Most state boards require verification of every physical therapy license you have held, including inactive, expired and lapsed licenses. Each prior board fulfills its own request, by online lookup or official verification, on its own timeline. List every license first, check what the new board accepts, and send the requests before anything else.
Few parts of a license application catch experienced therapists off guard the way verifications do. The question on the form is short: list every state in which you hold or have held a license. The work behind it is not, because each of those states has to confirm your record, and each one does that on its own terms.
Every license means every license
Read the question literally. Boards generally want active licenses, inactive licenses, expired licenses, licenses you surrendered, and licenses you held briefly for a single contract. Some also ask about other health professions or about licenses held outside the United States. The purpose is to see your whole record, and a partial list defeats it.
Travel therapists feel this most. A career that included short assignments in several states can leave a trail of licenses that were each obtained for a job and then allowed to lapse. Every one of them belongs on the application.
Lapsed and inactive licenses still count
Letting a license expire does not erase it. The board keeps the record, including any complaint or action that was opened while it was active. That is exactly why the new board asks. An expired license with nothing on it verifies cleanly and adds nothing to your review but a short wait.
Omitting one is the risk. If the new board finds a license you did not list, the omission reads as a disclosure failure whether or not anything was wrong with the license. The same applies to the compact, where member boards share licensure and discipline information as part of the arrangement.
How verification requests get fulfilled
There is no single method. Some receiving boards check another state's public license lookup themselves and ask nothing further of you. Others require an official verification sent directly from the prior board, sometimes on a specific form, sometimes with a fee. A few prior boards process verifications through an online portal or an outside service rather than by mail.
Start with the receiving board's instructions, because they decide what counts. Then go to each prior board's website and find its verification process. Where a board requires a request, send it at the start of your application rather than after, because this step runs on other offices' schedules and does not speed up when you are close to a start date.
Keeping a licensing history file
Once you have assembled the list, keep it. Record each state, license number, issue date, expiration or lapse date, and how that board handles verification. The next application, credentialing packet or background question will ask for the same history, and rebuilding it from memory is how licenses get missed.
Confirm the details with each board, since verification methods and fees change without much notice.
Common questions
- Do I need verification from a state where my license expired years ago?
- Usually yes. Applications typically ask for every license ever held, active or not. An expired license with a clean record is a routine verification, and leaving it off can look like a disclosure problem.
- Can I send a screenshot of an online license lookup as verification?
- Only if the new board says it accepts one. Many boards accept their own check of another state's public lookup, while others require an official verification sent directly from the prior board. Follow the receiving board's instructions.
- What should I do if I cannot remember every state I was licensed in?
- Reconstruct it from old employment records, tax documents, continuing education certificates and each state's public license lookup. Searching by name in the states where you lived or worked is usually enough to find a forgotten license.
- Who pays for a license verification request?
- Whatever fee exists is set by the board that holds the record, and it varies. Some verifications cost nothing, others require a form and a payment. Check each prior board's instructions.
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