After passing all 3 levels, do you have to become a CFA member and pay the due? Can we wait until accumulating 48 months work experience, then become a member and apply for charter?
What is the maximum amount of time in which you can apply for a membership in order to become a chartholder? For example, can you apply 10 years after you passed the Level III?
You can take as much time as you want, and if you don’t have 48 months of approved experience, there really is no reason to become a member of CFAI, unless you want to use thier Jobline service or possibly look up other CFA charterholders using the database. Once you have 48 months, then you do need to pay up in order to use the letters after your name; however if you’re content just to say you passed all three levels, you don’t even need to do it hten.
If you become a member prior to getting the 48 months experience, it speeds up the process when you do get the experience - you just update your details and bingo you’re practically printing CFA on your business card. Plus you get access to Jobline, FAJ and the CFA magazine.
Keep in mind that you can only become an Affiliate member if you have less than 48 months of experience. So you will still have to upgrade your membership to regular membership after fulfilling the work experience requirements.
http://www.cfainstitute.org/about/membership/process/Pages/index.aspx
If you can get your employer to pay the CFA dues, then becoming an affiliate member is worth while. I probably wouldn’t pay for it out of pocket.