A person holding a certificate of licensure to engage in the practice of land surveying issued by a proper authority of a jurisdiction or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, or any foreign country, based on requirements that do not conflict with the provisions of Iowa Code section 542B.14 and of a standard not lower than that specified in the applicable licensure Act, may, upon application and successful completion of the Iowa State Specific Land Surveying examination, be licensed without further examination. Comity applicants are governed by the same standards as are required of Iowa applicants.
While the board will consider evidence presented by a comity applicant on non-NCEES examinations successfully completed in a foreign country, the non-NCEES examination will be compared with the appropriate NCEES examination. A non-NCEES professional examination, for instance, must be designed to determine whether a candidate is minimally competent to practice professional land surveying. The examination must be written, objectively graded, verifiable, and developed and validated in accordance with the testing standards of the American Psychological Association or equivalent testing standards. Free-form essays and oral interviews are not equal or superior to NCEES examinations for reasons including the subjective nature of such procedures, lack of verifiable grading standards, and heightened risk of inconsistent treatment.
Iowa Admin. Code r. 193C-5.2