Understanding Professional Regulations in Mauritius

Hi all,

My story is that I am a consulting electrical engineer from South Africa that has a degree (24 years) and professional registration (16 years) in South Africa which are both accredited under the Washington Accord. This means it is internationally recognised, however countries may expect you to write a report and attend an interview to register in their country.

I have a self-employed occupation permit in Mauritius, granted on the fact that I practice the above profession.

In Mauritius, there is the CRPE (council for registered professional engineers). According to their rules for registration for foreigners, if the registration is Washington Accord accredited, there should be an automatic registration in Mauritius, or at least an interview to ascertain competency. While I have tried with the CRPE, their response was that, because my permit does not state professional on it (only self employed), that they cannot register me in Mauritius. I even approached the EDB who assured me that they would take it up with the CRPE, however their query to CRPE took about 2 months to respond, and the response merely stated that one must be a professional in order to register.

By the time the response from the CRPE to EDB had come , the EDB had lost track of what my original query was, and simply forwarded the mail from CRPE to me.

It has been a battle to register here. Fortunately my business in South Africa is running and I am busy with project work every day, and earning. Getting into the consulting environment in Mauritius, is however proving to be quite a challenge. I have met some consultants in Mauritius who are willing to assist me with the CRPE and I have been building relations with the engineering community in Mauritius.

It is very different in South Africa, where I know many foreign engineers who are registered with the Engineering Council there and are self employed.