How do I get an Illinois nursing license ?

schroeders_piano, RN · Feb 9, 2009

We will be happy to have you come to the great state of Illinois. The state where the former governor's make the license plates. (we have one in prison and another soon on his way) You need to go to the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation website. They have all of the instructions and forms that you will need to fill out. If you are already licensed in Florida, you will just have to do licenseure by endorsement. You don't have to take NCLEX again. IL government tends to be slow on things. So it may take you a little while to get your license.

qtpnai03 · Feb 10, 2009

Thanks, I went to the Illinois licensing website and I don't know where the form is. I only saw the form for nurses who is going to be applying to be an RN for the first time. Can you please send me the website ??

Cali · Feb 10, 2009

http://www.idfpr.com/dpr/apply/forms/rn-ex.pdf

It's all the same form. On page #17 in box 3 you have to specify you're applying for licensure by endorsement. I applied for licensure by endorsement back in 2006 and it only took about 5 weeks for me to get my license.

dyurdz · Jul 23, 2009

what about if you are an rn in Illinois then moved to nevada worked for a couple of years there then moving back to Illinois? same process? and can i do it online?

jpolramos · Aug 16, 2011

hi, i just want to ask regarding the new requirements on renewal of illinois license. It stated that it now needs ce units, my problem is im from the philippines and all the establishment that they accredit are only in the US. Help, anybody.

Tina Li · Sep 14, 2011

Hi,

I will graduate in Dec. and I will move to IL next year. I would like to know if I should take my Nclex in NYC or take it after I move to IL. My professors from school told me it will be easier and faster to take it in NY since I attended nursing school in NYC and all my information is from NY.

Do you think so? Will it make a difference? I heard once I get the license from NY, I still need to do some paper work to change my license to an IL' one. I am confused which way is gonna take less time for me. Could you help me with that?

Thank you.

Trauma Columnist · Sep 14, 2011

I would do as your professors suggest - take the exam in NY, then endorse to IL

rjosborn · Sep 14, 2011

To jpolramos: try http://www.nurse.com . They have a lot of CEUs you can complete online. Many are free.

Quickbeam, BSN, RN · Sep 19, 2011

Am I the only one who finds the Illinois endorsement process to be amazingly awful? It took me weeks to get everything together and sent in. It also seems that there are plenty of people along the way to get paid. If my employer didn't require (and pay for) this, I'd never do it in a million years. One nurse quit over how terrible the process was...said she'd rather retire!

6 weeks later and I'm still waiting.

jpolramos · Sep 22, 2011

rjosborn - Is the site accredited by the illinois bon? i checked it but i could not verify it, tried to ask the illinois bon on its webpage but it's not responding. Thank you.

anewme26 · Sep 28, 2011

Hi Tina,

I currently hold a license in IL and IN, but I went to school in IL. I live close to IL's border which is one reason I chose to do both. The other reasons were because one, IL was more costly and I found that endorsing was cheaper (I saved abt 150 bucks); and two IL's process took longer. Going through IN saved time and money, I was actually able to access a copy of my license (on the states secure website) a few days after testing. The IL endorsement still took a few weeks to complete, however even with endorsing, I had two licenses in hand before some of my classmates had gotten their approval to test letters.