Alaska Registered Nurse License by Endorsement | 2026 Guide

Alaska is not part of the Nurse Licensure Compact, so a multistate license will not let you practice there. Every registered nurse coming from another state applies to the Alaska Board of Nursing for a license by endorsement.

Alaska’s process is simpler than Hawaii on cost, charging one flat fee rather than one that changes with the fee year, but it carries a requirement Hawaii does not: you have to document recent nursing practice before the board will issue a permanent license.

Is Alaska a compact nursing state?

No. Alaska has not joined the Nurse Licensure Compact, so a multistate license issued elsewhere gives you no authority to practice in Alaska.

If you hold a compact license covering a dozen states, Alaska is not one of them, and no amount of coverage elsewhere changes that. You will apply by endorsement in the same way as a nurse holding a single-state license.

Alaska does issue a temporary permit that lets you start work while the full license is processed, and unlike some states it does not require a job offer first. More on that below.

What Alaska requires for licensure by endorsement

The Alaska Board of Nursing asks for six things, and the fifth is the one worth reading twice.

1. A completed online application with the fee paid. The application is not considered complete until payment goes through.
2. A notarized signature page, uploaded to your MY LICENSE account or mailed as an original.
3. Fingerprints on one original 8 by 8 inch FD-258 card, sent to the board for state and FBI checks.
4. License verification from the state or Canadian province where you were first licensed, and from a state or province where you currently hold a license. The current license has to still be current when the permanent license is issued, and inactive status does not count.
5. Verification of Employment, form 08-4016b, showing at least 320 hours of nursing employment in the five years before the board receives your application.
6. English proficiency documentation, which applies only to nurses whose pre-licensure education was outside the United States, Canada or Quebec.

Fingerprint cards are rejected for the wrong card type, for incomplete information or signatures, and for improperly rolled prints. It is worth having them taken somewhere that does them regularly.

The 320-hour rule, and what to do if you do not meet it

Alaska will not issue a permanent license unless you can document at least 320 hours of nursing employment in the five years before your application reaches the board. The hours are confirmed by your employer on form 08-4016b, not self-declared.

Three hundred and twenty hours is eight weeks of full-time work spread across five years, so a nurse in continuous practice clears it without thinking about it. The nurses it catches are those returning after a career break, a period of illness, parental leave, or time spent in a non-clinical role.

If you cannot document the hours, you are not blocked. The board offers two alternatives: meet its continuing competency requirements, or complete a board-approved refresher course. Both take time, so find out which applies to you before you start rather than after a deficiency notice.

Worth knowing: the 320 hours are not required for the temporary permit. You can begin working on the permit while you resolve the hours question for the permanent license.

What an Alaska RN license costs

Alaska charges $375.00 in total, paid by credit card when you submit the online application. The fee breaks down into three parts:

The application fee is $100.00 and it is nonrefundable, whatever the outcome. The license fee is $200.00. Alaska issues licenses for two years, so this covers the full term rather than a single year. The fingerprint processing fee is $75.00, which covers the state and federal background checks.

The fee is paid in full at the point of application, so the full $375.00 is due before any of your documents are reviewed.

The temporary permit: six months, and it does not renew

Alaska issues a temporary permit once the first four requirements have been received and processed, including the professional fitness review. The employment verification and the English proficiency documentation are not needed for the permit, which is why it can be issued well before the permanent license.

The permit is valid for six months and it is nonrenewable. The board puts the responsibility squarely on you: track the expiry date and finish your paperwork before it runs out. There is no extension to fall back on.

Six months is a workable window, but it is a hard stop. If a verification from a previous state is slow and your permit expires, you stop working until the permanent license is issued.

One narrow exception exists. A nurse in arrears on child support may be issued a nonrenewable temporary license valid for 150 days rather than the standard permit.

How long an Alaska RN license takes

The Alaska Board of Nursing does not publish a processing time, so nobody can honestly give you a fixed number. What is predictable is which steps cause the delays.

Fingerprint cards are one to watch, because the board lists four separate grounds for rejecting a card and each one sends you back to the start of that step. Verifications from previous licensing states are the second, and they move at the pace of that state rather than Alaska’s. The employment verification is the third, because it depends on a former employer returning a form.

The six-month permit gives you a working window while all of this resolves, which is the sensible way to use it. Start the permit paperwork first and let the permanent license catch up.

RN jobs in Alaska

Alaska employs about 7,040 registered nurses, the second smallest nursing workforce of any state after Wyoming, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures reported in April 2025. The licensing step narrows an already small pool further, so facilities there are used to planning around a nurse’s licensing timeline rather than expecting an immediate start.

If Alaska is somewhere you are seriously considering, it is worth starting the conversation before the paperwork, so the permit and the contract can be timed together.

References and sources

1. Alaska Board of Nursing, Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing, Registered Nurse by Endorsement Instructions (fees, six requirements, 320-hour rule, temporary permit, fingerprint card rejection grounds): https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/portals/5/pub/RNbyEndorseInstructions.pdf
2. Alaska Board of Nursing, Verification of Employment form (nursing employment hours): https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/Portals/5/pub/nur4016.pdf
3. NCSBN, Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) map of member states: https://www.ncsbn.org/files/NLC_Map.pdf
4. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS, Registered Nurses (29-1141), including Alaska employment: https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes291141.htm