How to renew your Maryland RN license
Maryland RN licenses expire on the 28th day of your birth month — not the last day — in years matching the parity of your birth year. Maryland does not impose a flat CE requirement: you prove continued competency by 1,000 practice hours in five years, a recent nursing degree, or 30 CEUs. Most Maryland RNs complete zero CE and renew lawfully. Renewal is $191, and a new structural-racism training requirement hits at your first renewal after April 1, 2026.
- Cycle
- 2 years, expiring the 28th of your birth month, in a year matching your birth year's parity
- Competency
- Choose ONE: 1,000 practice hours in 5 years · a Board-approved nursing degree in 5 years · 30 CEUs in 2 years
- Fee
- $191 (includes a $26 MHCC user fee) — increased July 1, 2025
- Late fee
- None exists. 30-day grace period during which the Board keeps you active
- New for 2026
- Implicit bias + structural racism training at your first renewal on/after April 1, 2026
- Renewal window
- 90 days before through 30 days after expiration
- Portal
- MDH CHART
- Confirm your expiration dateThe 28th of your birth month, in a year matching your birth year's parity — not the last day of the month.
- Decide which competency pathway you meet1,000 practice hours in 5 years, a Board-approved nursing degree in 5 years, or 30 CEUs in 2 years. If you worked 1,000 hours, you need zero CE.
- Complete implicit bias and structural racism training if dueRequired at your first renewal on or after April 1, 2026. Only ACCME- or ACPE-accredited, MDH-approved programs count.
- Renew in MDH CHARTOpen 90 days before through 30 days after expiration. Do not create a new profile if you already hold a license — set a username/password and let it auto-link.
- Complete a CHRC if your birth month is due2026's wave is September and October birth months. Use the renewal ORI (MD920499Z), not the initial one.
- Save the renewed license to TrustKeep proof accessible in case of a random CEU audit.
Requirements
COMAR 10.27.01.13 gives three alternatives. Satisfy one:
- 1,000 hours of active nursing practice in the five years immediately preceding your application; or
- Completion of all requirements for a diploma or degree from a Board-approved nursing education program within the preceding five years; or
- 30 continuing education units earned in the two years immediately preceding your application. One CEU = one contact hour of 50–60 minutes.
If you meet none of the three, you must complete a Board-approved refresher course or preceptorship — for RNs, a minimum of 80 theory hours + 60 clinical hours + 8 classroom lab hours, all within 12 months of start, with a clinical faculty-to-student ratio no greater than 1:10.
Academic credit converts at 15 CEUs per semester hour for nursing-related coursework with a grade of C or higher; an official transcript is acceptable proof.
Accepted CEU providers (the regulation's list as written): AHEC — local, state or national · American Nurses Association · ANCC · professional organizations granting CEUs toward national APRN certification · local, state or national professional nursing associations · Maryland Nurses Association · NCSBN · National League for Nursing. The regulation puts the burden on you: "the renewal applicant shall be responsible for ensuring" the CEUs were approved by a recognized entity.
CEUs do not carry forward. CEUs may not be carried forward into the next renewal period.
Audit and retention: attestation-based inside CHART — nothing is uploaded at renewal. CEUs are subject to random audit. Retain evidence six years after the license is renewed and produce it within 30 days of a Board request. Maryland does not use CE Broker for RN renewal.
No other mandatory topics. There is no Maryland RN requirement for opioid, HIV, child abuse, human trafficking or domestic violence CE.
Fees
| Fee | Amount | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Active RN biennial renewal | Amount: $191.00 ($165 renewal + $26 MHCC user fee) | When: Every cycle |
| Active LPN renewal | Amount: $165.00 | When: |
| Late / delinquent fee | Amount: None. COMAR 10.27.01.02 contains no late, delinquent or penalty fee | When: — |
| Reinstatement | Amount: No separate fee — renewal application + the $191 renewal fee | When: Past the 30-day grace period |
| Inactive status renewal | Amount: $60.00 | When: Biennial. Inactive nurses may not practice |
| RN inactive → active conversion | Amount: $131.00 | When: The $191 − $60 difference |
| Volunteer RN renewal | Amount: $73.00 | When: Unpaid practice only — but practice is permitted |
| Temporary license (endorsement) | Amount: $70.00 | When: |
| Duplicate license | Amount: No fee — not issued. Physical cards discontinued April 1, 2007 | When: |
| CRNP renewal | Amount: $216.00 | When: Includes $15 NP Preceptorship Tax Credit Fund |
| Compact-state APRN / NP renewal | Amount: $36.00 / $51.00 | When: For APRN certification held on another state's multistate license |
| Verification to another state | Amount: $45.00 | When: |
What Maryland requires instead
Maryland's one true mandate is implicit bias and structural racism training: HB 783 (2025), Chapter 478, amending Health Occ. §1-225, effective October 1, 2025. At an applicant's first license renewal on or after April 1, 2026, you must attest to having completed an implicit bias and structural racism training program approved by MDH's Cultural and Linguistic Health Care Professional Competency Program. It is one-time only. If you completed implicit bias training in a prior cycle you don't repeat it — but you do need the structural-racism component. MDH accepts only ACCME- or ACPE-accredited programs.
No hour count is published by MBON, MHHD, or in HB 783 — do not state one on the page.
What changed this cycle
- Fees increased July 1, 2025. Active RN renewal is now $191.
- Implicit bias + structural racism training — HB 783 (2025), Ch. 478, at the first renewal on/after April 1, 2026. Structural racism is the new component.
- MDH CHART launched June 22, 2026, replacing the legacy portal. MBON was the first MDH board migrated. The old renewal URL still resolves and still shows stale 2013–2017 content — do not link it.
- Paper applications ended July 15, 2026 — anything postmarked later is returned unopened and enclosed checks are not processed. Exceptions: Forensic Nurse Examiner and reinstatement.
- Criminal history records checks standardized — HB 1420 / SB 806, effective June 1, 2026.
- CHRC renewal wave by birth month: 2026 = September and October birth months (12-year rolling schedule). 2027 is October/November.
- Coming but NOT yet applicable — so nobody over-complies: perinatal behavioral health CE (HB 1118 / SB 891) applies only to a first renewal after April 1, 2027. Human trafficking training (HB 771, June 1, 2026) and menopause management (HB 1365, Oct 2026 / Jan 2027) are credit-granting options, not requirements.
Your first renewal after licensure
There is no CE exemption clause — but new graduates are automatically covered by pathway 2. A nurse licensed by examination has, by definition, completed a nursing program within the last five years, so a first-time renewer needs zero practice hours and zero CEUs. In practice this covers the first and usually the second renewal, since the lookback is five years and cycles are two.
The initial license period is a partial period with a 90-day floor. COMAR 10.27.01.11: "An initial license may not be issued for less than 90 days." Combined with the 28th-of-birth-month rule and birth-year parity, the first period can run from about 90 days to roughly 27 months. A nurse licensed October 2026 with an even birth year and a November birthday gets a license expiring November 28, 2028 (~2 years), because Nov 28, 2026 is under 90 days out. Same license date but a June birthday gets June 28, 2028 (~20 months).
No prorated or reduced first-renewal fee. A four-month first period costs the same $191 as a 27-month one.
Implicit bias and structural racism training hits at the first renewal. Every nurse licensed in 2025–2026 must complete and attest to it at their very first renewal. New licensees get no pass.
How to renew, step by step
- 01Confirm your expiration dateThe 28th of your birth month, in a year matching your birth year's parity — not the last day of the month.
- 02Decide which competency pathway you meet1,000 practice hours in 5 years, a Board-approved nursing degree in 5 years, or 30 CEUs in 2 years. If you worked 1,000 hours, you need zero CE.
- 03Complete implicit bias and structural racism training if dueRequired at your first renewal on or after April 1, 2026. Only ACCME- or ACPE-accredited, MDH-approved programs count.
- 04Renew in MDH CHARTOpen 90 days before through 30 days after expiration. Do not create a new profile if you already hold a license — set a username/password and let it auto-link.
- 05Complete a CHRC if your birth month is due2026's wave is September and October birth months. Use the renewal ORI (MD920499Z), not the initial one.
- 06Save the renewed license to TrustKeep proof accessible in case of a random CEU audit.
If you're late
The Board gives you 30 days and keeps you active. COMAR 10.27.01.15: "A licensee has a 30-day grace period beyond the expiration date of a license to renew a license." MBON's CHART FAQ is clearer still: during that period licenses "remain active on Board records," and "there will be no Board-generated notification indicating that a license or certification has become non-renewed until the applicable 30-day grace period has expired."
But MBON also says employers may have different policies — and in practice hospital credentialing usually pulls you off the schedule on day one. Don't rely on the grace period as a plan.
After 30 days the license is non-renewed (Maryland's word for lapsed) and you may not practice.
Reinstatement: renewal application + the $191 renewal fee + evidence of the competency requirement. Non-renewed 12 months or more adds a new criminal history records check. There is no separate reinstatement fee.
Refresher is triggered by competency, not time. If you can't document 1,000 hours in five years, a degree in five years, or 30 CEUs in two, you need the refresher or preceptorship — which in practice means anyone out of practice more than five years.
NCLEX re-examination is not required at any threshold. Maryland's remedy for stale competency is the refresher, not re-testing.
A temporary license exists while reinstatement is pending — issued to a former licensee who has applied, meets the renewal requirements, and is waiting on the CHRC. Effective until the earlier of 90 days or the date the Board issues an active license. A real and underused escape valve.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Maryland require 30 CE hours?
- Not as a flat requirement — this is where most published guides mislead. Thirty CEUs is one of three ways to prove competency. If you worked 1,000 hours in the last five years, you need zero CE.
- Does my license expire at the end of my birth month?
- No — on the 28th, even in a 31-day month. A nurse born in July who plans to renew "before the end of July" is already three days lapsed.
- Do I renew every year on my birthday?
- No. It's biennial, tied to birth-year parity. Born 1990 means 2026, 2028, 2030 — never an odd year.
- Will I be fined for renewing late?
- Maryland has no late fee — it's absent from both COMAR and the fee schedule. What you lose by being late is time, not money, and past 30 days you lose the license.
- Can I work the day after my license expires?
- Per the Board, yes — for 30 days, during which licenses remain active on Board records. But MBON explicitly notes employers may have different policies, and most hospitals won't schedule you.
- I already did implicit bias training — am I done?
- Half right. HB 783 added structural racism as a new, distinct component. You don't repeat implicit bias, but you do need structural racism at your first renewal on/after April 1, 2026, from an MDH-approved, ACCME- or ACPE-accredited program.
- My renewal bookmark shows old 2013 content.
- The legacy portal is stale. MDH CHART is the only live system. Don't create a second profile — that's the top CHART support ticket.
- I got an email saying my multistate license changed.
- MBON confirmed an erroneous automated email about multistate status went out the week of June 22, 2026 during the CHART migration. Verify in License Lookup before panicking.
- Do I need a background check every renewal?
- No — it's a 12-year rolling cycle keyed to your birth month. For 2026 it's September and October birth months. Two traps: the renewal ORI differs from the initial one, and results may only be retained 90 days, so getting fingerprinted too early means paying twice.
- My renewal is stuck and the Board won't say why.
- It's often a tax hold — Maryland requires boards to clear renewal applicants with the Comptroller for unpaid taxes or unemployment contributions. MBON cannot help; resolve it with the Comptroller and renew early enough to absorb it.
- Does inactive status keep me legal?
- No. A licensee on inactive status may not practice nursing in the state, though you may still use the title RN. Volunteer status ($73) does permit practice, but only without pay.
- Do CEUs roll over?
- No. CEUs may not be carried forward into the next renewal period. Keep certificates six years and be able to produce them within 30 days of a Board request.
Last verified against Maryland Board of Nursing sources:
Changelog
Every revision to this guide, newest first. Last updated .
- Depth pass: added the full fee tier table, first-renewal proration rules, and expanded FAQ coverage of CHRC waves, tax holds, and inactive/volunteer status. Re-verified fees, CHART migration notes, and the structural-racism training citation against current MBON and COMAR pages.
- Initial publication covering the 28th-of-birth-month expiration rule, the three-pathway competency requirement, and the CHART portal migration.
Trust tracks this renewal for you.
Maryland's 28th-of-birth-month deadline and CHRC waves are easy to lose track of. Trust stores your license, competency proof, and structural-racism training certificate on-device and reminds you before your window closes.
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