Before You Apply
Everything to sort out before you start an NNAS application — the service tiers, the documents, the English-test rules, and what it costs.
What is NNAS?
NNAS (the National Nursing Assessment Service) is a single organization that reviews your nursing education and work history and produces a report comparing your credentials to Canadian standards. You submit your documents once, to one place, instead of separately to every province.
NNAS does not license you and does not decide whether you can work as a nurse in Canada — it only produces the report. Your province's regulatory college makes the actual licensing decision, and five provinces use their own assessment instead, so check your province before you start. You need NNAS only if you trained outside Canada and are applying to a province that requires it.
Official NNAS website ↗ · Check whether your province needs it →
Expedited vs Regular — which one am I?
NNAS offers two service tiers. The right one depends mostly on whether you've already settled on a province.
Expedited Service
$750 CAD
- Covers RN and LPN together in one application
- Report comes back in 5 business days once your documents are in
- Education is assessed at the country level — no full transcript evaluation needed
- You can add multiple provinces to the same application for free
- Tradeoff: once the report is issued, no more provinces can be added later
Regular Service
from $650 USD
- Covers one profession and one regulator
- Costs more depending on what your file needs, and takes longer
- Upside: the report can be redirected to a different province within 12 months if your plans change
Good to know
Not sure which one fits you? If you already know your province, Expedited is usually simpler. If you're still deciding between provinces, Regular gives you more flexibility to change your mind later.
The document checklist
- Two pieces of notarized government ID.
- A registration verification form — sent directly to NNAS by every nursing licensing body you've ever registered with, even old or inactive ones. It has to come from them, not from you.
- An employment verification form — sent directly to NNAS by every employer you've worked for as a nurse in the last 5 years. Same rule: it has to come from them.
- Education documents. The exact requirement depends on which service you picked above.
Key fact
What NNAS does NOT need: language test scores. Since October 2022, those go straight to the province you're applying to, not to NNAS. If you're looking for a place to upload IELTS or CELBAN results on the NNAS site, that's why you can't find one — it's not their process.
English test requirement, by province
NNAS itself never checks English proficiency. This is entirely handled by the province you're applying to, checked at that stage — not at NNAS.
Most provinces share the same core passing scores for the two most common tests:
- CELBAN: Listening 9, Writing 7, Reading 8, Speaking 8
- IELTS Academic: Listening 7.0, Writing 6.5, Reading 6.5, Speaking 7.0, Overall 7.0
By province
- Alberta: Only CELBAN or IELTS Academic accepted — no other test. Testing can be skipped entirely if either applies: at least 2 years of nursing education where all theory and clinical training was in English, or at least 250 hours practised as a nurse in a jurisdiction where healthcare is delivered in English.
- British Columbia: Only CELBAN or IELTS Academic, all four components required. Submitted through BC's assessment partner, Inspire Global Assessments, not directly to BCCNM.
- Manitoba: The widest list — CELBAN, IELTS Academic, IELTS General, OET, PTE Academic, or CELPIP. If RN registration was completed within 2 years of graduating, a test may not be needed at all.
- Newfoundland and Labrador: CELBAN or IELTS Academic, plus several ways to skip the test entirely (education completed in English, prior Canadian registration, registration in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand, or recent English-language work experience).
- Nova Scotia: CELBAN, IELTS Academic, OET, or PTE Academic, plus an employer-confirmation option based on recent English-language healthcare work.
- Ontario: CELBAN, IELTS Academic, IELTS General, PTE Core, or CELPIP.
- Saskatchewan: CELBAN, IELTS Academic, OET, or PTE Academic, confirmed directly from CRNS. Testing can be skipped if there's at least 1 year worked in an English-speaking healthcare role (care aide, LPN, or RN) via an employer attestation form, or a completed recognized Canadian RN re-entry program.
- New Brunswick: CNNB requires an approved language test, and also accepts two non-test routes: being currently or recently registered as a nurse in another Canadian jurisdiction, or recent nursing work experience where English or French was the primary working language.
Needs verification
Confirm before you rely on this: the exact list of approved tests lives in a CNNB-linked document that was broken (404) at time of research. Email reg-imm@cnnb-opinb.ca directly to confirm.
- Prince Edward Island: PEICNM requires proficiency in written and spoken English under provincial health profession regulations, confirmed by a “Council-approved” language test.
Needs verification
Confirm before you rely on this: the specific accepted tests and scores weren't locatable in public documentation at time of research. Email PEICNM directly to confirm.
Heads up
Two things worth knowing. Test scores usually expire after 2 years, so timing matters. And most provinces offer at least one way to skip the test entirely if you're eligible — so don't book one before checking whether it's actually needed.
What to budget for this phase
- The NNAS fee itself — Expedited or Regular (see section 1).
- Translation costs, if any documents aren't in English or French.
- Notarization costs for your ID.
Good to know
This is the NNAS portion of costs only. The province's own registration fee is separate — it's on that province's quick-facts page.
Choosing which province to apply to
If you haven't decided on a province yet, that's worth settling before you pick a service tier above — it changes the options available to you. Use the province comparison to weigh cost, whether NNAS is even required, and how each one is structured, before you commit here.