New Jersey CNA Registry
Check any New Jersey certified nursing assistant on the New Jersey Nurse Aide Registry. The search is free, needs no account, and is the same record an employer sees. This page covers looking up a license, reading the status, keeping your certification active, and getting listed after your exam.
This is the state's own system, run by New Jersey DOH. It is the same database an employer checks, and the only place a certification status is authoritative.
Four ways to use this page. Pick the one that matches your situation.
New Jersey Nurse Aide Registry
- Governing agency
- New Jersey DOHNew Jersey Department of Health
- Lookup portal
- njna.psiexams.com PSI, public search
- Registry phone
- 877-774-4243
- Renewal cycle
- 24 months work hours must be reported
How to Look Up a New Jersey CNA License
This section is the mechanics: where the search is, what to type into it, and how to read what comes back.
New Jersey keeps its nurse aide records at njna.psiexams.com. The search is public, so you can check your own record or a candidate's record without an account and without paying.
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Open the New Jersey registry search
Go to njna.psiexams.com and use the Search a Licensee panel. The search takes Last Name, First Name, Birth Date and Certification Number, and any one of the four on its own is enough to run a search. Birth Date is picked from a calendar icon rather than typed, and the Certification Number box matches the full number exactly. A word verification step can appear before the results, asking you to type the letters shown in an image. No login, no account, no fee.
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Enter your details as the registry recorded them
Use the name from the time of testing, and fill in every box the panel asks for. If it offers a certification number box, use that as well: the number is unique to one person and a name is not.
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Match the record to the person
Check every identifying detail the result shows, not just the name, before you treat a row as a match. Common surnames return several records, and the wrong one can look right at a glance.
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Read the record, not just the listing
Open the record itself. Appearing on the registry is not the same as being current, so read what the record says about standing, whether that is a status, an expiry date, or both, then check it against the status table below. The results table shows Certification Number, Full Name, Original Issue Date, Expiration Date, Qualifying Basis and Details, and the Details column spells out in a sentence whether the person is in good standing and whether there are substantiated findings against them. The status word itself sits on the record page you open by clicking the name.
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Save a dated copy of the result
Print to PDF or screenshot the page showing the name, certification number, what the record says about standing, and the date you checked. Employers and agencies usually want that record on file.
How to find your certification number
Where a search takes the number, it narrows the result to one person in a way a name may not. If you have lost it, it is on any of these.
- Your certificate or wallet card, if your state issued one after the skills test
- The result page of the registry search itself, once you have found your record
- Your employer's personnel file, because facilities record it when they verify you at hire
- The registry, on 877-774-4243, if none of the above works
What Each New Jersey CNA Registry Status Means
The status field is the part that decides whether someone can work. Wording varies by state, so read the exact term on the record rather than assuming what it means.
| Status | What it means | Can they work? |
|---|---|---|
| Active | The certification is current and the person is listed on the New Jersey Nurse Aide Registry. | Yes |
| Expired | The certification has passed the expiration date on the record, and the registry does not treat the person as being in good standing. | No |
| Lapsed | The registry shows the certification as lapsed and does not treat the person as being in good standing. New Jersey does not publish what separates this from Expired. | No |
| Revoked | The certification has been revoked and the record states that the person cannot work as a certified nurse aide in New Jersey. | No |
Why Your New Jersey CNA License Is Not Showing on the Registry
| Problem | What is happening | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Your name returns no results | The registry stores the legal name you used at the time of testing. An expired, lapsed or revoked New Jersey certification stays on the registry rather than disappearing, and records issued in the 1980s are still listed, so a blank result is usually a spelling or a name difference rather than a lapse. If you searched on the certification number and got nothing, try the name instead: that box matches the full number exactly, so a partial number returns nothing. The search also covers only nurse aides, medication aides and assisted living administrators. Personal care assistants are on New Jersey's separate certified personal care assistant registry, and homemaker-home health aides are certified by the New Jersey Board of Nursing and verified through the Division of Consumer Affairs, so neither appears here however the name is spelled. | Search your maiden or pre-marriage name, and try the surname alone before adding a first name. |
| You passed but you are not listed | Results have to reach the registry from your testing entity before a record exists. | Give the registry time to process them, then call 877-774-4243 with your test date and testing entity. |
| The record shows as expired but you have been working | Qualifying hours have to be reported before the record updates, and yours may not have been filed. | File your own employment verification with the registry, then re-check the record. |
| You do not know how to file the report | The registry expects the report to come from you, so it will not arrive on its own. | Contact the registry on 877-774-4243 or CNA@doh.nj.gov and ask for the form they accept. |
| Details on your record are wrong | Name, address and registry data come from the record created at testing. | Contact the registry on 877-774-4243 or CNA@doh.nj.gov with documentation of the correct details. |
How to Verify a CNA License in New Jersey
This section is what the result proves: what a record is evidence of, what to save as your copy of it, and what it means for you specifically. The search itself is the same for everyone.
Verifying your own license after finishing training
Look yourself up at njna.psiexams.com once your testing entity has filed your results. Save a dated copy of the record, because most employers ask for proof at offer stage rather than checking themselves.
Verifying your license after transferring from another state
A certification held in another state does not appear in New Jersey until reciprocity is processed. Until a New Jersey record exists, employers here cannot verify you, and your out-of-state record is the only proof you have. See transferring a license to New Jersey for the application route, then verify the new record the same way.
Verifying someone else's license (for employers)
Federal rules require a facility to check the registry before it lets someone work as a nurse aide. The record carries two things: the certification status, and any substantiated finding of abuse, neglect or misappropriation of property the state has recorded against that person. Read both, because someone can be listed and still carry a finding that bars employment. The record only covers New Jersey, so if a candidate has worked elsewhere, search that state's registry too.
How to Renew Your New Jersey CNA License
Renewal in New Jersey is yours to file. You report your own qualifying work to the registry, and the record does not update until you do, however long you have been working.
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Work at least 7 hours in a qualifying role
The hours must be paid nursing or nursing-related duties inside the 24 months before your record lapses. Unpaid placements and volunteer shifts do not count. If the work was in another state, ask the registry whether it counts before you rely on it, because states differ.
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File the report yourself
You submit it, not your employer, through the state's system, the recertification data mailer the registry sends you, taken in person to a PSI test site. The record does not update until you do, so file before it lapses. The designated facility representative signs your recertification data mailer to verify the employment, and it is you who has to ask them for that signature.
Do it while you still work there. Whatever the registry asks for, it is harder to get from a former employer. -
Check the record, and read the expiry date
Look yourself up at njna.psiexams.com once the report has been filed. A status of active on its own is not enough, because the previous period may still be running. The expiry date is what tells you the new period has actually started.
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Fix a missing report before it lapses
If the hours were worked but never reported, that is correctable, and it is far easier to correct while the record is still active. Contact the registry on 877-774-4243 or CNA@doh.nj.gov and ask what they will accept as evidence of the work.
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Keep your own dated copy
Save the record showing the new expiry date. If a report is ever missed, that copy is what you give a new employer while the registry corrects it.
| Item | New Jersey |
|---|---|
| Active period | 24 months from the reported work |
| Work required | At least 7 hours of paid nursing or nursing-related duties |
| What counts | Paid nursing or nursing-related duties |
| What does not count | Volunteer shifts and unpaid clinical placements |
| Work in another state | Ask the registry before you rely on it. States differ on whether out-of-state hours count |
| Who reports it | You. The registry expects the worker to file |
| Where the report is filed | the recertification data mailer the registry sends you, taken in person to a PSI test site |
| Evidence of the hours | The designated facility representative signs your recertification data mailer to verify the employment, and it is you who has to ask them for that signature. |
| Renewal fee | You are charged for the recertification certificate only if you are neither employed nor holding an offer of employment from a long-term care facility, and a facility has to reimburse the cost of certification once you complete its probationary period. New Jersey publishes the amount in the New Jersey Register rather than in the rule. |
| Filing deadline | You have to recertify before the expiration date on your certificate, because New Jersey requires a current, valid certificate to recertify. Once it has expired the reinstatement route applies instead. |
| Continuing education required | None to renew. Your employer has to provide at least 12 hours of in-service education a year, with the content set by your performance review, but that is the facility's duty rather than a condition of staying on the registry. |
How to Reinstate a Lapsed New Jersey CNA License
If 24 months pass with no qualifying work, the record stops being active. What it takes to come back depends on which of these you are.
| Your situation | What you do | Retesting |
|---|---|---|
| You worked recently, but the hours were never reported | File the employment verification for that work now | No |
| No qualifying work for 24 months or more | If the certificate was first issued within the five years before it expired, New Jersey lets you back on by passing the skills evaluation and the written or oral examination again, with no retraining. Outside that five years you repeat the whole certification process, and either way anyone who has let a certificate expire has to go through the criminal background investigation again. | Yes |
| You hold an active certification in another state | Apply through reciprocity. See our New Jersey reciprocity guide | Usually not |
| You are not working in a Medicare- or Medicaid-certified facility | The federal requirement does not reach you, but other employers set their own rules and many still ask for an active certification | No |
How to Get on the New Jersey CNA Registry
In New Jersey you do not file a registry application yourself. You train, you test, and your testing entity sends the application and results to the registry.
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Meet the basic requirements
New Jersey does not publish a minimum age for registry eligibility. Training providers set their own, so check with the provider before you enrol.
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Complete an approved 90-hour course
Train with a provider approved in New Jersey. See our list of New Jersey CNA programs.
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Pass the written and skills tests
A knowledge examination, which you may take written or orally, and a hands-on skills demonstration. Both must be passed. The knowledge test can be taken orally instead of in writing if you ask, which is a federal right in every state and is worth knowing if reading is difficult for you or English is not your first language.
If a facility has already hired you, both tests have to be passed within 120 days of your hire date. Our free CNA practice tests cover the same knowledge areas as the written test, and the free CNA skills course walks through the skills evaluation itself.
The state charges no application fee. Testing costs are set by the testing entity rather than the state, so ask your provider what theirs are. -
Let your testing entity file the results
The testing entity sends your application and results straight to the registry. There is nothing for you to submit.
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Check that you appear on the registry
Give the registry time to process the result, then look yourself up at njna.psiexams.com before you contact the registry.
New Jersey CNA Registry Contact Information
- Phone
- 877-774-4243
- CNA@doh.nj.gov
- Mailing address
- New Jersey Nurse Aide Registry, PSI
3525 Quakerbridge Road, Suite 1000
Hamilton Township, NJ 08619
- License lookup
- njna.psiexams.com
- Registry information
- New Jersey Department of Health Nurse Aides/Personal Care Assistants pages
New Jersey CNA Requirements at a Glance
| Requirement | New Jersey |
|---|---|
| Registry name | New Jersey Nurse Aide Registry |
| Credential term used by the state | nurse aide |
| Governing agency | New Jersey Department of Health |
| Total training hours | 90 |
| Classroom hours | 50 |
| Clinical hours | 40 |
| Exam | A knowledge examination, which you may take written or orally, and a hands-on skills demonstration. Both must be passed. |
| Testing deadline | Both tests within 120 days of hire |
| Application fee | Free |
| Renewal cycle | 24 months, worker-reported hours |
| Testing vendor | PSI |
Transferring a CNA License To or From New Jersey (Reciprocity)
Reciprocity is how an active certification held in one state becomes a certification in another. It usually avoids retesting, but only while your current certification is in good standing. A lapsed or flagged record cannot transfer.
The route in and out of New Jersey, the documents required and the current processing time are covered in the guide. The tool checks any two states against each other.
New Jersey CNA Training Programs
The steps above are the whole route onto the registry. The one thing that comes before them is an approved 90-hour program, because you cannot sit the exam without completing one. The state itself charges no application fee, so training is the cost that matters.
| Program | City |
|---|---|
| Samuel Morris Career Institute of New Jersey | Newark |
| St. Bernadine School of Allied Health | Jersey City |
| Complete Care At Fairlawn Edge | Paterson |
| Workforce Advantage | Elizabeth |
| Middlesex County College | Edison |
Tell us where you are and we will match you with approved programs. Takes about a minute.
Find CNA programs near you✓ Free Service • ✓ No Obligations • ✓ Compare Multiple Programs • ✓ Accredited Schools Only
Cost, format and city for each one, listed by city so you can start near you.
If you want to prepare before you enrol, our free CNA skills course covers the material the program and the skills test are built on.
New Jersey CNA Registry FAQ
Is the New Jersey CNA Registry free to search?
Why can I not find my name on the registry?
How long does New Jersey certification last?
Can I report my own work hours?
What happens if my status expires?
Can an employer see abuse or neglect findings?
Do I need to be on the registry to work in New Jersey?
Look Up a CNA License in Another State
Every state runs its own registry, and a certification is only verifiable in the state that issued it. Pick a state to see its portal, its status vocabulary and its renewal rules.