CRP certification is the Certified Relocation Professional designation, a credential administered by WERC for people who manage employee relocations in the United States. Holding it signals that you understand how corporate relocation policies are designed, how home sale programs work, and how federal tax rules affect a move.1WERC. Certified Relocation Professional The people who typically pursue it are relocation management company staff, corporate HR professionals handling transfers, residential real estate agents who serve relocating employees, and household-goods logistics coordinators.
Who Can Sit for the Exam
Two things have to be true before WERC will let you register.
You need a current WERC membership that falls into one of the qualifying categories: Corporate Premier, PERC™ (an individual membership aimed at job seekers and academics), Real Estate Broker, Relocation Appraiser, Mobility Service Company, or Relocation Management Company. The membership has to stay active through the application and testing period.2WERC. How to Earn the CRP Designation
You also need at least one year of full-time professional experience in corporate relocation. Qualifying roles include work at relocation management companies, HR departments handling employee transfers, and residential brokerages serving relocating employees. Expect to produce documentation of your tenure, usually a form a supervisor or colleague signs confirming your dates and the nature of the work.
Exam Format and Scoring
The CRP exam is 125 multiple-choice questions in a three-hour sitting. Only 110 of the questions are scored; the other 15 are pretest items WERC is evaluating for future exams, and they don’t count for or against you. You won’t be told which is which, so treat every question as scored.1WERC. Certified Relocation Professional
Scores are reported on a scaled range of 200 to 800, and 500 is the passing mark. The scaling is an arithmetic conversion of your raw score that accounts for small differences in difficulty between testing windows, so it is not a straight percentage.2WERC. How to Earn the CRP Designation
You can sit for the exam at a physical proctoring center or through a secure online proctoring environment. Scores are released within six weeks of the final test date in a given window, viewable through the testing partner’s online portal, with an emailed score report following about two days later.2WERC. How to Earn the CRP Designation
What the Exam Covers
Three domains make up the test, and the weightings tell you where to put your hours.2WERC. How to Earn the CRP Designation
Program and Policy is the largest slice at 36%. It covers how corporations build relocation packages: tiered benefit structures for different employee levels, homeowner versus renter policies, lump-sum programs, and the financial controls that keep budgets in line.
Real Estate is close behind at 34%. This is home sale assistance programs, buyer value option transactions, appraisals, and the tax treatment of employer-assisted property transfers. The IRS guidance discussed below sits here.
Service Delivery accounts for the remaining 30%. It covers the operational work: selecting household goods carriers, arranging temporary housing, managing timelines, and handling the human side of a transfer such as school selection and spousal career support.
Fees and 2026 Registration Windows
WERC runs two exam windows a year, spring and fall, with tiered pricing by how early you register:
- Early bird, $350: register by March 17 for spring or September 15 for fall.
- Regular, $475: register between March 18 and April 14 for spring, or September 16 and October 13 for fall.
- Late, $575: register on or after April 15 for spring, or October 14 for fall.
These fees sit on top of WERC membership dues, which range from $265 for a PERC™ individual membership to $710 for a Real Estate Broker membership.3WERC. Join WERC The gap between early bird and late is $225 for the same exam.2WERC. How to Earn the CRP Designation
How to Prepare
WERC does not offer or sponsor an official review course and is not affiliated with any third-party prep program. Exam questions are drawn from specific WERC educational programs and research publications it calls “source materials,” which you can purchase when you register. They are built for independent study.4WERC. How to Earn the Certified Relocation Professional (CRP) Designation Brochure
Informal study groups exist in some parts of the country, and WERC passes along contact information when local organizers share it, but it doesn’t endorse any particular group. They can supplement the source materials; they don’t replace them, since the questions come from the publications themselves.
If You Don’t Pass
A failed attempt isn’t the end. If you took the exam in the current calendar year, you qualify for a reduced retake fee of $215. A spring failure can retake in the next fall or the following spring window; a fall failure can retake in the next spring window.2WERC. How to Earn the CRP Designation
The discount comes with a cutoff. You have to register by the early-bird deadline of the retake window, April 14 for spring or October 13 for fall. Miss that, and the standard regular or late fee applies as if you were a new candidate. The reduced rate is also unavailable to candidates who failed in a previous calendar year, canceled their exam, or didn’t show up.
Federal Tax Material the Exam Leans On
Tax questions are high stakes on the Real Estate section, and two topics show up heavily.
Revenue Ruling 2005-74
Revenue Ruling 2005-74 is the IRS guidance that decides whether an employee’s gain on a home sold through a corporate relocation program is treated as a capital gain or as taxable compensation. The answer turns on whether the employer actually assumes the risks and costs of owning the property before reselling it.5Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Rul. 2005-74
When the relocation company genuinely acquires the home, carrying maintenance, insurance, taxes, and the risk of a resale loss, the IRS treats the matter as two separate sales. The employee sells to the employer and realizes any capital gain, and none of that gain is wage income. The employer then resells to a third-party buyer. This is the outcome well-designed programs aim for.
When the program is structured so the employee effectively sells directly to the eventual buyer, with the relocation company acting as a facilitator rather than a true owner, the IRS treats it as a single sale. The employee still has the capital gain, but any expenses the employer pays on the home, including maintenance, taxes, insurance, and closing costs, become taxable compensation.5Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Rul. 2005-74 The difference between the two outcomes can run into thousands of dollars for the transferring employee, which is why the exam tests the distinction carefully.
Employer-Paid Moving Expenses in 2026
Separate from home sale programs, employer-paid moving expense reimbursements are taxable income for most employees. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 suspended the exclusion for qualified moving expense reimbursements, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed in July 2025 made that suspension permanent. Employers must report the reimbursements as taxable wages on the employee’s Form W-2.6IRS.gov. 2026 Publication 15-B Employer’s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits
Two narrow exceptions remain. Active-duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces who move because of a permanent change of station can still exclude the reimbursements from income, and employees and new appointees of the intelligence community who relocate for a change in assignment also qualify.6IRS.gov. 2026 Publication 15-B Employer’s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits For everyone else, the deduction and exclusion are gone. CRP professionals who build relocation packages have to account for that added tax burden when they price out the true cost of a transfer.
Keeping the Designation Active
Passing earns you the right to use the CRP® initials and a listing in WERC’s directory of certified professionals. The designation then runs on a three-year recertification cycle, and you need 30 continuing education credits within each cycle to renew.7WERC. Maintain Your CRP Credits come from WERC-approved conferences, webinars, and training sessions on mobility industry topics.
At the end of each three-year period, you submit your credits and pay a recertification renewal fee. WERC gives you a grace period of up to four and a half months past the expiration date to finish credits, provided your membership is current, but the renewal fee rises incrementally the longer you wait.8WERC. How to Retain the CRP Designation
If your WERC membership lapses for more than six months, your CRP designation is suspended. You can’t use the CRP initials on business cards, LinkedIn, email signatures, or professional correspondence until you reinstate your membership and clear any outstanding requirements.8WERC. How to Retain the CRP Designation The credential exists partly to signal credibility to corporate clients, so a lapse is worth avoiding.