Under the authority of the Nursing Practice Act, all license, registration, and permit applicants and holders must furnish a full set of fingerprints for purposes of conducting federal and state criminal history record checks through the California Department of Justice (DOJ). Licensure, registration, and permits are subject to denial, suspension, or revocation based upon an applicant’s or licensee’s conviction of a crime. The fingerprints remain on file with the DOJ, who provides reports to the Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) of any future arrests and/or convictions on an ongoing basis.
There are two methods available to complete this requirement:
NOTE: If a hard card is received at the BRN without payment being submitted, the hard card will not be processed and will be destroyed. If submitting by mail, you should include a copy of your application summary (if you applied online in BreEZe) to ensure proper and timely processing of your hard cards. Fingerprint hard cards will not be mailed to the DOJ for processing until the full fee payment has been received by the BRN.
You may request one FD-258 from the BRN by using our Fingerprint Request Form (please allow up to two weeks to receive a hard card in the mail once the hard card request is received and processed, which is approximately 3-5 business days after submission of the request). The FD-258 card is the official fingerprint card produced and approved by the FBI. The current version of this card contains the full Privacy Act Statement, as required by the FBI. For detailed information on completing the manual fingerprinting card, please see Instructions for Completing a Fingerprint Card. The current fingerprint processing fee for DOJ and FBI is $49.00 and is payable by logging in to your BreEZe account and clicking on the drop-down arrow under "Choose Application" within the "Manage your License Information" section, located in the upper left of your screen, and then selecting "Hard Card Fingerprint payment". If you do not have access to your BreEZe account, you can submit a check or money order made out to the "California Board of Registered Nursing".
NOTE: The BRN will not submit hard cards to the DOJ without receipt of the required $49 fingerprint card fee. Processing times at DOJ and FBI can vary and are not under the control of the BRN.
Most fingerprint submissions will connect to your BreEZe account automatically after completion at either a Live Scan vendor, or with an FD-258, and no further attention is needed regarding your submission.
However, if you have completed your fingerprint submission for the BRN, and your Application Status and Details Page indicates you are still deficient, your fingerprint results may have not been properly applied to your BreEZe account.
If your fingerprint results are not properly applied to your electronic license file in BreEZe, the license will not be issued. The DOJ, FBI, and the BRN match fingerprint results based on four data sets: first name, last name, date of birth, and social security number. If the information entered by the Live Scan operator does not match the BRN’s license information in the BreEZe system, the fingerprint results will not be properly applied to your electronic licensing file, which is considered an "unmatched record". A common problem is the Live Scan operator may transpose or incorrectly enter the numbers for your date of birth or social security number. Another common problem is if you have a last name that includes hyphens or spaces, and it was not entered as an exact match by the Live Scan vendor.
Fingerprint results typically take up to 72 hours to enter the BreEZe system, if using a California based LiveScan Service. Hard cards (FD-258) can take several weeks to a couple months to enter the BreEZe system. If your results do not match on their own, they may be unmatched in the BreEZe system and require manual intervention by BRN staff. If this occurs, you should upload a copy of your completed Live Scan form in the “Submit Additional Documents” section of your BreEZe account or you may contact the BRN for further assistance.
The BRN receives various types of results from the DOJ and FBI.