Are there guys who have already applied your reglar membership ? Explanation regarding professional reference is ambiguous and it is pretty difficult to understand who is eligible for reference. My previous susupervisor is not a charter holder. Is he eligible or not ?
yes, you will need 3 references if none of them are charterholder.
if you can find one charterholder as a reference, you only need an additional one reference.
for example: case 1) John + Mary + Peter
case 2) Paul, CFA + Bob
You need two references if one of them is a regular member of the society that you are applying to.
You need three references otherwise (they need not be charterholders).
Nana and Sheeshers Thank you for your explanations !! I asked my previous colleagues without CFA to answer as reference.
I don’t think that’s the case. Two of my references were charterholders and I still needed a third.
Really?? Are they active members?? (not retired or anything?)
That’s strange, did they verify your work experience though? perhaps there’s something to do with what they wrote in the questionaire??
i have never seen the questionaire myself so i don’t know why kind of questions they ask the references.
Really?? Are they active members?? (not retired or anything?)
That’s strange, did they verify your work experience though? perhaps there’s something to do with what they wrote in the questionaire??
i have never seen the questionaire myself so i don’t know why kind of questions they ask the references.
It’s not charterholder, but local member. Were they local members?
Mine was fine with one charterholder who was a local member (former boss) and one collegue.
NAna, this is not totally correct. To have 2 references, the charter holder must be a member of the local society that you are applying to. If not, you still need 3.
Yeah, Nana. Basfrey’s right. If one is a charterholder, then you only need two. If not, then you need three. What part of that don’t you understand? Get it right.
Yes, sorry i forgot to mention that part, i assume it is a local society since but i fail to recognize a lot of people move away to work in a different city from their references. 
Greenman72, According to your supplemental explanations, is submitting three refereces from non - charter holdersholders enogh to obtain regular membership ?
Is that true i.e. the local society bit. I’ve one non-CFA supervisor, and one CFA but she’s in Pittsburgh and I’m in Luxembourg so hence, not a member of the Lux local society.
I’ve a mail into the CFA about this because I can’t get by the references bit in my application - no bother though, I’ll assume you guys are right and get on it with a friend who’s in the local society.
Thank you all,
I received e-mail from CFA Institute.
and they say as below.
“You are not required to have Professional Reference Statements submitted from CFA charterholders. Your Professional References should be individuals who can speak to your work experience history. Supervisor references are preferred, but not required. You can find out more about our Reference requirements here. As you will see, you can have three Professional Reference Statements submitted in support of your application; if you have a Professional Reference Statement submitted from an active, Regular member of the society to which you are applying, you will only need two Professional Reference Statements.”