to register and work in both places. 

The RIBA-USA had been working towards this since Dec 2016, when Past President, Phil Allsopp, the then New England Chapter Chair, Catherine Davis, and Catherine Clark who was the New York Chapter Chair at that time met with the RIBA Executive in Portland Place to begin the conversations around reinstating a reciprocal agreement for architects. 

Since then, Catherine Clark (the current RIBA President) has spent many hours meeting with all the stakeholders on both sides of the Atlantic who have been trying to move this piece of legislation through, on behalf of fellow RIBA members here in the US, and all RIBA members who wish to work in this region. We are grateful to our colleagues at the UK Foreign Office in New England and the British Consulate in NYC and the Ministry for Leveling Up, NCARB and the ARB for all their hard work and dedication to help make the MRA possible. 

We are delighted at this historic piece of news. It is a subject that Catherine Clark says, in her many years of volunteering for the RIBA-USA has come up again and again. Some members tell us they have been waiting 21 years for this to happen! We are thrilled that it will change employment opportunities for members who will now be allowed to call themselves Architects and sign and seal their own drawings. 

Please email info@ribausa.org for more information.