Registered Nurse (RN) License Renewal in North Dakota
North Dakota RNs renew every 2 years with 12 contact hours of CE plus 400 practice hours. North Dakota is a Nurse Licensure Compact state.
| Renewal cycle | Every 2 years |
|---|---|
| CE hours required | 12 hours 12 contact hours of CE within the 2 years before renewal (NDAC 54-02-05-08); hours do not carry over. You also attest to at least 400 hours of nursing practice in the preceding 4 years. CE completed after December 31 of your renewal year is penalized at $50 per contact hour. |
| Renewal fee | $140.00 |
| Mandatory CE topics | None prescribed |
| Licensing board | North Dakota Board of Nursing (NDBON) |
Sourced from North Dakota Board of Nursing (NDBON), verified July 25, 2026. Requirements change. Confirm with your board before relying on this.
North Dakota keeps its numbers small and its deadline sharp. Twelve contact hours of continuing education, 400 hours of practice, and a genuinely unusual penalty if your CE runs late. It’s one of the lighter requirements in the country, right up until you miss the date.
Twelve hours of CE, and 400 hours of practice
For each two-year renewal, an active North Dakota RN completes both:
- 12 contact hours of approved continuing education within the two years before renewal (NDAC 54-02-05-08). The hours do not carry over, so banking extra in one cycle doesn’t help the next.
- 400 hours of nursing practice in the preceding four years. Like several states on this site, North Dakota wants proof you’ve stayed in the work, not just in the classroom.
New nurses get a break: an RN licensed by examination doesn’t need CE for their first renewal. Everyone else owes the 12.
The detail that makes North Dakota distinctive is the late-CE penalty. Continuing education completed after December 31 of your renewal year is charged $50 per contact hour earned after that date, which works out to $600 if you finish all 12 hours late. Most states just lapse your license; North Dakota puts a per-hour price on procrastination. Finish the hours before year-end.
The cycle
North Dakota renews RN licenses every two years, expiring December 31. Renew online through the Board’s system, and get the CE done before the 31st to avoid the per-hour surcharge.
The fee
Renewal is $140 for an active RN, a figure fixed in rule at NDAC 54-02-05-03 and posted on the Board’s renewal page. Late renewal doubles it to $280, and reactivation runs $220. Stack the late-CE surcharge on top of a late renewal and a procrastinated cycle gets expensive quickly.
North Dakota is a compact state
North Dakota implemented the Nurse Licensure Compact on January 19, 2018. If North Dakota 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 reaches into compact neighbors like Montana, South Dakota, and beyond. Note that Minnesota, directly east, is not a compact state. The privilege follows your legal residence, so it holds as long as North Dakota stays home. Use the compact checker below to see exactly which states a North Dakota 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 North Dakota Board of Nursing (NDBON).
How many CE hours do you have left?
North Dakota requires 12 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 North Dakota Board of Nursing (NDBON). This is not legal advice.
Continuing education hours per renewal cycle
North Dakota asks for 12 hours. That is below the median of 30 across the 37 states that set a flat hour count, which run from 8 to 40. Ranked lowest to highest, North Dakota is 3 of 37.
Renewal fee
North Dakota charges $140. The median across the 49 states that publish a figure is $100, running from $50 to $245. Ranked cheapest to dearest, North Dakota is 40 of 49.
Each mark is one state. The taller line is the median, the filled dot is North Dakota. 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?
North Dakota'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 North Dakota Board of Nursing (NDBON) 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.