Texas

The published process

Practice while the application is pending

No temporary permit for endorsement applicants awaiting a Texas license appears in the board sources reviewed. That absence is the finding, and it matters, because Texas does publish a six-month temporary permit — for a different purpose entirely. Its own page states who receives one: "Six-month temporary permits are issued to nurses who have not been employed as a registered nurse during the past four years and are used for completing a refresher program, extensive orientation to the practice of nursing, or a nursing program of study under the supervision of an RN instructor." Its terms: "The temporary permit is valid for six months from the date of issuance and cannot be extended." "Allow at least 15 business days from the date submitted for the permit to be issued." What the board does publish for a nurse arriving from another compact state is the compact privilege itself, quoted in section 01. Searched for this row: the Endorsement Information page, the Six Month Permits & Temporary Licenses page, the eNLC page, the Licensure Eligibility page, and the Schedule of Fees; the board's endorsement application instruction PDFs could not be captured on either transport and remain pending, and a statement on this question may yet appear in them.

Verification of the existing license

The board publishes verification request forms of its own rather than naming a single national system on the endorsement page: "LVN/RN Verification Request Forms", "RN Verification Request Form", "LVN Verification Request Form". The one national service the endorsement page names is a notification service, not the verification route: "Nurses can enroll at no cost in Nursys eNotify to receive notifications related to license renewals at www.nursys.com." The forms themselves were not captured and are listed pending; what each requires is stated on the form, not here.

Fingerprints and the background check

The board states that the requirement reaches endorsement applicants specifically: "The mandatory criminal background check applies to licensure by examination and licensure by endorsement." "Applicants for initial licensure in Texas must complete a criminal background check as part of the licensure process." The board dates the requirement by license type: "Effective September 1, 2003, RN applicants for initial licensure in Texas must have a criminal background check. Effective September 1, 2005, LVN applicants for initial licensure in Texas must have a criminal background check." And it states an exception: "This requirement does not apply to individuals renewing their Texas licenses." Separately, on what the board weighs: "The Board of Nursing reviews certain responses relating to criminal conduct, discipline, substance use, health, and other regulatory history when determining eligibility for licensure or renewal."

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. From the board's Schedule of Fees, retrieved Aug 26, 2026, which publishes two layers — a summary and the Chapter 223 rule schedule — that state the endorsement figure differently.

The summary layer. "Endorsement (NJE fee Included) $150". Alongside it: "Examination (NJE fee Included) $75".

The Chapter 223 rule layer. "(2) Endorsement $125" and "(1) Examination $50", with the jurisprudence examination stated separately: "(17) Nursing Jurisprudence Examination fee: not to exceed $25". The board's own two layers are reproduced as published; the relationship between them is not calculated here.

Renewal, once licensed. "(3) Licensure renewal (each biennium)" — "(A) Registered Nurse (RN)" "(B) Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN)" — "(A) $68" "(B) $45". The summary layer states the same figures under "Once every two years".

The background check. No amount is published. The board states it varies: "(15) Fee for Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Public Safety (DPS) criminal background check for licensees, initial licensure applicants, and endorsement applicants, as determined by fees imposed by the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division and the Texas Department of Public Safety Varies".

Other amounts an endorsement applicant may meet. "(9) Declaratory order of eligibility $150", "(10) Eligibility determination $150", "(7) Bad checks $30".

A standing condition. "All fees are non-refundable."

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

Timelines, as stated in the sources

All quoted; none calculated.

On the compact's 60-day rule, as the board states it: "Nurses relocating to another compact state have 60 days from the time they move to apply for a new license by endorsement in a new primary state of residence." The board dates the rule: "Starting Jan 2, 2024, a new NLC rule is in effect."

On the endorsement recency condition: the two captures of the board's own page state it as "practiced nursing in another state within the previous four years of applying for that license type" and as "have either worked in nursing or have taken the US NCLEX® exam sometime in the previous four years prior to the application".

On the six-month permit: "Allow at least 15 business days from the date submitted for the permit to be issued." "The temporary permit is valid for six months from the date of issuance and cannot be extended."

On the compact in Texas: "The eNLC was implemented in Texas on January 19, 2018." "On January 20, 2018, Texas nurses with an original NLC multistate license will be grandfathered into the eNLC and no further action is needed."

On the renewal cycle: "Licensure renewal (each biennium)".

No processing time for an endorsement application is stated in the sources reviewed. What any of this means for a particular application is for the board to determine.

Change log

Aug 26, 2026 · Page created. Captured first-party and appended mechanically: the board's Endorsement Information page (twice, by two transports), Schedule of Fees, Nurse Licensure Compact Information page, Six Month Permits & Temporary Licenses page, Fingerprint Card Request page, Licensure Eligibility page, Contact Us page, and Contact Us directions page, all retrieved Aug 26, 2026. Findings recorded rather than smoothed: (1) the board's own addresses end in ".asp" and returned empty bodies on the plain text transport, while the same paths with ".html" appended served the pages — a fact about the transport, recorded so that a later reviewer does not read a failed fetch as a missing source; (2) two captures of the endorsement page taken the same day by different transports differ, the rendered page stating the recency condition as "practiced nursing in another state within the previous four years of applying for that license type" and carrying a 60-day NLC section, the text capture stating it as "have either worked in nursing or have taken the US NCLEX® exam sometime in the previous four years prior to the application" and carrying no such section — both are held in the packet and neither is preferred here; (3) the Schedule of Fees publishes the endorsement fee twice and differently, "Endorsement (NJE fee Included) $150" in its summary and "(2) Endorsement $125" in the Chapter 223 schedule, with the jurisprudence examination fee stated separately as "not to exceed $25", and no total is calculated here; (4) Texas's six-month temporary permit is not a permit to practise while an endorsement application is pending — it is issued to nurses out of practice four years or more, for a refresher, orientation, or course of study — and no permit to practise pending endorsement appears in the sources reviewed, which is recorded as an absence with the pages searched named in section 02; (5) the board publishes no processing time for an endorsement application in the sources reviewed; (6) the board's contact page and directions page name the same building differently, "George H. W. Bush State Office Building" and "The George Bush building", and both are reproduced; (7) the board's rendered endorsement page carries character-encoding artifacts in the international-programs notice, preserved verbatim in the packet; (8) the board publishes its own verification request forms rather than routing endorsement verification to a national system, and names Nursys only as a renewal-notification service. Capture pending: the endorsement application instruction PDFs, the verification request forms, the criminal background check instruction sheet, the fingerprint general instructions, the Nursing Practice Act and Board Rules chapters, and the eNLC fact sheets — the board's PDFs could not be captured on either transport used. Internet Archive captures: to be added. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed Aug 26, 2026. Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.