How to become a nurse practitioner in British Columbia: BCCNM registration, the approved NP program, the CNPLE exam transition, and provisional licensure.
Applies in: British Columbia
To practise as a nurse practitioner in British Columbia you must first qualify as a registered nurse with the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM), complete a recognized nurse practitioner education program, pass an approved written NP examination, and be granted practising NP licensure by BCCNM. Only BCCNM registrants may use the title Nurse Practitioner or NP and practise as NPs in British Columbia. The route is a registration process with the College, not a course certificate: BCCNM assesses your education, your competence, your English language proficiency, your character, and your capacity to practise before it issues a licence.
Nursing in British Columbia is regulated by the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM). BCCNM states that NPs are now licensed in a general class of licensure, and its application process is set by where you received your nursing education: new graduates of a Canadian NP program, Canadian NPs already licensed in another province or territory, and internationally educated NPs each follow their own application stream. The pages below describe the new-graduate stream first, then the other two.
Before the NP steps begin, new graduates must qualify for RN licensure with BCCNM. If you already hold RN licensure with BCCNM, go directly to the NP application. If you do not, create a BCCNM account and apply for practising RN licensure — you will be asked to consent to a criminal record check, provide evidence of identity, capacity to practice, and character, and provide details of your nursing education and applications for licensure in Canada or internationally. You can submit your NP application while your RN application is being processed. If you are not yet an RN, the companion guide on becoming a registered nurse in British Columbia covers that route first — the NP program assumes registered-nurse education and practice as its foundation.
You must graduate from a BCCNM-recognized NP education program, or from a program approved or recognized in another Canadian province or territory for the purpose of NP registration in Canada. BCCNM states that by successfully completing a recognized Canadian NP education program in the last three years, you meet both the education and competence requirements.
British Columbia's NP programs run at the University of British Columbia (MN-NP), the University of Victoria, the University of Northern British Columbia, and Thompson Rivers University. UBC's program is a two-year full-time on-campus Master of Nursing — Nurse Practitioner program recognized by BCCNM, and its admission requirements include current registration as a Registered Nurse in British Columbia and proof of at least 4,000 hours of clinical practice as a registered nurse within the past five years. Admission requirements, including the RN experience expected, differ by university, so confirm them on the program's own pages — this guide states no tuition figure because none was verified on a BCCNM or university page.
Apply through BCCNM's how-to-apply pages for nurse practitioners. For new graduates of a Canadian NP program the process is:
When BCCNM assesses your application it considers good character, capacity to practice, education and competence, and English language proficiency. You meet the English requirement through successful completion of your NP education program in English; if French was the language of instruction, BCCNM requires evidence of English proficiency, such as a reference from a nursing employer indicating your RN practice was predominantly in English-speaking settings or an approved English language proficiency test.
All applicants for NP registration must complete an approved written examination. BCCNM is transitioning to the Canadian Nurse Practitioner Licensure Examination (CNPLE) as the only NP licensing exam accepted for initial applicants, on this timetable:
The first CNPLE sitting in British Columbia is February 2027. If you have already passed an approved written NP exam, ask the certification board or the nursing regulator in the province where you took the exam to send your result directly to BCCNM at exams@bccnm.ca. If you apply for the CNPLE through BCCNM, the results are delivered to the College directly.
If you meet the requirements, you will be eligible for practising NP licensure. If you hold provisional licensure, it automatically updates in BCCNM's online directory and the limits and conditions on your practice are removed. If you do not hold provisional licensure, BCCNM sends you instructions to pay the licensing fee. You are not authorized to practice as a nurse practitioner in British Columbia until BCCNM sends you an email confirming your licensure. Once granted, your NP licence appears in BCCNM's online directory.
After licensure, review BCCNM's practice and ethics standards for nurse practitioners — in particular the Indigenous Cultural Safety, Cultural Humility and Anti-racism Practice Standard, which BCCNM singles out for internationally educated applicants and which applies to all registrants providing care to Indigenous clients in British Columbia.
Already an NP in another Canadian province or territory: use BCCNM's Canadian NP stream. BCCNM must be satisfied you have the knowledge, skills, abilities, and judgment expected of a graduate of a BCCNM-recognized education program, and it warns that applicants who have not completed their nursing education program within the last 10 years and/or had substantial practice experience as a nurse in the last 10 years are unlikely to meet that test. Competence can be shown with evidence from the last three years, such as practising at least 900 hours as an NP or completing a nursing education program recognized by BCCNM or another Canadian nursing regulatory body. Forms from employers and regulators must be sent to BCCNM directly.
Trained as an NP outside Canada: use BCCNM's internationally educated NP stream. You must be currently licensed as an NP in another country, establish eligibility for RN licensure with BCCNM, be educated and registered in the adult, family, or pediatric NP stream, hold a master's-level nursing education, demonstrate equivalence to Canada's entry-level competencies for NPs, have passed a recognized written exam, and have completed your education and/or practised at least 900 hours as an NP in the last three years, including 300 clinical hours. BCCNM reviews your competency assessment report, education, identity, language proficiency, licensing history, and practice experience holistically, and if your education and practice are not considered substantially equivalent it identifies transitional education or experience to address the gaps.
For the RN-eligibility step, internationally educated nurses follow BCCNM's internationally educated nurses route, which runs in parallel: apply to Inspire Global Assessments and apply to BCCNM at the same time. Inspire confirms your identity and evaluates your English language proficiency, education credentials, and nursing skills and knowledge through a competency assessment, then provides that information to BCCNM, which reviews it as part of its assessment. BCCNM assesses most internationally educated nurses for both LPN and RN licensure in one application, and warns applicants to be wary of agencies offering to complete BCCNM and Inspire applications for a fee — applications must be completed and submitted by the person applying. This guide states no Inspire or BCCNM fee figure, because none was verified on a BCCNM or Inspire page; BCCNM's internationally educated nurses page links to both fee schedules and notes most fees are available for reimbursement through the Internationally Educated Nurse Bursary Program.
This guide states no BCCNM application fee, licensing fee, examination fee, or NP program tuition, and no salary figure, because none was verified on a BCCNM, Inspire, or university page — confirm all fees on BCCNM's fee pages before you budget. It states no processing-time promise, because BCCNM's own application pages state no fixed processing time. It states no seat or training-capacity figure for British Columbia NP programs: a 2026 NP guide reports 65 new seats added in September 2025, but that figure comes from a secondary source, not a BCCNM or university page, so it is not stated here — check the universities' own pages for current intake sizes. It also does not state an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) as a current requirement: older third-party material describes an OSCE for BC NP applicants, but BCCNM's current application and exam pages describe only an approved written examination, so this guide follows the regulator's current pages and states no OSCE requirement. If BCCNM's pages and older material ever disagree, the BCCNM pages govern.
Yes. New graduates must qualify for RN licensure with BCCNM before they can be considered for NP licensure. If you already hold RN licensure with BCCNM, you go straight to the NP application; if you do not, you apply for practising RN licensure first — and you can submit your NP application while the RN application is being processed. The NP program itself builds on registered-nurse education and practice; it is not an entry route for someone with no nursing registration.
BCCNM is transitioning to the Canadian Nurse Practitioner Licensure Examination (CNPLE) as the only NP licensing exam accepted for initial applicants. If you apply for BCCNM licensure on or after January 1, 2027, the CNPLE is the only exam accepted. If you apply on or before December 31, 2026, BCCNM still accepts the NP exams it currently approves, but your result must be submitted by April 30, 2027 or you will be required to take the CNPLE. The first CNPLE sitting in British Columbia is February 2027. Check with BCCNM which examination your cohort writes — the exam that applies to you is the one BCCNM confirms for your application.
Possibly, under provisional licensure. On your application you are asked whether you would like to apply for provisional licensure, which is granted to eligible applicants who want to work while meeting their final licensing requirements, such as passing the regulatory exam. Provisional licensees have limits and conditions: they must not independently prescribe or order diagnostics, and they must be monitored by a nurse practitioner or physician licensed to practise in British Columbia. Before provisional licensure can be granted, your employer must confirm that it is aware of the limits and conditions and agrees to monitor your practice. Once BCCNM receives confirmation that you passed the written exam, the limits are removed and practising licensure is granted.
Yes. BCCNM has a separate application stream for Canadian NPs — applicants currently licensed as an NP in another Canadian province or territory. To be eligible you must be able to satisfy BCCNM that you have the knowledge, skills, abilities, and judgment expected of a graduate of a BCCNM-recognized education program. BCCNM states applicants are unlikely to meet that test if they have not completed their nursing education program within the last 10 years and/or had substantial practice experience as a nurse in the last 10 years, and it strongly encourages anyone who does not meet that recency test to complete a recognized re-entry, bridging, or other nursing education program before applying. You can demonstrate competence with evidence from the last three years, such as practising at least 900 hours as an NP or completing a recognized nursing education program.
BCCNM has a separate stream for internationally educated NPs who received their NP education outside Canada and have never been registered as an NP in a Canadian province or territory. You must be currently licensed as an NP in another country, establish eligibility for RN licensure with BCCNM, have completed a master's-level nursing education program in the adult, family, or pediatric stream, show your education and practice expectations are equivalent to Canada's entry-level competencies for NPs, have completed a recognized written exam, and have completed your education and/or practised at least 900 hours as an NP in the last three years, including 300 clinical hours. For the RN-eligibility step, BCCNM's internationally educated nurses page describes a parallel route: apply to Inspire Global Assessments and to BCCNM at the same time. Inspire confirms your identity and evaluates your English language proficiency, education credentials, and nursing skills and knowledge through a competency assessment, then sends that package to BCCNM. Do not start with NNAS — BCCNM's own internationally educated nurses page describes Inspire, not NNAS, as the assessment body for British Columbia.
No — BCCNM states that NPs are now licensed in a general class of licensure. The family, adult, and pediatric streams still appear on BCCNM's exam pages because the approved exams accepted for applications submitted on or before December 31, 2026 are listed by stream, but new licensure itself is in the general class. If you trained in a stream, check BCCNM's exam page for which approved exam matches your stream and application date, and confirm with BCCNM what applies to your application.