South Carolina

The pathways, as the board describes them

Endorsement, and the license that must exist before the first day. The board opens with a rule that reaches earlier than most: "A current South Carolina license or temporary license is required to practice nursing in this state. Orientation is considered the practice of nursing in South Carolina." It continues that "all nurses must possess a current South Carolina license or temporary license before beginning orientation (including classroom instruction and reading policies and procedures)." and states the consequence: it is a violation of the Nurse Practice Act "to begin orientation without the proper license and can result in action by the Board." Endorsement page.

Examination history the board requires. "South Carolina requires that all licensees pass the United States licensure examination and the examination be passed within 3 years of graduation from an approved nursing program." Endorsement page.

The multistate privilege, and where it ends. The board states membership and the practice right that follows: the compact "allows a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse licensed in a Compact state to practice across state lines in another Compact state without having to obtain a license in the other state." It also states the condition that ends the privilege — establishing residency — and that the compact "requires nurses to adhere to the nursing practice laws and rules of the state in which he/she practices under his/her Compact license." Residence is defined: "Primary state of residence as defined by the Compact means the person's declared fixed permanent and principal home for legal purposes; domicile." A consequence the board publishes for compact residents: "If your primary state of residence is another Compact State, you are not eligible to reinstate or reactivate your license in South Carolina." Endorsement page.

Who the compact route is not open to. The compact page states: "Those who do not meet the new licensure requirements may still be eligible for a single state license." and that "Nurses with an original NLC multistate license will be grandfathered into the NLC." Compact page.

Nurses educated outside the United States. "A graduate of a school of nursing outside the jurisdiction of the United States is not eligible for a license unless he/she holds a current license in another state based on passing the State Board Test Pool Examination prior to 1982 or the National Council Licensure Examination after 1982." Endorsement page.

The published process

Practice while the application is pending. South Carolina publishes a real bridge and prices it. "The Board may issue a temporary license for up to sixty (60) days pending completion and approval of the application." It is discretionary in the board's own wording, and the board publishes two bars on it. First, discipline elsewhere: "The Board must not issue a temporary, or permanent license to a person licensed in another state who currently has disciplinary action pending against the person in that state or whose license is currently restricted in any way, including probationary status, in that state." Second, a list: "Temporary licenses are not available to applicants with prior criminal conviction(s), pending criminal charge(s), current board of nursing disciplinary sanction(s), pending board action(s) or to applicants educated outside the United States who have not passed the NCLEX/ SBTPE (with scores of 350 or greater in each area)." Where a temporary license does issue, the board states it carries full practice rights among party states: "If a party state issues a temporary permit or temporary license to an endorsee, that permit or license shall confer the same rights and privileges of nursing practice as does the permanent license among party states." Endorsement page.

Verification of the existing license. The board names two products and describes what each is for. "Licensure QuickConfirm provides online license lookup reports to employers and the general public." and "Nurse License Verification provides online verification to a nurse requesting to practice in another jurisdiction. After you complete the online process and pay the required fee, verification is immediately available to the jurisdiction(s) to which you applied." Each carries a source condition — the nurse must be from a Licensure QuickConfirm board of nursing for the first, and for the second "The license(s) to be verified must be from a participating board of nursing." The endorsement page adds a limit an employer runs into: "Nursys will not track temporary licenses and employer must verify licensure directly from the state issuing the temporary permit/license." No page in the captured sources states which of these the board itself requires an endorsement applicant to submit; the endorsement application document is capture-pending. Licensure page; endorsement page.

Fingerprints and the background check. Nothing on this question appears in the captured sources. The words fingerprint and background check occur nowhere in the endorsement page, the fee schedule, the compact page, the licensure page, the applications-and-forms page, or the agency contact page. The board's only published references to criminal history are the two bars on a temporary license quoted above, which name prior convictions and pending charges without stating how the board learns of them. The absence is recorded, not filled. Endorsement page; applications and forms.

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 schedule's own frame. "Fees to be paid by applicants for a license as registered nurse or as licensed practical nurse under provisions §40-33-30, §40-33-32, §40-33-34, §40-33-35, and §40-33-38, and other fees under §40-33-50 shall be amounts as shown on the following schedule:" Fee schedule.

Endorsement. Under the heading "RN and LPN Endorsements", the table states "Endorsement without Temporary License", "$100"; and "Endorsement w/Temporary License", "$110". The two lines are published for RNs and LPNs together, quoted cell by cell as the table sets them. Fee schedule.

Temporary license. Under "Miscellaneous Fees" the table separately states "Temporary License Fee", "$10". Fee schedule.

Renewal and other stated amounts. The same table states "RN/LPN Renewals", "$75"; "Reactivation of an Inactive License Less than 5 Years", "$50"; "RN/LPN Reinstatement of a Lapsed License Less than 5 Years", "$135"; and "Returned Check Charge", "$30". Fee schedule.

Verification. The only verification amount on the schedule is "APRN Verification", "$5". The fee the licensure page refers to for Nurse License Verification is not stated on the board's schedule; that product is priced by the national system rather than here. Fee schedule; licensure page.

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.

The temporary license. "The Board may issue a temporary license for up to sixty (60) days pending completion and approval of the application." No renewal or extension of that period appears in the captured sources. Endorsement page.

The examination window. The board requires that the licensure examination "be passed within 3 years of graduation from an approved nursing program." Endorsement page.

Verification turnaround. For Nurse License Verification the licensure page states that after the online process and the fee, "verification is immediately available to the jurisdiction(s) to which you applied." Licensure page.

Processing. No clock for reviewing an endorsement application appears in any captured source.

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

Source map

Change log

Aug 30, 2026 · Page created. Six first-party sources captured mechanically through this jurisdiction's capture recipe; bare curl serves every one of them in full, with no user-agent pinning needed. Findings: (1) an address hazard worth recording before anything else — the obvious guess, `llr.sc.gov/nurse/endorsement.aspx`, answers with HTTP 200 and a 1.8 KB stub carrying a meta refresh to the agency root, so a fetcher that trusts status codes records a working page with no content; the real page is `bonendorsement.aspx`, reachable only from the licensure index; (2) South Carolina states its compact membership on its endorsement page and not on its own compact page, which describes the compact's effect without ever saying the state belongs to it, so the docket row quotes the endorsement page; (3) the orientation rule is the sharpest thing in these sources for a nurse with a start date — classroom instruction and reading policies and procedures count as the practice of nursing, so the license or temporary license has to exist before day one, and beginning orientation without it is stated as a violation; (4) the temporary license is real, sixty days, discretionary in the board's wording, and separately priced at ten dollars beyond the endorsement fee, which the schedule also states at two amounts depending on whether a temporary license is requested; (5) two bars on the temporary license are published, one for discipline pending or restriction elsewhere and one listing prior convictions, pending charges, sanctions and certain foreign-educated applicants; (6) neither fingerprint nor background check appears anywhere in the six captured sources, which is recorded as an absence with the pages searched rather than assumed from the near-universal practice, and the board's only criminal-history language is the temporary-license bar; (7) the board publishes no processing clock for an endorsement application; (8) the same mailbox is published in two cases, "nurseboard@llr.sc.gov" on every board page and "NURSEBOARD@llr.sc.gov" on the agency contact page, and the board's own pages give the street address without the postal code the agency page carries; both are shown as published; (9) the applications page expands its license-type sections through script, so the endorsement application document itself was not retrieved — a fact about the transport, recorded as capture-pending rather than as an absence. Automated or AI-assisted decision-making: none located; the terms artificial intelligence, automated decision, and algorithm return nothing across the six captured sources, and that scope is recorded in `research/ai-disclosure.jsonl`. Capture pending: the RN and LPN endorsement application documents, the Nurse Practice Act at Title 40 Chapter 33, and Internet Archive captures. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed Aug 30, 2026. Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.