The NCLEX in Canada

How do you take the NCLEX in Canada?

In Ontario, the College of Nurses sets out these steps:

1. Open an RN application on the College of Nurses of Ontario’s member portal and pay its application fee.
2. Send any accommodation request and documents to the College before you book.
3. Wait for the College’s portal message saying you’re eligible to write.
4. Register with Pearson under exactly the same name you gave the College, and pay the exam fee.
5. Get your ATT email and book a seat early.

The College says you have 90 days to write once you’ve paid the exam fee. Other provinces run their own process, so check with your regulator. Canadian fees are in Canadian dollars and are on our cost page.

Where Canadian candidates can test

For Canadian registration, centers in the Canadian provinces and territories and in the mainland U.S. count as domestic. A center anywhere else is international and adds a scheduling fee. NCLEX.com posts a document of temporary testing locations and schedules in Canada for 2026.

NCLEX results and retakes in Canada

Quick Results aren’t available for Canadian registration, so the result comes from your regulator. In Ontario, the College says you’ll get a portal message about your result within one week.

You can retake the exam as often as you need while your Ontario application is open, which is for at most two years, within NCSBN’s limit of eight attempts a year, 45 days apart.

NCLEX pass rates in Canada, 2025

By province, first-time Canadian-educated candidates passed at 91.3% in Alberta, 89.7% in British Columbia and 84.3% in Ontario, from NCSBN’s table 10.

Practical nurses, Quebec and French

NCSBN’s candidate bulletin says the NCLEX-PN is used for U.S. licensure only, so it isn’t the exam for practical nurse registration in Canada. Ontario’s College also accepts the Quebec Professional Examination for General Class RN registration, if you passed it within three attempts. The CRNE, the older Canadian exam, is no longer offered.

NCSBN offers the NCLEX-RN in French for French-speaking candidates seeking Canadian registration. The French materials include the test plan, the Candidate Tutorial, the candidate bulletin and the Exam Preview, and Pearson has a French support line on 1-866-288-8454. Switching between English and French after you register costs $50 CAD. The PN test plan is published in English only.