Registered Nurse (RN) License Renewal in New Hampshire
New Hampshire RNs renew every 2 years with 30 contact hours of CE plus 400 practice hours. New Hampshire is a Nurse Licensure Compact state.
| Renewal cycle | Every 2 years |
|---|---|
| CE hours required | 30 hours 30 contact hours of CE in the 2 years before renewal (Nur 403.01), AND 400 hours of active nursing practice in the 4 years before renewal. A first-time renewal is exempt from the practice hours if you passed the NCLEX-RN within the past 2 years. |
| Renewal fee | $108.00 |
| Mandatory CE topics | None prescribed |
| Licensing board | New Hampshire Board of Nursing (Office of Professional Licensure and Certification) |
Sourced from New Hampshire Board of Nursing (Office of Professional Licensure and Certification), verified July 25, 2026. Requirements change. Confirm with your board before relying on this.
New Hampshire pairs two requirements that most states keep separate: continuing education and proof you’ve actually been working. Thirty contact hours over two years, plus 400 hours of practice over four. Neither is heavy on its own, but a nurse who’s stepped back from the bedside can meet the CE and still fall short on the practice side.
Thirty hours of CE, and 400 hours of practice
For each two-year renewal, an active New Hampshire RN completes both:
- 30 contact hours of continuing education in the two years before renewal (Nur 403.01), from workshops, conferences, lectures, or other offerings that build nursing knowledge and judgment.
- 400 hours of active nursing practice in the four years before renewal. Note the different window: the practice requirement looks back four years, not two, so it’s forgiving of a gap year but not of a long absence.
The two work together: CE keeps your knowledge current, and the practice hours keep your hands-on competence current. If you’ve drifted away from clinical work, the 400-hour requirement is the one that bites, and returning may mean a re-entry or refresher path.
New nurses get a break on the practice side: for your first renewal, passing the NCLEX-RN within the past two years substitutes for the 400 practice hours, you haven’t had four years to accumulate them yet. The 30 CE hours still apply.
The cycle
New Hampshire renews RN licenses every two years, before midnight on your birthday. That anchors your deadline to something you won’t forget, though it’s personal rather than a shared statewide date, so put it on a calendar in your renewal year.
The fee
Renewal is $108, and the composition is worth knowing: OPLC’s fee table marks the RN renewal with an asterisk denoting “inclusion of mandatory Professional Health Program (PHP) fee of $28.00.” So $80 is the licensing charge and $28 funds the state’s program for nurses dealing with substance use or mental health issues. Application and reinstatement carry the same PHP add-on, at $148 each.
At $108 every two years New Hampshire sits above Wisconsin’s $73 and North Carolina’s $100, and well under California’s $190.
New Hampshire is a compact state
New Hampshire implemented the Nurse Licensure Compact on January 19, 2018. If New Hampshire is your primary state of residence, your RN license can be a multistate license, letting you practice in the other compact states without applying separately in each. That’s a real advantage in northern New England, where a New Hampshire nurse with a multistate license reaches Maine and beyond, though note that Massachusetts has enacted but not yet implemented the compact, so it doesn’t connect the same way yet. The privilege follows your legal residence, so it holds as long as New Hampshire stays home. Use the compact checker below to see exactly which states a New Hampshire license reaches.
Add your renewal deadline to your calendar
Enter your expiration date and download a calendar file. Your own calendar will remind you at 90, 60, 30, and 7 days out. We don't ask for your email, we store nothing, and the date never leaves your device.
Works with Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, and Outlook. This is a convenience, not a compliance service. Confirm your exact deadline with the New Hampshire Board of Nursing (Office of Professional Licensure and Certification).
How many CE hours do you have left?
New Hampshire requires 30 CE hours this cycle. Enter what you've completed and see what's left. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.
A convenience, not a compliance service. Confirm your exact requirement with the New Hampshire Board of Nursing (Office of Professional Licensure and Certification). This is not legal advice.
Continuing education hours per renewal cycle
New Hampshire asks for 30 hours. That is exactly the median of 30 across the 37 states that set a flat hour count, which run from 8 to 40. Ranked lowest to highest, New Hampshire is 28 of 37.
Renewal fee
New Hampshire charges $108. The median across the 49 states that publish a figure is $100, running from $50 to $245. Ranked cheapest to dearest, New Hampshire is 29 of 49.
Each mark is one state. The taller line is the median, the filled dot is New Hampshire. States that set no flat hour count, or publish no fee, are left out of that comparison rather than counted as zero.
Where can you practice with your license?
The Nurse Licensure Compact lets a nurse who lives in a compact state hold one multistate license and practice in every other compact state. Pick where you live to see whether that's you, and where it reaches.
Member data from the NCSBN Nurse Licensure Compact map, verified July 2026. A multistate license requires the compact state to be your primary residence. This is a convenience, not legal advice. Confirm your status with your board or at nursecompact.com.
What will this renewal cost?
New Hampshire's renewal fee is filled in from the board below. Add what you expect to spend on CE courses, plus a late fee if you're past due, for a running total. Nothing you type is stored.
The renewal fee is from the New Hampshire Board of Nursing (Office of Professional Licensure and Certification) and dated on this page; the CE and late-fee figures are your own estimates. A convenience, not a compliance service, and not legal advice. Confirm fees with your board.