Licensure by Endorsement and Temporary License

There are 50 State Boards of Nursing in the USA. All of them unfortunately have their own requirements for RN Nurses. These requirements relate to:

1. ESL Tests (TOEFL, MELAB, IELTS, TOEIC)
2. Amount of hours for Nursing courses in the Foreign Nurses’ transcripts
3. Years of Nursing Practice after graduation from Nursing School in the Foreign country
4. Years of RN Nursing practice in the foreign country before applying for Licensure (you cannot have any experience as RN Nurse in the USA, because you never had license to work here)       
5. Methods of transcripts verification

Endorsement of License

1. Endorsement is the process of obtaining a nursing license in another  U.S. jurisdiction other than the jurisdiction of original licensure.
2. If Nurse has license in one State and is moving to another she needs to get License to practice in new state.
3. Endorsement of Nursing License differs between States. State Board of Nursing can require:
   • ESL test for Licensure and not require for Endorsement
   • Transcripts resubmission from Nursing School, which must have amount of Theory and Clinical hours in Nursing applicable for this particular State            
   • Either 10 or (11 – 12) years of Secondary education obtained before Nursing education, which some Foreign Nurses from former USSR Countries and Eastern Europe don’t have
   • Most of these requirements are hidden in the State Boards By-Laws, and Foreign Nurse can lose a lot of time and money before she is finding an Application Denial

Temporary License      

1. When a Nurse applies for Endorsement some States give her a Temporary License
2. Temporary License is usually valid for 6/3/1 months
3. During this time Nurse can work and finish Endorsement Procedure:
   • Submit Application
   • Pass ESL Test, if she didn’t pass it in the home State
   • Get Transcripts from her Foreign School
   • Go through License Verification
   • Fulfill other applicable requirements

Foreign Nurse consultants know all States Boards of Nursing hidden requirements. They can evaluate all the variations with Endorsement and Temporary License and can either help to comply with them or help to avoid them.

It is important to comprehend all possibilities before applying for licensure by endorsement to any of US state. If you need Foreign Nurse specialists' help, please fill out our “Application for Endorsement of Licensure Services” (Click here)