Ordering Verifications From Every State You Have Held

Every optometry application asks the same question in some form: where else have you been licensed? The new board does not take your word for the answer. It wants the boards that licensed you to confirm your license, its dates and its history, sent to it directly or through a channel it trusts. Because that step depends on another state's staff, it is usually the slowest part of a file, and a single forgotten license from years ago can hold everything else up.

Which states want every license you ever held?

Most of them. These boards ask for verification from every state, and sometimes every country, where you have held a license, including expired ones:

• Alaska: every jurisdiction where a license was ever held.
• Connecticut: every state where a license was ever held; the Department notes that some states charge for verifications.
• District of Columbia: every jurisdiction where a license was ever held, sent directly by that jurisdiction.
• Iowa: every state ever licensed, and the verification must show issue and expiration dates and any discipline.
• Kentucky: good-standing certificates from every state ever licensed.
• Michigan: every state or country where a license was ever held.
• Montana: every state where you have held a license.
• Nebraska: every license ever held, verified directly to the Licensure Unit.
• Nevada: a letter of good standing from every state where you were ever licensed, "even expired licenses."
• Ohio, Oregon and Rhode Island: every state that ever issued you a license.
• Tennessee: each state ever licensed, with out-of-state verifications mailed directly to the board office.
• Texas: "An official license verification is required from each jurisdiction currently or previously licensed."
• Washington: applicants list every state where they hold or held a credential, including applications that were never granted.

California asks for a Letter of Verification from any state where you have or had optometry licensure, and notes that depending on the original state it may be able to verify an out-of-state license electronically.

Which states ask for less?

A few limit the request. Illinois wants its Form CT completed by the jurisdiction of your original licensure and your current one. Unusually, the other board returns the completed form to you, and you include it with your application. Vermont asks for verification from your first and most recent states, accepts online verifications that the applicant uploads, and will consider a 90-day provisional license if a verification is the only missing item.

When is an online lookup enough?

Sometimes. Florida tells applicants to have each state submit a license verification to the Florida board, but adds that "If the state has an online verification including disciplinary actions, the online verification may be acceptable." Vermont accepts online verifications uploaded by the applicant. Most other boards want the verification sent from the issuing board, and Iowa's requirement that the record show dates and discipline rules out many simple lookups. Unless the board says otherwise, assume a screenshot will not do.

What does the other board actually report?

More than your license number. Illinois's Form CT asks the issuing board whether formal action has ever been commenced against you, whether any formal sanction has been imposed, and whether that state grants Illinois licensees the same privilege of reciprocal registration. Iowa wants issue and expiration dates and any discipline. Texas's License without Examination uses its own verification form so each state can describe both your initial and your therapeutic license. A verification can therefore surface something you thought was resolved; the answers on your application need to match it. See disclosing discipline on an optometry application.

How do you order them without losing weeks?

1. List every license. Include expired, inactive and lapsed ones, temporary or limited licenses, and, for Washington, applications that never became licenses. Check old tax records and job histories if you are unsure.
2. Read each issuing board's process. Issuing boards differ in how they take requests and what they charge, and the new board's own form may be required; Illinois and Texas both have one.
3. Send the right address. Florida reminds applicants who have documents submitted on their behalf to "verify the email and/or mailing address to ensure delivery to the board office."
4. Order them the day you apply. Verifications usually take longer than anything else in the file, and some boards, such as the District of Columbia, treat an application as invalid after 90 days if it is not complete.
5. Follow up. New York says it plainly: "It is your responsibility to follow up with anyone you have asked to send us material." The same is true everywhere.

Are verifications the same as credentialing checks?

Related, but separate. A licensing board verifies your licenses to decide whether to issue one. Health plans and hospitals later verify the same licenses again, through their own primary-source checks, when you join a network or a medical staff. White Glove Credentialing explains primary source verification on the credentialing side.

How do we handle verifications?

Ordering verifications from every state you have held is part of every license we prepare ($699 per state on NBEO scores or by endorsement, $799 where the state adds an exam or interview). We build the license list with you, request each verification on the issuing board's own process, track each one until the new board logs it, and chase the slow ones. Fees charged by the issuing boards are paid by you. See pricing, how optometrists get licensed in another state, or the state license index.