Processing Time of Application CNO

[GenesisG]

Hi, I hope someome can help me here.

I registered with CNO; submitted all my documents to NNAS (took 1 month to submit everything, 1 month to get my report); now since July been waiting for 4 months to hear back from CNO to make a decision if I should go back to school or not, and when I called they said I'm still in the queue?

Does it normally take this long? How long does it take until they review my application?

Thanks.

[dishes, BSN, RN]

The length of time it takes depends on how many applicants are in the que ahead of you. It's great that your nnas advisory report was ready only a month after they received everything, others have waited 8 months or longer to receive theirs. If you don't mind sharing, what were your advisory report results comparable? somewhat comparable? or not comparable?

[GenesisG]

Doesn't our application at CNO only last for a year? I don't want to pay again just because they are slow

...

My report is a mix of somewhat and not compatible. customer service at CNO already told me that I may need to go back to school but I am waiting for the letter so I know what courses to take. I want to go to school now, do the nclex ans get my license...how can I work with this delay.

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

Here's some background. Ontario is THE go-to location for immigrants of all types. So that automatically means there will be a queue for pretty much every kind of assessment and evaluation. The workload on the people doing assessments and evaluations is staggering. Now, in these days of economic austerity, when there is no desperate need for increasing the pool of nursing professionals and in fact, many facilities are in a hiring freeze, there's not much pressure on CNO to do anything in a hurry. My hunch is that they've actually reduced their own staff to mitigate their own budget constraints while the number of IEN applicants hasn't significantly changed. The process cannot be streamlined due to CNO's duty to the public so if there are fewer people reviewing files, the pile of them isn't going to get any smaller and the people waiting for direction will have to wait as long as it takes. It's highly possible that there are lots of people in the same situation as you are, and it's also highly possible that your deadline will arrive without your file being completed.

My only advice to you is to document the time line in exquisite detail. That could be your key to appealing the 1-year deadline.

[dishes, BSN, RN]

There isn't a one year deadline for the application process, your application will remain active. CNO may require you to undergo the IENCAP competency assessment through Touchstone institute. If so, they will wait until after they receive the results of the IENCAP before they decide if you are eligible to take the NCLEX or if you need to go to school. Some IENs are required to a take a bridging program and some are allowed to take online courses through rncompetencies.ca. Or, instead directing you to take the IENCAP the CNO may ask you to provide a letter from your employer to show how you met the competency gaps.

[RN_Pro]

There are people who have been waiting for a decision for almost a year so be assured of the fact that this is not overly lengthy for this process. That is miraculous however that you got your NNAS Advisory Report within one month! I've honestly never heard of that. So in a way, you are still ahead of the crowd (not that it's a competition or anything but you've saved some significant time in the NNAS process that others did not). Which school did you obtain your nursing education?