ICE-SA advises and assists South African Civil Engineers (students, graduates and Members, Fellows and Honorary Fellows of SAICE ) in becoming an ICE Member.

There are various Routes to ICE Membership and Categories of ICE Membership that are available.  

There is a Mutual Recognition Agreement between ICE and SAICE/ECSA that facilitates the application process between South Africa and ICE.

In terms of this Mutual Recognition agreement, members of SAICE who are registered with ECSA as professional engineers of at least one year's standing and members of ICE who are registered with the Engineering Council UK as chartered engineers of at least one year's standing will be accorded corresponding membership and professional registration of the other on receipt of a duly completed acceptable application form and supporting documents. (See the ICE website: ICE Mutual Recognition Agreement Page). 

Application via this route is only available to professional engineers/chartered civil engineers who qualified via the ECSA/ICE standard route (i.e., by having the required academic qualifications for that grade, by completing the required training and development, and by passing a professional review). 

Limitations of the Mutual Recognition Agreement Route:

• If you choose to become an ICE Member and Chartered Engineer (UK) via the Mutual Recognition route, you will be limited in the use of ICE's protected title 'Chartered Civil Engineer'. However, you will still be able to use the title of ‘Chartered Engineer’ and ‘Member of ICE’.

  • If this is important to you, you can choose to qualify directly with ICE and undertake the Professional Review, via various standard Routes to ICE Membership.

• You will not be able to use your MICE / CEng to access other Mutual Recognition agreements that ICE has with other Professional Engineering Institutions around the world.

  • Mutual Recognition agreements rely on your “home” professional registration qualifications. This means that if you are registered Professionally in South Africa, then you can access Mutual Recognition agreements that ECSA has with international institutions.

ICE-SA has requested ICE and SAICE to engage with ECSA to explore the possibility of expanding the Mutual Exemption Agreement to cover Incorporated Engineers/Professional Engineering Technologists and Engineering Technicians/Professional Technicians; however, these discussions are still taking place.