My New Jersey Physical Therapist license

S: When I decided I wanted to go to the east coast to work for the summer, I asked both my travel companies to see if they could find me a job. One company, Medical Connections, did not have a licensing department. The other company, MedTravelers, had a licensing department. Medical Connections found me a job in New Jersey, I interviewed for it and got the job. I started the process of applying for the license in May. It is now October and I just got my letter saying I had been approved to get a license and would receive one in 3-4 weeks. Needless to say, I didn't realize it would take this long to get the license. Contrast that with the Connecticut license which took about 3 weeks to get and was paid for by my travel company. Still there are a lot of jobs in New Jersey and it is much closer to New York City. Read on if you want to know the steps to getting a New Jersey license.

O: First, if you have a company that will do it for you , then by all means let them deal with it. Since I was under a time crunch, MedTraveler's licensing department told me they wouldn't even try to get me the license. It would take at least 6 months. So plan ahead for this license.
Here are the steps:

• Contact the New Jersey office of the Attorney General to get your application snail mailed to you. This state doesn't have an online application.
• Fill out the application, pay $125, and mail back with all the required documentation (passport picture ($10 at Walgreens), a photocopy of all your current licenses, your answers on a scantron to the New Jersey open book jurisprudence exam, and an affidavit with the seal of a notary of the public (free at your local bank if you have an account). Make copies of everything and mail all that to New Jersey. I make copies because sometimes the state will say I didn't send things, but I have proof that I did.
  
• On the Internet you will need to have your official transcripts sent from your Physical Therapy school directly to New Jersey. You can do this online through the student clearinghouse or call the registrar's office. This cost me $4.25. I went to LSU in New Orleans and even though Katrina flooded the school, my transcripts were still available online.
• Snail mail verification of all your state licenses to each state you hold a license in and pay for that ($15 for Michigan and $30 for California)
• Once New Jersey is satisfied with your information and you passed the test, they will mail you the information for having a background check done. I was already on assignment in Connecticut when this came in the mail and had to have my husband mail it to me. I had to be fingerprinted ($10 at the local police station) using the enclosed fingerprinting card and pay New Jersey $67 to allow those finger prints to be converted to a digital format.
• So now it is five months later and I just got notification that once I send in $110 and I pass my background check, I will have my New Jersey PT license.

A: I'm pleased to be on the final step of the process, but am in no hurry to complete the process. I will probably not need the license until summer of next year. It is good for 2 years and usually the application is good for 6 months before I have to start over.

P: My plan is to send in my final check in the beginning of the new year. Once I start a job there with Medical Connections they will reimburse me for the cost of everything.