Published Mar 21, 2017
Travel_RN1
21 Posts
Hi everyone. I'm having the hardest time trying to get ahold of someone from CA BON. I have my temporary, thank goodness. But they have apparently lost my transcripts by stating im missing three courses. So i sent them receipts that those two schools had transcripts sent two them, and class descriptions to verify what they said i didn't have. When you call, you never get anyone but a message stating to call back later. I've emailed several times to get an answer to no avail. Any suggestions how i can check up on my information provided to them? Thanks in advance!
caliotter3
38,333 Posts
Personal trip to the office. Hard to blow you off when you arrive first thing in the morning, ready to deal.
Thank you for your comment. uugh! That's going to be a long trip. I'll keep this updated with my ventures on this!
NedRN
1 Article; 5,782 Posts
Both returning calls and emails can take weeks. But check the issue carefully. It seems unlikely your transcripts are missing three courses. Did you get yourself a copy for your own records? A fairly common issue is actually missing a required class or clinical hours completely that California requires for licensure (NY can be similarly fussy about minimum standards). This happens routinely for graduates from some states (I don't know which ones) or specific schools (like Excelsior), or from any foreign country, even Canada. This despite no problem with licensure in other states with your existing education or clinical hours.
my nursing classes were all accepted, it's one gen education course that i provided a course description for replying to the letter sent, and a transcript they apparently lost for the other two classes. The school didn't show up on the letter they sent.
hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I
4 Articles; 5,184 Posts
My suggestion which works for me when I can't get through to the BON which is allways is to By-pass the BON and go straight to the Department of Consumer affairs - they will help you get through.
A few years ago there was extensive back and forth on this site about a nurse who had a similar problem with, as I vaguely recall, a single course. IIRC she was unable to come to terms with the CA BRN. Hope this is not the case for you.
Patricosuave
4 Posts
Hey there! I just wanted to let you know that I had the same issue. Calling right at 8AM PST is your best bet to get through to a person. Additionally, when I reached an impasse regarding a college-level English credit that wasn't present on my transcript because I had gotten the credit in high school (AP/IB test), I finally e-mailed the governor's office explaining the situation. A month after my e-mail was sent to the governor's office, I phoned the governor's office and they told me they would investigate. Within 24 hours I had my license. Your mileage may vary but at least there's something else you can do while you're waiting for them to answer the dang phone.
Hope that helps you.
Update. So I finally got ahold of a nice gentleman in the office. Really, he was worth the nearly 10min wait on the phone. Very nice, patient, and diligent in looking things up for me. I had to call like your calling to a radio station. Get the busy signal, try again immediately. That's how i was able to get in the que. And i always pressed zero. So i have to have both of my transcripts sent out again, but he suggested that i send the transcripts this time to the "market" address, and not to the PO Box, and add a tracker to it, so u know it's been received. Also I have to have one of the schools directly send my course description, since they won't accept it from me. He said to have the letter they sent to me sent to the school, and they reply with appropriate courses to satisfy the course descriptions needed sent by CA BON. All this is more money, but i guess worth it. Processing takes he said 4 weeks at most once received. So let's see how this all works out! Keep you posted.
Volley88
107 Posts
Its expected. Their staff is way smaller than you think. Keep in mind, they are also dealing with New Grads and getting their ATTs processed.
Update!!! After many calls to various departments at my previous school to validate a particular class taken questioned by the CA BON (they sent syllabi' directly to BON), money spent to resend 2 transcripts they lost, i finally got my permanent! Any still going through the process, stay on the positive, and just keep giving the CA BON what they are looking for. It's time consuming and can be expensive, but worth it.