IndisGuise, You wrote "Just to be clearer on the issue, as a Nepali, a non-resident: what are the scopes as a practicing CPA?" Unless you insist on thinking and presenting yourself as a Nepali and a non-resident to your clients the scope should not be different. Currently USA lacks 40,000 CPAs, PCAOB was looking to hire 500 CPAs but could find only 300 (Source: Accounting conferences I regularly attain). There is a growing trend of hiring foreign trained professional accountants in the US (Source: Hindustan Times), enrollment with accounting major is up but there is a lag of several years before they become available to the growing job market (source: AICPA). In my seven years of experience in the US, I have noticed that it is very hard to retain good accountants in public accounting. Generally the good ones are lured away by the private sector. Comparatively the private sector pays more and is less stressful (IMO). Bottom line: they have to find people who know accounting and auditing (and taxes) but they are not finding them, so there is a good scope for any one to practice accounting regardless of their country of origin. Prajesh