My CNO Application Timeline
I registered my College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) application last June 2017 after receiving my NNAS report. This is when they were still responding through snail mail letters. But now, they recently announced that they will transition to online processing of application starting August 2018.
It’s been a year already, take a look at the progress of my application with CNO:
CNO Application Timeline
2017
June 6 – NNAS Advisory report received, opened RN and LPN application with CNO.
June 19 – Received confirmation letter from CNO stating that they received my application. Within 15 business days, they will send a letter about the status of the review of my education-related documents.
June 25 – Received a letter stating that I am eligible to take the Canadian Practical Nurse Registration Examination (CPNRE).
June 25 – Received another letter requesting detailed Job Descriptions from my previous employers to be used as additional documents for education assessment.
July 11 – Sent a letter requesting to waive the language proficiency requirement.
August 24 – Passed Jurisprudence Examination.
October 26 – Passed CPNRE.
November 02 – Sent a follow up letter for my request to waive language proficiency requirement.
2018
January 16 – Received letter asking for more supporting documents to waive language proficiency requirement.
March 31 – Sent a letter requesting to review my application to waive language proficiency requirement since all supporting documents have been sent by my previous employers.
May 14 – Received a letter stating that my request to waive language requirement will be referred to the Registration Committee as the information I submitted has not satisfied the evaluator.
May 25 – Another letter arrived stating that I do not meet nursing education requirement along with Competency Assessment Form detailing the gaps in my education for RN application.
May 26 – Received email from Touchstone Institute for OSCE registration.
July 27 – Received letter stating that the Registration Committee has waived my language proficiency requirement.
CNO Online Application
Last September 12, I received an email from CNO stating that Online Application is now available. I just need to use the email address I registered to them upon application.
The user interface for the online account is simple and easy to use. There are two different sections for RPN and RN application. The details about the documents I submitted and the outstanding requirements are organized under each section.
There is also a separate message center at the bottom of the page. All letters and messages concerning the application will be sent through the message center. CNO will no longer send snail mail letter to applicants.
Sending Documents to CNO
Now that CNO have transitioned to online applications, it’s confusing to know if we also need to send documents to them through online. But according to the College:
So far, there is no option yet for online submission of documents in the online portal of CNO. I still continued sending letters and documents through snail mail or Canada Post. My submissions are usually reflected in my online account after 2-5 business days.
Hi Je Abarra ,
Thanks for sharing your information.
I noticed that on November 02 , you Sent a letter to the CNO and asked them to waive your language proficiency requirement. Would you please explain about the format of that letter? I also have a plan to send them a letter and request to waive my language requirement but I need a sample letter to make sure that how to write a flawless and professional letter to the Registration Committee. I would appreciate any help and information you can provide.
Good luck!
Aida
Hi Aida! Sorry for the late reply as I’ve lost access to this site in the past months. Anyway here’s a link on how I requested to waive the English requirement https://nurselist.ca/how-to-waive-cno-english-proficiency-requirement/
Hi if there is anyone who has recently applied to cno and nnas please can you share your timeline and how much time it took to get the decision by both cno and nnas.
Hi there,
How’s it going? I was just wondering what sort of supporting documents they asked of you to waive the language test? And if you remembered roughly how long from the time you send your first personal statement to the time they got back to you asking for supporting documents?
Hope to hear from you!
Cheers,
Corinne
Hi Corinne! Sorry for the late reply, I lost access to this site in the past months 🙁 anyway the details on how I requested to waive the English requirement are here. https://nurselist.ca/how-to-waive-cno-english-proficiency-requirement/ I hope this is helpful!
Hi! thanks.so.much for.sharing. What happens if the advisory report comes.with.the “somehow” omg.. I am nurse educated in Chile.. just repeated my IELTS..all done. I am concerned about if we have to re-study???
If your advisory report is “Somewhat Comparable” you have a big chance that you will be just required to take NCLEX. All of the people I know with that advisory report were just asked to take NCLEX right away, no schooling required! 🙂
Also mentioned here:
https://nurselist.ca/ien-guide-how-to-become-a-nurse-in-canada/
hi mam i just want to ask what if your safety practice expires and still they didn’t give your certification yet.
Hi! I’m not sure about that. I think if your safe practice is expired, it’s gonna be another requirement in your CNO dashboard before you can have a link to register as an RN/RPN.
In my case, I made sure that I registered for RPN license before my safe practice expired. That meant I made sure to pass the CPNRE, language proficiency requirement and jurisprudence exam before my safe practice expired.
Hi, what do you guys mean by safe practice expiration? Is it not ideal if I’ve been in Canada for 3 years no able to work as a nurse and starting the process with NNAS?
What are my options?
Than you
Most provinces require that you have recent work experience as a nurse to qualify for registration. For example, the College of Nurses of Ontario require that you have recent work experience as a nurse in your country or where you had your previous nursing license in the past 3 years. If you don’t have recent nursing work experience or you never had nursing license in other countries, they will advise you to go back to school for a specified amount of time or units (depending on their evaluation of your case) before you could be given eligibility to take the NCLEX for RN or CPNRE for RPN. (https://www.cno.org/en/become-a-nurse/registration-requirements/evidence-of-practice/)
Hi plz share what u have studied back home was it a bsn degree or GNM(general nursing and midwifery) diploma. I am a nurse from india i have done Gnm diploma and i applied for rpn assesment. Please share i want to know if my education is comparable to canadian standard or no.
Hi! I have a BSN degree in Philippines. I have a friend from India who had a GNM diploma. She was asked to complete a Competency Assessment Supplement (CAS) by CNO to determine if she is eligible to take the CPNRE (for RPNs) right away.
In the end I think it really depends on how well your school documented your course syllabus during the NNAS stage. I have another friend who had a BSN degree in Philippines but was still asked by CNO to submit a Competency Assessment Supplement (CAS). She said it’s because her school didn’t send a detailed course syllabus during the NNAS stage.
Also i have one year of hospital work experience in india as an RN
Hi there,
I’m absolutely happy about finding your blog, THIS IS THE MOST HELPFUL THING I EVER FOUND DURING MY PROCESS!
I appreciate a lot what you’re doing here!
I would like to contact you but I didn’t find the contact form where it supposed to be, con you help me please?
Thank you so much again.
Sandra
Hello!
Thank you for sharing your CNO timeline with us! 🙂
I graduated with a BSN degree in Nepal (Oct 2018) and applied to NNAS on June 2019; will probably have my advisory report issued by March 2020.
I have a question regarding the evidence of practice. In CNO’s website they’ve stated:
“completing other nursing education within the past three years. This includes both theoretical- and clinical-based components relevant to the category to which you are applying. For example, completing a Post Basic Bachelor program in your country of origin, with a clinical component or Masters of Science or Ph.D. in nursing with a research component, may meet the requirement”
Do you know if it mean recent graduates from foreign nations will also automatically have the evidence of practice requirement met, even without having any work experience? Because in my case, I also do not have relavant work experience after I graduated back home and now I’m already in Canada.
I’m a hundred percent sure CNO will ask me for OSCE.
I think you being a recent graduate in Nepal won’t qualify for the evidence of practice required. CNO stated that “Many applicants to the College meet this requirement by completing a College-approved nursing program within the past three years.” – and these College-approved nursing programs are within Ontario. (https://www.cno.org/en/become-a-nurse/approved-nursing-programs/)
The other clause “completing OTHER nursing education within the past three years. This includes both theoretical- and clinical-based components relevant to the category to which you are applying.” — it meant post-graduate nursing education or additional nursing education after you got a bachelor’s or BSN degree. That’s why they stated “Post Basic Bachelor program” and “Masters of Science or Ph.D. in nursing” as examples.
Thank you very much for clearing the confusion I’ve had for a very long time, I really appreciate it!
Hi Ray please share your timeline have you heard back from NNAS?
Hi Jean!
So I got my advisory report at the end of Feb 2020 and I applied to CNO immediately. And turns out they do accept your your bachelors degree in nursing as evidence of practice if you have graduated in the past 3 years. As aforementioned, I graduated in Oct 2018 and my evidence of practice with CNO is valid until Oct 2021 (for both RN and RPN), without submitting any work experience documents to both NNAS and CNO.
Wow that’s great! I’m happy for you! In their guidelines it’s not that clear so it’s nice that they do credit your recent education as evidence of practice 😀
Thank you so much for sharing your response because this has been an eye-opener to me as I am about to start the process of becoming a nurse in Canada. I have been trained in Malawi, the African continent
Hi I m gini I want to know that wat all document should be included in evidence of practice…from where it should snd…from hospital or college..pls reply asap.this my humble request..
Hi! Learn about the whole process here:
https://nurselist.ca/how-to-waive-cno-english-proficiency-requirement/
https://nurselist.ca/cno-english-proficiency-forms/
Hi Priyanka!
Sorry for the very late reply. I’d almost forgotten about the blog 😅
Here’s my timeline with NNAS:
All documents sent from back from: July 5 – 10
▪︎Waiting for authentication – July 15th 2019
▪︎Ready for evaluation – Aug 6th 2019
▪︎Meets requirement – Dec 11 2019
▪︎Waiting for additional documentation – Dec 11 2019 (NNAS asked for transcript with credit hours but my college replied saying that the official transcript does not have credit hours)
▪︎Ready for review – Dec 19 2019
▪︎Ready For Final Review – Dec 20 2019
▪︎Waiting for required documents – Feb 11 2020 (NNAS asked for clock hours, college sent the number of theoretical and practical hours of all subjects I’d taken throughout nursing school)
▪︎Meets requirement/Ready for Final Review – Feb 19 2020
▪︎Advisory report issued – Feb 20 2020
-> RN: Not Comparable
-> RPN: Somewhat Comparable
After application with CNO, they got back to me in about a week and I was asked to either study or take IENCAP for RN. Whereas, for RPN, I was given eligibility to write CPNRE.
Hi Ate Je! Can I ask if you proceeded with Touchstone or did you proceed to bridging program?
Hey! I didn’t proceed with any of that as I just concentrated on my nursing career here in Quebec 😀
Hi there
Would you pls be so kind and post any links/websites if you have .. where I can find samples of written CAS as I only saw one in the CNO website..
Much appreciated 🙂
Hi there, I am in confusion, i applied under CNO for RN application. They processed Nd my language proficiency was outstanding, i sent all supporting evidence of language proficiency on april 2020 and my employer sent all documents needed for waiving of my language proficiency,(LP). After 5 months wait I got one email from CNO stating that they refered my application to registrate committee to review my documents for waive LP. I am so nervous how long more it takes to cno to reply further. What they ll do next? Is any in Same situation going on or pass through . Please reply back.
Thank you.
Hi I wanted to ask did you get your language proficiency waived ? I submmitted my documents in March 2021. How long it will take to waive? do you have any idea?
Hi Can anybody tell me about how long CNO will take to waive language requirement? I have submmitted the documents in April 2021
Hi, I sent letters in Jan 2021, and I just received a letters saying that they have referred by application to the review committee. So, I think you still need to wait little bit longer.
They are taking so long to process al the applications.
Is it approved?
Hi,i would like to ask what will happen because i graduated last 2017 and have only 1 month experience in year 2018. Will it be considered as a safe practice?
(Authorization to Work: Outstanding) I had a telephone conversation with CNO about my last step to complete my application they asked me to write a letter addressed to CNO committee / Immigration in content which will be addressed when they review my application. Does anybody have a template of how to write this letter and to whom do you address it to as well as content ? .
Thanks
George
Hi i have done GNM from india and CNO has asked me to do a CAS or some education, i have 60 competencies, i am not sure if i write the CAS If i would be able to get eligibility for RPN please reply soon
HI Jean,
Found your blog helpful,
Can I apply for RN from my country?
as I am not a resident of canada/or there with any visa,
in that case what to share as Authorisation to work page as asked in application in CNO page
Hi, I sent language proficiency letters to CNO in Jan 2021, couple of days ago i received a letter saying that they have sent my application to committee to review it as CNO was not satisfied with the letters.
So, I think you still need to hang out little bit longer as they are taking forever to proceed these applications.
Hello,
Is it approved by committee?
Hello,
Did you language proficiency approved by committee yet….?
Hello,
I am in same situation so did CNO approved LP?
Hi
I did CRNE 2009 and lost my chances.Now I have applied to NNAS and got report as non comparable to RN in Canada.
In the mean time I am RPN from 2009 till present.
But when I did my first application with cno in 2009 I did not do any extra courses…..just I had to do Exams straight because my curriculum was ok.
Just wondering what CNO will say about NCLEX now…. my curriculum was good before how come my final report was non comparable with NNAS..
So frustrated…
Waiting for recommendations from CNO now….
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