How to Get Your California RN License by Endorsement

If you already hold an active RN license in another U.S. state, territory, or Canada, you get a California RN license by endorsement: you apply through the Board of Registered Nursing’s BreEZe portal at breeze.ca.gov, pay a $350 fee ($750 if you were educated internationally), submit fingerprints, and arrange for your license verification and nursing school transcripts to be sent directly to the BRN.¹² Once the BRN has every required document, plan on 10 to 12 weeks for a permanent license, or two to three weeks for a temporary one that lets you start working sooner.³

One thing to clear up before you start: California is not a member of the Nurse Licensure Compact. A multistate compact license does not authorize you to practice in California, and there is no shortcut around endorsement. Even active compact-license holders complete the full process below.

Are You Eligible?

To qualify for endorsement, your current RN license must be active and free of discipline or restrictions, you must have completed a nursing education program that meets California’s standards, and you must have passed the NCLEX-RN or its predecessor, the State Board Test Pool Examination.²

California scrutinizes educational content more closely than most states, and pharmacology is where out-of-state applicants trip most often. The state requires at least 54 hours of pharmacology instruction, which exceeds many other states’ requirements. California also enforces a concurrency rule: clinical practice in geriatrics, medical-surgical nursing, mental health and psychiatric nursing, obstetrics, and pediatrics has to have been completed at the same time as the corresponding classroom instruction. If your program falls short in either area, you’ll need to fix it before the BRN issues your license. Compare your transcripts against these requirements before you apply, not after.

Documents That Must Come From Someone Else

Most of the work in an endorsement application happens before you click submit. Several documents have to reach the BRN directly from third parties, and slow delivery of those is the single most common reason an application stalls.

License Verification

The BRN needs official verification of your current RN license, sent from your original state board. If your state uses Nursys, request the verification online and it transmits electronically to California. If your state doesn’t participate in Nursys, contact its board of nursing and have it send a paper Verification of License form to the BRN. That paper route takes longer and may cost up to about $100 depending on the state.

Timing matters here. Nursys verifications expire 90 days after you request them, so don’t order yours before your other pieces are close to ready, or it could expire while the BRN is still evaluating your file.²

Official Transcripts

Your nursing school must send official transcripts directly to the BRN. U.S. programs can send electronic transcripts through certified vendors like Parchment or the National Student Clearinghouse to brn.etranscripts@dca.ca.gov, or mail hard copies. International transcripts must be mailed.² The transcripts need to show all coursework, the degree earned, and the date it was conferred. School fees typically run $8 to $20.

Fingerprints

Every applicant undergoes a criminal history check through both the California Department of Justice and the FBI. How you submit fingerprints depends on where you live.⁴

If you’re in California, use the Live Scan digital service. Submit your application first, because the BRN provides the Live Scan Service Request form you take to the scanning site. On site you pay $32 to the DOJ, $17 to the FBI, and a rolling fee of roughly $20 to $40 to the operator. Results transmit electronically and clear faster.

If you live outside California and cannot travel in, you’ll use a manual FD-258 fingerprint hard card. Have your prints taken in black ink at a local law enforcement agency, then mail the card to the BRN with a $49 processing fee paid through your BreEZe account or by check.⁵ If the fee isn’t paid, the BRN destroys the card rather than processing it. The hard-card route is slower because everything moves by mail.

Fees and Submitting the Application

The BRN prefers applications submitted online through BreEZe. Paper is still accepted, but sending both a paper and an electronic application will slow you down.² The application asks for personal history, employment background, disclosure of any prior discipline or criminal record, and a recent passport-style photo.

Endorsement application, U.S.-educated: $350, non-refundable¹
Endorsement application, internationally educated: $750, non-refundable¹
Optional temporary license: $100⁶
Hard-card fingerprint processing (out-of-state): $49⁴
Live Scan (in-state): about $49 in government fees plus the operator’s rolling fee

Fees paid through BreEZe go on a credit card at submission, and the BRN doesn’t start processing until fees clear. You can upload additional supporting documents through your BreEZe account under “Submit Additional Documents,” which is faster than mail.

How Long It Takes, and Working in the Meantime

The BRN’s current processing windows, measured from the point when it has all your materials in hand:³

U.S.-educated applicants: 10 to 12 weeks
Internationally educated applicants: 10 to 12 weeks
Military applicants: 1 to 2 weeks
Refugees, asylees, and SIV holders: 1 to 2 weeks
Temporary license: 2 to 3 weeks

If you need to start working before the permanent license is issued, request a temporary license with your endorsement application (or any time before the permanent license comes through). A temporary license is valid for six months.⁷ The BRN can’t issue it until your DOJ and FBI fingerprint results have cleared, so a realistic path is a temporary license in hand roughly a month after you submit, assuming your background check is clean.

You can track your file through BreEZe, and the BRN’s processing times page (rn.ca.gov/times.shtml) shows the specific date range currently under review. By regulation, the BRN completes its initial evaluation within 90 days of receiving your application. If something is missing, you’ll receive a deficiency notice.

What Slows Applications Down

Missing Education Requirements

When the BRN’s transcript review finds a gap, it sends a letter identifying what’s missing. Filling a pharmacology or concurrency deficiency typically means additional coursework at an accredited institution, which can add months. The BRN recently introduced a coursework exemption process for certain out-of-state applicants; if you think you qualify, the form uploads through BreEZe.²

Criminal History

The application requires disclosure of any criminal convictions and any prior professional-license discipline. A conviction is not an automatic bar. The BRN evaluates whether the offense is “substantially related” to nursing practice, weighing the nature and severity of the crime, how long ago it happened, compliance with parole or probation, and evidence of rehabilitation.⁸ Assault, theft, fraud, and sex offenses draw the closest scrutiny. Failing to disclose is itself grounds for denial or discipline, so err toward disclosure and have certified court documents and rehabilitation evidence ready when you apply.

Letting the Application Go Cold

If the BRN sends you a notice that your application is incomplete, you have one year from the date of that notice to submit all missing documents. Partial submissions and reconsideration requests do not extend the deadline. After a year, the application is abandoned, and any later filing starts over as a new application under whatever rules are then in effect.⁹

Extra Steps for International Graduates

Nurses educated outside the United States pay $750 rather than $350 and have additional documentation to submit.¹ California does not require the CGFNS examination, though the BRN will accept official transcript copies from CGFNS if you’ve already been evaluated.¹⁰ International transcripts must arrive by mail, not electronically.²

Applicants educated in a country where English is not the primary language generally must demonstrate English proficiency through an approved exam covering reading, writing, speaking, and listening. You may be exempt if you graduated from a program taught entirely in English, with English-language textbooks, in a country where English is native. International graduates must also submit a Verification of License form from the board where they originally took their licensing examination, in addition to verification from their current licensing state.²

Keeping the License Once You Have It

Your first California RN license is issued for two birthdays, not two calendar years, and expires on the last day of the month following your birth month. After that first cycle, it renews every two years on the same schedule.¹¹¹²¹ Because your first period may be shorter or longer than two full years depending on when your license issues relative to your birthday, plan your CE hours around that first expiration date.

1
Board of Registered Nursing. Fee Schedule
2
Board of Registered Nursing. Licensure by Endorsement
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Board of Registered Nursing. Processing Times
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California Board of Registered Nursing. Applicant Fingerprint Information
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Board of Registered Nursing. Instructions for Completing a Fingerprint Hard Card
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Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 16 Section 1414.5 – Temporary License
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California Board of Registered Nursing. Temporary Licenses
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Board of Registered Nursing. Reporting License Discipline and Convictions
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Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 16 Section 1410.4 – Abandonment of Application
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California Board of Registered Nursing. Endorsement Application Fees and Instructions
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California Board of Registered Nursing. License/Certificate Renewal
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Board of Registered Nursing. Continuing Education for License Renewal