NNAS Explained: A Guide for Internationally Educated Nurses

August 21, 2026• Healthcare RPO

If you trained as a nurse outside Canada and want to practise there, NNAS is almost always the first door you walk through — before any provincial college, before any exam, before anything else. This guide explains exactly what NNAS does, what it doesn’t do, and the actual steps and timelines involved, based on NNAS’s own published process.

NNAS: A Complete Guide for Internationally Educated Nurses

Quick Answer

NNAS is a credential assessment service, not a licensing body. It compares your nursing education and experience against Canadian standards and issues an Advisory Report — the report itself is not a licence to practise.
It’s the standard first step for internationally educated nurses (IENs) applying anywhere in Canada except Quebec and the territories.
The standard application has five steps: create an account, complete the application and pay fees, submit documents, and monitor status through to your Advisory Report.
The Expedited Service issues your Advisory Report within 5 days of all documents being received, for applicants who qualify.
The Registered Psychiatric Nurse pathway issues its report within 12 weeks once documents are complete.
Your Advisory Report is sent directly to the provincial or territorial regulatory college(s) you select — that college makes the actual registration decision, not NNAS.

What NNAS Actually Does

NNAS was established by Canada’s nursing regulatory bodies in 2012 and began issuing reports in 2015. It’s a non-profit that centralises one specific job: collecting, verifying, and comparing an internationally educated nurse’s documentation against Canadian nursing standards, then producing a standardised Advisory Report that every participating provincial and territorial college accepts as a common starting point.

Two credentialing vendors process applications on NNAS’s behalf: TruMerit (formerly CGFNS International, based in Philadelphia) and Comparative Education Service (CES, based in Toronto). Both are qualified to verify international nursing credentials to the same standard.

What NNAS does not do: it doesn’t grant you a licence, it doesn’t guarantee registration, and it doesn’t replace whatever additional requirements your target province’s college may have (exams, language testing, jurisprudence assessments, and so on). Think of it as the standardised front door — the college on the other side still makes its own decision.

The Five-Step Application Process

Step 1 — Create your account. Every applicant sets up an online account in the NNAS portal: email address, security questions, agreement to the Terms and Conditions, and a verification code.

Step 2 — Complete the application and pay fees. You’ll enter your personal details, work history, and education information. The portal saves your progress, so you can complete it at your own pace rather than in one sitting. Once complete, you’re taken to payment (processed through Moneris).

Step 3 — Submit required documents. Here’s the part that surprises a lot of applicants: most of your documents must be sent to NNAS directly by third parties — your nursing school, your previous licensing authorities, your employer — not by you. Documents can be submitted digitally or by mail, with digital strongly encouraged. The Expedited Service and the Registered Psychiatric Nurse pathway each have their own, shorter document lists — check the specific requirements for the pathway you’re using rather than assuming they’re identical.

Step 4 — Monitor status and receive your Advisory Report. You can track document receipt and review status through the portal in real time. Once your Advisory Report is issued, it’s automatically sent to the regulatory body (or bodies) you selected — and you should download your own copy for your records regardless.

How Long Does It Actually Take?

This is where a lot of unofficial guides give vague or inflated numbers. Here’s what NNAS itself publishes:

Expedited Service: Advisory Report issued within 5 days of all documents being received, provided no further clarification is needed.
Registered Psychiatric Nurse (RPN) Pathway: Advisory Report issued within 12 weeks of all documents being received, provided no further clarification is needed.
Standard service: NNAS does not publish a single fixed turnaround for the standard pathway the way it does for the two services above — the honest answer is that it depends heavily on how quickly third parties (your former school, employer, licensing authority) send in your documents, since that’s typically the longest and least predictable part of the whole process.

The practical implication: document collection, not NNAS’s own processing, is usually the real bottleneck. Since you’re relying on third parties to send materials directly, starting the process early and following up proactively with document providers matters more than anything else you can control.

After NNAS: What Happens Next

Your Advisory Report isn’t the end of the journey — it’s what makes the rest of it possible. Once your provincial or territorial college receives it, they’ll assess it against their own specific requirements, which typically include:

Additional exams (such as the NCLEX-RN for registered nurses in most provinces)
English or French language proficiency testing
A jurisprudence exam covering the legal and ethical framework of nursing practice in that province
Any province-specific supplementary requirements

Some provinces have partnered with NNAS to run their own expedited services for candidates who meet specific criteria, which can shorten the overall pathway further — check directly with the college in your target province, since these arrangements vary.

Common Mistakes and FAQs

Does NNAS grant me a licence to practise? No. NNAS issues an Advisory Report; your provincial or territorial nursing college makes the actual registration decision using that report as a foundation.

Do I need to apply to NNAS again if I want to work in a different province later? Generally no for the NNAS report itself — but you will need to apply separately to the new province’s regulatory college, since Canadian nursing licensure is province-specific, not national.

Is NNAS required in every province? Most provincial and territorial nursing colleges accept the NNAS Advisory Report as part of their process. Quebec and the territories generally sit outside this arrangement — confirm directly with the relevant regulatory body if you’re targeting one of those jurisdictions.

What’s the difference between the standard service and the Expedited Service? The Expedited Service has a published 5-day turnaround (once documents are complete) and a shorter document list, but eligibility is limited to applicants who meet specific criteria — check NNAS’s eligibility page rather than assuming you qualify.

Can I start the NNAS process before I have a job offer in Canada? Yes — credential assessment through NNAS is independent of having a confirmed job offer, and starting early is generally advisable given how much of the timeline depends on document collection.

Why is document submission handled by third parties instead of me? This is a verification safeguard — NNAS requires documents like transcripts and licensure history to come directly from the issuing institution or authority, not from the applicant, to confirm authenticity.

Are Canadian citizens and permanent residents who trained abroad also required to use NNAS? Yes — Canadian citizens and residents who completed their nursing education outside Canada also go through the NNAS process, not just newcomers.

What if my Advisory Report needs updating after I submit new information? NNAS’s Advisory Report reflects the documents submitted and verified at the time of issue, plus your correspondence with NNAS — check directly with NNAS about how to update or supplement a report if your circumstances change after submission.