District of Columbia

The pathways, as the board describes them

The rule itself, quoted by the board. The checklist reproduces the District's regulation rather than paraphrasing it: "an applicant shall be eligible for licensure by endorsement if the applicant is currently licensed as a registered nurse under the laws of a state or territory of the United States and the following applies:" followed by two conditions. The first reaches back to the original license: it must have been based on "completion of an educational program that meets the requirements of § 5402.1 or § 5403.1, and the applicant's receipt of a passing score on the NCLEX-RN or the State Board Test Pool Examination for Nurses;" — the second name is the examination that preceded the NCLEX, and its presence means the rule still speaks to nurses licensed decades ago. The second condition reaches across every license since: "The applicant's licensure history shows that the applicant has continuously been in good standing in all jurisdictions where the applicant holds or has held a registered nursing license." Not the current license, and not the original one — all of them, continuously. Registered Nurse Endorsement Requirements.

The equivalence test, and a named exception for Canada. Programmes must be "Approved by a nursing board in the US or US territory with standards determined by the Board to be substantially equivalent to the standards in the District", and the rule extends this to Canada with a geographic carve-out: "the applicant has successfully completed a basic nursing education program in Canada except Quebec which was approved by a Canadian Provincial nursing board with standards determined to be substantially equivalent to the standards in the District". Quebec is named and excluded on the face of the rule. Registered Nurse Endorsement Requirements.

Applicants without a Social Security number. Where North Dakota makes the number a hard requirement, the District publishes an alternative: "Upload the Social Security affidavit form if you do not have a social security number." Registered Nurse Endorsement Requirements.

Which route to choose, as the board puts it to each level. For the practical nurse: "CURRENTLY HAVE AN LPN ACTIVE LICENSE IN ANOTHER STATE? Apply by Endorsement LPN Application Documents", against "FIRST TIME LPN APPLICANT?- Apply by Exam LPN Application Documents" and a third route where "LPN LICENSE EXPIRED? Apply for Reinstatement LPN Application Documents". Nursing Licensing.

Nurses educated outside the United States are directed away from this checklist at its head: "Foreign educated nurses, see instructions for foreign educated nurse applicants - licensure by endorsement". Registered Nurse Endorsement Requirements.

The published process

Practice while the application is pending. For a registered or practical nurse, nothing in the captured sources authorises it. The only temporary authority the board publishes is for a different role and two named states: "The District's Board of Nursing now offers a temporary 90-day certification for Certified Nurse Aides (CNAs) who are already in good standing from Maryland or Virginia. To apply, submit proof of certification, pay the $50 fee, and pass a background check." For those applicants the board states the point of it plainly — "As credentials are being verified, CNAs can work under the temporary certification." — and a review time, "Complete applications are reviewed within 5 business days." No equivalent appears for nurses. The board separately notes that an authority which once existed has lapsed: "Alert: Licensure Waiver Period Has Ended." A different provision covers existing District licensees at renewal rather than new applicants: those who file before the expiry date "are permitted to continue to work while their application is pending", carrying the status "Renewal Pending/ Authorized to Work". That is a renewal protection, not an endorsement one. Nursing Licensing.

Verification of the existing license, and a contradiction in the same paragraph. The requirement is layered: "Official verification from your original state of licensure. If it is expired, official verification is needed from both the original and a current state. If your current state is also your original licensure by examination, then that is the only verification required." The national system is named, and so is its charge: "To submit verification of your licensure status access NURSYS.COM. There is a $30.00 fee for this service." Then, within two sentences, the checklist names the states outside that system twice and differently. First as two: "If your state does not participate in the NURSYS verification system (PA or MI)". Then as three: "Non-NURSYS Participating Boards (California; Michigan; Pennsylvania)". California appears in the second list and not the first. A nurse licensed in California reading the parenthesis alone would take the ordinary route and be wrong; a nurse reading the list would not. This page does not resolve which is current — both are the board's own words in the same document — and an applicant from any of the three should ask. Where a state is outside the system, the board supplies the destination: "Our email address verifications.bon@dc.gov is on file with each non-participating state board of nursing." Registered Nurse Endorsement Requirements.

Fingerprints and the background check. Run by a named vendor, and triggered by payment rather than by application: "Criminal background check (CBC) Fieldprint- You will receive an email that includes the code and link to schedule your fingerprint appointment after you make the payment." The sequence matters, because the fee is not refundable and the board says so before anything else: "Please review the eligibility criteria before completing your application as the fees are non-refundable". Registered Nurse Endorsement Requirements.

The three rows above answer the questions an experienced adviser raises first, from the board's own published documents, or record that a question is not answered in them.

Fees, as stated in the sources

All quoted; none totaled.

The application and the background check, charged as one. "Pay the application and criminal background check fee of $280.00 by Visa or MasterCard only." Two constraints in one sentence: the amounts are not separated, so an applicant cannot tell what the license costs as distinct from the check; and payment is limited to two card brands, which excludes debit networks, American Express and Discover. Registered Nurse Endorsement Requirements.

Non-refundable, stated before the requirements rather than after. "the fees are non-refundable", in the document's opening line about reviewing eligibility first. Registered Nurse Endorsement Requirements.

Verification, paid to the national system. "There is a $30.00 fee for this service." Registered Nurse Endorsement Requirements.

The nurse-aide temporary certification, which is not available to nurses: "pay the $50 fee". Nursing Licensing.

The practical-nurse fee does not appear separately in the captured sources; the $280 figure is quoted from the registered-nurse checklist and this page does not extend it to the other level.

What any of it means for a particular application is for the board to determine.

Timelines, as stated in the sources

All quoted; none calculated.

Thirty business days before asking. "Please allow 30 business days after applying before checking the status" — the board asks applicants not to enquire before then, which is the longest such quiet period in this collection. Registered Nurse Endorsement Requirements.

Five business days, for the nurse-aide temporary certification only: "Complete applications are reviewed within 5 business days." Nursing Licensing.

Ninety days, the life of that same certification, and unavailable to nurses.

Renewal dates named in the sources. The board refers to an expiry of "June 30, 2026" and states that approved renewals "will be renewed and active as of July 1, 2026." Nursing Licensing.

Processing. No period for deciding an endorsement application appears in any captured source. The thirty-business-day figure governs when an applicant may check a status, which is not the same thing and should not be read as one.

What any of it means for a particular application is for the board to determine.

Source map

Change log

Aug 30, 2026 · Page created. Five first-party captures taken mechanically through this jurisdiction's capture recipe. This department's robots.txt asks automated callers for ten seconds between requests and disallows two named commercial crawlers outright while disallowing nothing on the paths this page reads, so every source carries a ten-second delay; the run waited forty seconds in total. Findings: (1) compact status is not stated anywhere in the captured sources — the relevant terms appear once between five documents and no page tells a nurse whether a District license travels or whether a compact license may be used here, which is recorded as silence rather than resolved; (2) there is no published interim practice authority for a registered or practical nurse — the only temporary certification the board publishes is ninety days, for certified nurse aides, and only for those in good standing from Maryland or Virginia; a separate provision lets existing District licensees keep working while a renewal is pending, which is not the same thing and is easily mistaken for it; (3) the application fee and the criminal background check are charged as a single non-refundable $280.00, so an applicant cannot tell what the license itself costs, and payment is limited to Visa and MasterCard, excluding other card networks; (4) the checklist contradicts itself on which states fall outside the national verification system, naming "PA or MI" in one sentence and "California; Michigan; Pennsylvania" two sentences later — a nurse licensed in California who reads only the first would take the wrong route; recorded as the discrepancy it is; (5) the eligibility rule requires continuous good standing in every jurisdiction the applicant has ever been licensed in, not merely the current one; (6) the rule still names the State Board Test Pool Examination for Nurses alongside the NCLEX, so it speaks to nurses licensed long before the current examination; (7) Canadian education qualifies except Quebec, named and excluded on the face of the rule; (8) unlike North Dakota, the District publishes an affidavit route for an applicant without a Social Security number; (9) the board asks applicants to wait thirty business days before checking an application's status, the longest such period in this collection, and publishes no processing time at all. Automated or AI-assisted decision-making: none located; the terms artificial intelligence, automated decision, and algorithm return nothing across the five captured sources, and that scope is recorded in `research/ai-disclosure.jsonl`. Capture pending: the foreign-educated instructions, the Social Security affidavit form, the practical-nurse checklist and its fee, and whatever the District publishes about the compact. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed Aug 30, 2026. Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.