How to submit your PEO P. Eng. application

First, allow me to apologize. Eight months have passed since my last post and no one would be blamed assuming that this blog was abandoned. The reasons for the hiatus are a combination of significant life events (some sad, some happy, including the birth of a P. Eng. Applicant Jr.!) and, admittedly, procrastination.

That being said, progress has been made! When we last talked, I was still rambling on about why someone in my position might or might not apply for their P.Eng. and what the requirements are. That’s all well and good, but what about me? After all, a primary motivator for this blog was for me to complete the application process. Well, I am happy to report to you the following milestones:

  • February 2014 – Application submitted to PEO
  • March 2014 – Application confirmed by PEO
  • April 2014 – Referees receive reference forms from PEO
Yay me! I’m back, baby.

Of course, the only milestone up there that involved effort on my part is the first one, submitting the application. Putting together the application is nothing to sneeze at, though, and I’ve now “walked the walk” so that I can relate my experience to you.

Let’s examine this handy application checklist provided by the PEO* for what your application needs:

  • Completed & signed Application Form
  • Proof of Identity (photocopy, both sides where applicable)
    • Canadian birth certificate
    • Canadian citizenship card or certificate
    • Permanent resident card
    • Form IMM 1000 of Record of Landing (if card not available)
  • Application Fee ($360 + HST = $407, cheque or money order)
    • Check if your employer will cover some of these costs!
  • Original transcripts for all degrees listed on PEO application
    • These need to be sent directly to the PEO from the educational institution (check with the registrar at your school)
    • This will likely cost you and additional $10-$20 per transcript
  • Pre-graduation Experience Record
    • Although I did have pre-graduation experience (through co-op), I decided not to list it. This was because I had the required 48 months of experience without it and I didn’t want the awkwardness of contacting co-op supervisors from a decade ago to ask if they remembered my 4-month stint with them.
  • Experience Record
    • Documents your (minimum) 48 months of engineering experience
    • This is the big one. Expect additional blog posts in the near future detailing how I went about creating this document.
  • Referee Contact Information
    • Include names, addresses, and professional license/registration numbers

*You will recall that I live and work in Ontario, thus my application is to the PEO. So while the process in your province is likely very similar, make sure you check with the licensing body that applies to you.

I tackled my application by writing the experience record first. This took by far the most time; about 90% of the total effort. Next was contacting all my referees (I had 5 in total) to make sure that they were on-board. After that, it was mostly paperwork: filling out the application form, ensuring that transcripts were underway, making photocopies of the important documents, and cutting a $339 cheque (fees have increased, it’s $408 now). Once I had checked everything twice, it all went in a big manila envelope and was mailed off to the PEO.

A few weeks after submitting the application, the follow e-mail arrived in my inbox:

Dear _______:

PEO File #123456789

Thank you for your recent application for licence and for submitting the necessary documents to allow your application to proceed to the next stage.

I have been assigned to manage your file throughout the licensure process and would be pleased to answer any questions you might have.  The file number shown above should be referred to in any correspondence or inquiry.

In order to proceed with your P.Eng. application, you are required to write the Professional Practice Exam.  Your first opportunity to write the Professional Practice Exam (PPE) will be August 2014 and you must successfully complete the exam by December 2015

Yes, I’m celebrating the successful submission of some fairly routine documentation.

My application was official – I had a File # and a real person assigned to my P. Eng. application! A few weeks after that, I started receiving word from my referees notifying me that they had received their documentation from the PEO. And that’s where we are today. I expect to receive the application package for the PPE in June and after that, it’s time to study (ugh).

If there any questions about the process, please feel free to leave a comment – I’ll do my best to respond. The next few posts will detail how I went about writing my Experience Record.

20 Replies to “How to submit your PEO P. Eng. application”

  1. I have more than 48 months of engineering work experience from India. Do i need to attach experience record with my PEO application form? I am about to submit my PEO application but confused about the work experience record.

  2. Hi,

    On my way to becoming a P. Eng, however my current position, while it involves many of the experience requirements is lacking a direct/indirect P. Eng supervisor. Can I still use this as part of my experience record? Referees aren’t an issue, just the lack of a license holder. I read on PEO’s site that at least 12 months of the 48 needs to have been in Canada with a P. Eng referee.

    Thanks!

    1. Can I still use this as part of my experience record?

      Yes, but as you noted, it cannot be the entirety of your experience as you need 12 months in Canada with P.Eng oversight. Good luck!

      1. Thanks for confirming, several of my engineering school mates weren’t convinced when I told them that. On the bright side, my employer footed the bill for the PPE I’m writing in August, so there’s that haha.

  3. Good day P. Eng.,

    I have the academic requirements, passed the PPE and attained the 48 months of work experience (all 48 months supervised by P.Eng.).

    I have been employed by the same structural consulting firm for the entire 48 months (june 2013 – present) with no leaves of absences and have been involved in 100s of projects. I’m currently working on the experience reports. I have written 7 and my goal is 10 total. All of the 10 projects contain quality exposure to the “5 elements of satisfactory engineering experience”.

    I may be overthinking this but here’s the example. The first project I reported on was from June 2013 – Sept 2013, and the next project I report on is from Jan 2014 – April 2014. I was involved in other projects from sept 2013 – jan 2014 but I didn’t include them because of repetition and lack of quality experience. Do you think these gaps in the timeline will matter? As long as I can prove I was employed the whole time?

    Any comment would be very helpful, also your website is awesome! Have been using it for the whole process.

    Thanks,
    Brody

    1. Hi Brody,

      I’m glad the site has helped you! Again, I can only speak from my personal experience on this, but on my application I only focused on a single project for each company I worked for. For some companies, this project accounted for my entire time and for others, only a portion. It wasn’t an issue.

      Good luck!

  4. Thanks for putting all this information together! I have 6 years of engineering experience and am in the process of applying for my PEng. However, could you tell me more about the process that your referees see? The reason I ask this is because I was laid off from my job of 6 years for undisclosed reasons (this is my only engineering experience). I have asked two of my close friends from the company who gladly agreed to be my referees, but have an issue trusting my direct supervisor to be a reliable referee. In fact, he did not reply to my email for en entire month, despite my coworker and friend informing me that he was “looking into the response to write”. Do I have any way of finding out what he writes to the PEO? What alternatives do you recommend?

    Steve

  5. Hello,

    I have Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, I have 1 year of experience as Manufacturing Engineer and 1 year as CNC programmer.
    Questions.
    Will my experience as CNC programmer be considered towards 48 months of experience?
    Will master’s degree be considered towards 48 months experience?
    If yes to these Qs, then I will have to gain 1 year experience in Canada under P.Eng license holder and I will be eligible to apply for the license. Is my understanding correct? Please correct me if I misunderstood.

    Thank you for this post of yours it’s really helpful. looking forward to hear from you.

  6. Hi There,

    I have been in supply chain management for about 5 years but I’m struggling to find any engineering experience that can be used towards my P.Eng application. Although, I believe I use lots of skills that were gained from my Engineering undergrad. Do you have any examples of someone who got their P.Eng working in logistics/ supply chain or something similar?

    1. Hi Francis, unfortunately I don’t really have many examples at my disposal (really just mine and those of a couple of friends that I’ve asked for; and I don’t know anyone in that field), otherwise I would definitely share it with you. Good luck with your application and, if you are successful, I would love to be able to share your anonymized experience record to benefit future applicants, if you’re up for it. All the best!

  7. Hello,

    I have been working for a manufacturing company for almost 3 years now, and we have one P.Eng in this company who denies to help me out. He says they we do not work directly under him so he is not willing to be my referee.
    So my question now is that can a P.Eng from some other company to be my referee? I did discuss my projects and experience with him.

    Looking forward to hear from you.
    Thanks

    1. Hi Saad,

      I’m sorry to hear this. Is this person the only P. Eng. in the entire company? I had a similar experience (my direct supervisor didn’t want to be a referee, not because they didn’t like me, but they simply didn’t want the responsibility), but I was able to find someone else who I worked with (who didn’t directly supervise me, but did oversee some of my work at the company) and had a P. Eng. to do it. If it’s possible to find someone else in the company, I would do that. If not, I’m not sure what to suggest. Sorry I can’t be of more help.

      All the best.

  8. Hi,

    I’m a recent immigrant to Canada. With over 12 years of experience in Electrical Engineering back home, here in Mississauga I’m working with IEEE as a volunteer under a P.Eng guide for last couple of months. Does this work in Canada account for local experience in order to mention it in my P.Eng application?

    Regards
    Vishal

  9. HI, I have a MBA on top of the engineering studies. Do I need to add that as academic experience and do the whole translation of marks, titles,… for the P.Eng application?

  10. Hello,
    I finally started my P.Eng application process after a rough two years. I have an Masters degree in Environmental Engineering and a Bachelor in Civil Engineering, both form India. As for work experience, I have approximately 36 months of core engineering work and 16 months in a teaching position which did include some consultancy work form time to time. Out of the total experience, 11 months is under direct supervision of a P.Eng in Canada another 7 months indirect (P.Eng was a part of the team but was not who I reported to).
    I suppose I have a few questions in mind for which I am looking for clarity:
    1. Will my 16 month teaching experience be considered in the 48 month requirement?
    2. Would I require another 1 month experience under direct supervision of a P.Eng to meet the 12 month requirement or will the other 7 months be considered?
    3. If my 16 month teaching experience is not considered and I do not satisfy the 48 month requirement, should I wait to apply for the license?
    4. Will I get any credit for my Master’s degree and a 6 month internship (outside Canada)?

    I would really appreciate any guidance you can offer.

    -Ishtdeep

  11. Dear all,
    Can anybody suggest what is the best way to approach the Peng POE License without any degree, that means for a Three year Diploma in mechanical Engineering grad, I notice there is a significant change in academic requirement as on May 13th 2023.

    Sincerely,

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