Your certification must be current and in good standing in your home state to be eligible to transfer your certification to Texas. If your certification is expired in that state, you will be required to retrain and retest to become certified in Texas.
Nurse Aides who are listed as active on a registry in another state and are requesting to be placed on the Texas Nurse Aide Registry by reciprocity must meet certain eligibility requirements listed in the Licensing Standards for Nurse Aides. No individual listed as unemployable on the Employee Misconduct Registry (EMR) or who has been found to have a conviction of a criminal offense listed in Texas Health and Safety Code, ยง250.006, will be eligible for reciprocity.
- Complete all information in Section 1 of the Request for Entry on the Texas Nurse Aide Registry Through Reciprocity form. Your signature is required at the bottom of Section 1 to verify that the information you provided is correct.
- Mail the reciprocity form to the state where you are currently active so they can verify your status in Section 2. The following states do not complete Section 2 of the form: California, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina. If you are certified in one of those states then you only need to complete Section 1 and mail the form to Texas.
- Once Section 1 and Section 2 (if required) are complete, mail the reciprocity request form, a legible photocopy of a picture identification that shows your birth date and the correct spelling of your name, and your criminal history results from DPS to the Texas Nurse Aide Registry. Nurse Aide Registry staff will complete the EMR check, however, you must obtain and submit your criminal history results along with the reciprocity form in order to be placed on the Texas Nurse Aide Registry by reciprocity. For instructions on how you can obtain a criminal history check, contact your local DPS office or visit the Texas Department of Public Safety website.
- If you do not have an expiration date in the state you are active in, you must also complete and submit the Employment Verification form. The form must be completed by your most recent employer within the last two years.
The process of transferring your certification from another state to Texas will take approximately two to three weeks, depending on how quickly you and your former employer are able to complete the forms. If forms are not complete and proper documentation attached, the Texas Nurse Aide Registry cannot process your request for reciprocity. You are not eligible to be employed as a nurse aide in the state of Texas until your request for reciprocity has been approved and you have been entered into the registry.