Michigan EMS License Renewal: CE Credits, Fees, and Deadlines

To complete a Michigan EMS license renewal, you must finish the continuing education credits required for your license level, pay a $25 renewal fee (free for medical first responders), and submit your application through the eLicensing portal before your three-year license expires.¹ Miss the expiration date by more than 60 days and your license is void. Keep working on a lapsed license and you are committing a felony under Michigan law.²

When Your License Expires and How to Renew

Every Michigan EMS license is valid for three years from the date it was issued, whether you are a medical first responder, EMT, advanced EMT, paramedic, or instructor-coordinator.³ The Department of Health and Human Services sends a renewal notice no more than 60 days before your expiration date, but not receiving it does not excuse a late renewal.⁴ Track your own expiration date and don’t rely on the mail.

You file the renewal application through the eLicensing portal at mi-emsis.org/licensure.⁵ You verify your completed continuing education hours and pay the fee. Separate from renewal but worth knowing: you have an ongoing obligation to notify the department of any criminal conviction within seven calendar days of the conviction itself, not just when you renew.⁴

How Many Continuing Education Credits You Need

Credit totals for the three-year cycle depend on your level:⁶

Medical first responder: 15 credits
EMT: 30 credits
Advanced EMT: 36 credits
Paramedic: 45 credits

Not all of those hours are yours to spend freely. The state mandates coverage of specific topic areas: patient assessment, airway and ventilation management, trauma care, medical emergencies, BLS for healthcare providers, and emergency preparedness. Pediatric assessment, pediatric medical, pediatric trauma, and pediatric airway management are required at every level. After the mandated categories, remaining hours fall under “individual choice” and can go toward topics relevant to your practice.⁶

Paramedics get 26 of their 45 credits as individual choice; EMTs get 12 of 30. Common uses include advanced cardiac life support, pediatric emergency care, point-of-care ultrasound, and updated resuscitation protocols. Keep documentation of every completed course for at least one year after your license expires. The department can audit your compliance at any time, and if you can’t produce the records, that creates a presumption you made a false statement on your renewal application.⁴

If you also hold National Registry certification, remember that NREMT runs on a two-year cycle with different credit totals and its own three-component structure. Completing Michigan’s requirements does not satisfy NREMT recertification, or the other way around. Map both deadlines at the start of each cycle.

The Fee and Who Doesn’t Pay It

The renewal fee is $25 for every license level except medical first responder, who pays nothing.¹ That’s lower than many providers expect, and it is separate from the higher initial licensure fees ($40 for EMTs, $60 for EMT specialists, $80 for paramedics, $100 for instructor-coordinators).³

Two waivers exist. If a life support agency certifies that you serve as a volunteer and the agency doesn’t charge for its services, the department waives your licensure fee. Move from volunteer to paid work during your license period and you owe the fee at that point. Separately, veterans separated with an honorable or general discharge get a waiver of their initial licensure fee on presenting a DD-214 or equivalent.³

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline

Michigan law sets three tiers of reinstatement, and the gap between them is severe.¹

Within 60 days of expiration, you can still renew by submitting a late application with the renewal fee. The license isn’t yet void. Do not practice during this window if you haven’t actually completed your renewal.
After 60 days but within three years, your license is void. To get relicensed you must submit a new application, pay the initial application fee plus the renewal fee plus a late renewal fee, and complete all continuing education that was required at the time your license expired.
More than three years after expiration, you are treated as a brand-new applicant. You must meet all current requirements, retake and pass the applicable examinations, and pay new-applicant fees.

Renewing a month late is an inconvenience. Waiting a year means paying three stacked fees and backfilling every CE hour you owed. Waiting three years means examinations and starting over. Set calendar reminders well before your expiration date.

Working on a Lapsed License Is a Felony

Practicing EMS without a valid Michigan license, including on a suspended, revoked, lapsed, or void one, is a felony under the Public Health Code’s general provision on unlicensed practice of a regulated health profession.²⁷ A felony conviction then becomes its own ground for the department to deny a future license application. One lapse you try to work through can end your EMS career permanently.

The department also has statutory authority to deny, revoke, or suspend a license when a licensee meets other grounds outlined in the Public Health Code.⁸ Failing to report a conviction within the required seven days is itself a basis for administrative action, independent of whatever the underlying offense was.⁴

A Michigan License Does Not Travel

Michigan is not a member of the Interstate EMS Compact (REPLICA), which lets EMS professionals practice across state lines without a separate license in each state. As of 2026, 25 states participate; Michigan is not among them.⁹ If you want to work in another state, you have to apply there directly. Michigan law does allow the department to license someone already licensed elsewhere through a reciprocity process, and other states have their own endorsement pathways. Compact states allow qualified clinicians from other compact states to practice across borders under a home-state license, a medical director, and affiliation with an authorized remote-state agency, but that framework is not available to Michigan licensees.¹⁰

1
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Public Health Code MCL 333.20954
2
State of Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
3
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Public Health Code MCL 333.20950
4
State of Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Emergency Medical Services Personnel Licensing Administrative Rules R 325.22301 to R 325.24118
5
State of Michigan. Userguide for Agencies
6
State of Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Requirements
7
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Public Health Code MCL 333.16294
8
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Public Health Code MCL 333.20958
9
EMS Compact. EMS Compact Member States
10
EMS Compact. Multi-State Practice and FAQs