Phase 7 · Your result
Deferring your review
When you can defer, what it costs, and the exceptions ICE will consider.
Who this is for:Candidates at any stage
You may request a deferral at any time after submitting your application. What it costs depends on whether your review date has been issued yet.
The deferral procedure
Institution of Civil Engineers
- You may request deferral at any time after submitting your application, and should contact ICE immediately if you wish to defer.
- If you defer, you will need to make a new application through the ICE application portal, in line with the dates published on the ICE website and the current guidance.
- If you contact ICE to defer before receiving details of your review date, you will not have to pay the application fee again if you apply within the next 12 months — your original fee is applied to the new application. Beyond 12 months, a new fee is payable.
- If you contact ICE to defer after receiving details of your review date, you are liable for the next application fee. ICE may grant an exception in exceptional circumstances preventing you from attending.
- Exceptions are granted for three criteria: medical, bereavement, and local emergency. ICE will also consider a situation outside these if you can show the deferral was due to circumstances beyond your control.
- Evidence is required, and you are given 10 working days to supply it. Failure to supply it means the exception is not granted and you are liable for the next fee.
- Deferral requests and evidence go to professional.reviews@ice.org.uk.
- ICE will ask you to notify your lead sponsor in all cases. You are not required to notify your employer.
- ICE's decision regarding a deferral is final.
- Deferring before your review date is issued
- 12months to re-apply without paying againDefer after your date has been issued and you are liable for the next fee, unless ICE grants an exception for medical reasons, bereavement or a local emergency.
- Time to supply deferral evidence
- 10working days
From Incorporated and Chartered Professional Review Guidance, Institution of Civil Engineers.
The other kind of deferral
There is a second route by which a review can be deferred, and it is not one you request. If your reviewers pre-assess your report and agree it is not of a satisfactory standard, the review is deferred. The Professional Reviews team gives you the details of why it is not satisfactory and what you must do next, and the review is rearranged once you have addressed the comments.
It is worth understanding this as a quality gate rather than a rejection. Reviewers would rather rearrange than take a candidate through a review that the report cannot support.
Deferring by choice
Deferral exists for good reasons and is not held against you. But it is worth being honest about which situation you are in, because they call for different things:
- Something happened. Illness, bereavement, an emergency. Contact ICE immediately and gather your evidence; you have ten working days once asked.
- Work has swallowed the preparation. Common, and genuinely difficult. Deferring is usually better than arriving unprepared — but only if you also change what caused it.
- The report is not good enough. If you know this before the reviewers do, deferring is much better than the alternative.
- Nerves. Deferring will not help, and it tends to repeat. A mock review with your lead sponsor usually does more.
What it costs, and when
| Deferring before your review date is issued | Deferring after it is issued | |
|---|---|---|
| The fee | Your original fee carries over if you re-apply within 12 months. Beyond that, a new fee is payable. | You are liable for the next application fee. |
| Exceptions | Not needed within the 12 months. | ICE may grant one for medical reasons, bereavement or a local emergency — and will consider circumstances beyond your control outside those. |
| Evidence | None required. | Required, with 10 working days to supply it. |
| What you do next | Make a new application in line with the published dates and current guidance. | The same — and notify your lead sponsor, which ICE asks for in all cases. |
ICE's decision on a deferral is final. The point of the table is that the timing of your call matters more than the reason.
Questions to ask yourself
Which of the four situations am I actually in?
Something happened; work swallowed the preparation; the report is not good enough; or nerves. They call for different responses, and only the first three are helped by deferring.
Has my review date been issued yet?
It decides the fee position entirely, and it means a decision taken this week may cost less than the same decision next week.
If work caused this, what will be different next time?
Deferring buys time. It does not change the thing that consumed the last lot.
If you need to defer
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Related pages and tools
- ResultsWhen the result arrives, what a successful outcome means, and what to do with reviewers' comments if it is not.
- The applicationWhat goes in, in what order, and the administrative details that hold applications up.
- Professional ReviewThe three parts of the review, how they fit together, and what the reviewers are doing.
- ReadinessAn honest check across the things that actually hold applications up, with what to do about each.