Internationally educated nurses: where to start

Start with the country you want to practice in

This guide is for nurses who trained outside Canada or the United States. The first step depends on where you want to be licensed. The two countries use different systems, so don't follow the other country's steps.

If you want to practice in Canada

For most Canadian regulators, the National Nursing Assessment Service (NNAS) is the first step for internationally educated nurses. Check your regulator first, though: the College of Nurses of Ontario also accepts credential reports from approved agencies such as WES, ICAS and ICES, Nova Scotia lets nurses licensed in some countries apply directly, and Quebec uses neither NNAS nor the NCLEX-RN. NNAS checks your credentials and gives verified information to the regulators, who make the licensing decisions. NNAS does not license you.

• Check your eligibility on nnas.ca. The site asks you to find out whether you're eligible before you start.
• Create an account and choose your pathway. NNAS offers Expedited Service for RN or LPN credentialing, for applicants who hold a nursing licence outside Canada and have finished post-secondary nursing education. The separate Registered Psychiatric Nurse service applies only to psychiatric nurse regulators in Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Check nnas.ca for current fees and timelines.
• Submit your documents to NNAS. Its process and timeline page explains what is needed and how long it takes.
• Apply to your provincial or territorial regulator once you have your NNAS results. Then follow that regulator's steps, including the NCLEX registration steps in the guide How NCLEX registration works in Canada.

If you want to practice in the United States

There is no single national route. Each state board of nursing sets its own rules for internationally educated applicants. The NCSBN's resource manual for internationally educated nurses describes the uniform requirements that boards commonly use. Those requirements include:

• Graduation from a nursing program comparable to a board-approved US RN program, usually confirmed by a report from a credentials evaluation agency.
• Self-disclosure of any nursing license you hold or have held in your home country.
• Passing an English proficiency exam, unless the manual's exemption applies to you. Read the exemption wording carefully.
• A criminal background check, often with fingerprints, and self-disclosure of misdemeanors, felonies and plea agreements, of substance use disorder in the past five years, and of actions against any professional licence.
• Passing the NCLEX-RN.

Check current rules before you pay anything

The NCSBN manual is a good guide, but each board decides which credential evaluation agencies it accepts and what it requires. Check your board's own page before you apply, and check current fees and timelines directly with the agency or board.

For Canada, use nnas.ca. For the US, start with your state board of nursing, which you can find through NCSBN's directory.