How to Send Transcripts to California Board of Nursing

To send transcripts to the California Board of Registered Nursing, you arrange for your nursing school to submit an official transcript directly to the BRN. You do not mail it yourself. How the school sends it depends on where you graduated: California programs submit electronically for their entire cohort automatically, out-of-state schools email or mail sealed transcripts to the Board, and international schools must mail paper documents along with a required breakdown form. A transcript you hand-carry or forward is treated as unofficial and will be rejected.

One boundary before going further: the BRN handles Registered Nurse and Advanced Practice Registered Nurse licensure only. If you are applying to become a Licensed Vocational Nurse, your transcripts go to the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians instead, under separate rules.¹

What the Transcript Must Show

Before your school sends anything, confirm that the transcript will include everything the BRN needs on it. The document must show the degree or diploma awarded, the exact graduation date, and a full listing of completed nursing coursework with theory hours, clinical practice hours, and skills lab or simulation hours for each course.² Anatomy, physiology, and microbiology coursework must also appear on the transcript submitted by the school.³

If any of those details are missing, the BRN issues a deficiency notice and your application waits until the school sends a corrected version. That is the single most common reason applications stall, so it is worth asking your registrar to confirm the transcript will show hours broken out by course, not lumped together.

If You Graduated From a California Nursing Program

If you graduated from a California Board-approved nursing program, you typically do not need to request your transcript. Your school submits it to the BRN electronically once you complete the program.⁴ Exam applications are processed as an entire graduating cohort after the graduation date, in the order transcripts are received from the school.⁵

Because the process is automatic, most California-graduate delays start at the school. If your BreEZe account shows no transcript received several weeks after graduation, contact your program’s registrar to confirm the electronic submission went through. Sending your own copy will not fix it.

If You Graduated From an Out-of-State Program

If you attended a nursing program in another U.S. state or territory, you need to arrange for your school to send the transcript to the BRN. The fastest route is electronic delivery through a certified vendor such as Parchment or the National Student Clearinghouse, or directly from the school’s own secure system. Electronic transcripts must be sent to brn.etranscripts@dca.ca.gov.⁴

If your school can only send paper, it must mail the transcript directly to the BRN in a sealed envelope with the registrar’s stamp or signature across the seal. The mailing address is:

Board of Registered Nursing
PO Box 944210
Sacramento, CA 94244-2100⁶

To start the request, log in to your school’s student portal or contact the registrar’s office. Fees vary by institution but generally run $7.50 to $20 for standard processing, with rush or overnight delivery costing more. If you have an unpaid balance with the school, some institutions will withhold your transcript until it is resolved, so check on that before assuming the document will ship on time.

Endorsement Applicants: Nursys Is Separate

If you already hold an active RN license in another state and are applying by endorsement, you also need a license verification. The BRN accepts Nursys verification if your current state participates in that system, but Nursys verifications expire 90 days from the date you request them, so do not order one until you have actually submitted your endorsement application.⁷ Nursys handles verification of your license, not your education. You still need your school to send the transcript separately.

Advanced Practice Applicants Use a Different Email

If you are applying for Advanced Practice Registered Nurse certification or Public Health Nurse certification, electronic transcripts go to a different address: BRN.APRN.eTranscripts@dca.ca.gov.⁸ Sending an APRN transcript to the general RN address will cause delays. The transcript must show your graduation date and completion of the post-graduation nurse practitioner or nurse-midwife program.

If You Graduated From an International Program

If you attended a nursing program outside the United States, the process is more involved. International transcripts must be sent to the BRN by mail; electronic submission is not available for foreign-educated applicants.⁴

Two Forms Your School Must Complete

The BRN provides two forms your school must fill out and return directly to the Board. The Request for Transcript form instructs the school on what the BRN needs and where to send it.⁹ The Breakdown of International Nursing Educational Program form requires the school to list theory hours, clinical practice hours, and skills lab or simulation hours for each nursing subject, including medical, surgical, obstetric, pediatric, and psychiatric nursing.¹⁰

The breakdown must also include course descriptions showing geriatric content within the medical and surgical nursing areas. Missing those descriptions will delay your application. A school official must sign and stamp or seal the form before it is mailed.¹⁰

Translations

If your transcript is not in English, a certified translation must be submitted alongside the original foreign-language document. The BRN will accept a translation done by a certified translator or a professional translation service.⁹ Do not submit only the translation without the original, and do not translate the document yourself.

CGFNS Is Optional

Passing the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools examination is not required for California RN licensure. If you have used CGFNS, however, the BRN will accept official copies of your nursing transcripts, including clinical training records, from that agency.⁹ The specific service the BRN recognizes is the Credentials Evaluation Service Professional Report.¹¹ Many international applicants skip CGFNS entirely and have their school send documents to the BRN directly.

If Your Name on the Transcript Doesn’t Match Your Application

If the name on your transcript does not match the name on your application because of marriage, divorce, or a legal name change, you need to submit legal documentation to resolve the mismatch. The BRN accepts a certified court order, marriage certificate, or dissolution of marriage along with a current government-issued photo ID such as a passport or driver’s license.¹² Name changes are submitted through BreEZe, where you upload copies of the documentation.

The Request for Transcript form also includes a field for previous names, including maiden names. Filling that out completely helps the BRN match incoming transcripts to your file.¹³ Listing every name you have used on both the application and the transcript request is the easiest way to avoid a match failure.

After the Transcript Is Sent

You can check whether your transcript has arrived by logging into your BreEZe account and clicking the Details button under View Application Status. If no deficiencies are listed, your application has not yet been evaluated. If deficiencies appear, the BRN has reviewed your file and is waiting for missing items, which frequently include a transcript that has not shown up.¹⁴

Standard processing runs 10 to 12 weeks once the BRN begins reviewing your file. Military applicants and applicants who are refugees, asylees, or holders of Special Immigrant Visas receive expedited processing of 1 to 2 weeks. Temporary license requests for endorsement applicants take 2 to 3 weeks.⁵ The most common transcript-related delays are a missing graduation date, incomplete theory or clinical hour breakdowns, and for international applicants, a missing breakdown form or untranslated documents.

Respond to a deficiency notice quickly. If you fail to provide missing documentation within three years of the notice, your application is considered abandoned, and for Nurse Practitioner and Public Health Nurse applications the abandonment period is one year.⁹¹⁵ An abandoned application means lost fees, a new application, and often a fresh transcript request, since the original documents are tied to the closed file.

1
Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians. Summary of Requirements for Licensure as a Vocational Nurse
2
California Board of Registered Nursing. Request for Transcript
3
California Board of Registered Nursing. Licensure by Endorsement – Section: Submission of Transcripts
4
California Board of Registered Nursing. Licensure by Examination – Section: Submission of Transcripts
5
California Board of Registered Nursing. Processing Times
6
California Board of Registered Nursing. Contact Information – Section: Mailing Address
7
California Board of Registered Nursing. Licensure by Endorsement
8
California Board of Registered Nursing. Advanced Practice and PHN Certification – Section: Submission of Transcripts and Documents
9
California Board of Registered Nursing. CA RN Licensure Qualifications for Graduates of International Nursing Program
10
California Board of Registered Nursing. Breakdown of International Nursing Educational Program
11
CGFNS International, Inc. California Nursing Credentials Evaluation
12
California Board of Registered Nursing. Name Change/Change in Address of Record
13
California Board of Registered Nursing. Endorsement Application Fees and Instructions
14
California Board of Registered Nursing. Checking Your Application Status via BreEZe
15
California Board of Registered Nursing. Sunset Review 2026