licenses & feesstate

Licence Fee Waived, Military Training Credited, and 90 Days After Active Duty

The Commonwealth’s portion of the initial application and licence fee is waived; military education, training and service count toward the qualifications; and a licence held by someone on active duty stays valid until release and for at least 90 days afterwards.

Verified August 22, 2026

What this benefit is

What it's worth: The Commonwealth’s portion of the initial application and licence fee, plus a decision inside 30 days for spouses

The statute waives the Commonwealth’s portion of the fee. Where a board’s fee includes a third-party examination or vendor charge, that part is not addressed.
Initial fees vary by profession, so we carry no dollar figure.

Who is entitled to it

You served, so the training-credit and active-duty validity provisions reach you.
You are a military spouse, which is the expedited route.
Your home is in Massachusetts.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

1Present the evidence of your service with the application — the statute conditions each benefit on "presentation of satisfactory evidence" rather than on the board noticing.
2Ask for the initial fee waiver expressly: the commissioner and each board "shall waive the commonwealth’s portion of the initial application fee and the initial fee" for a licence granted under this section.
3Ask for your military education, training or service to be accepted toward the qualifications. Both the occupational licensure side and the public health side owe that duty.
4If you are the spouse, check the four conditions: licensed in another state, spouse in the armed forces, spouse the subject of a military transfer here, and you left employment to accompany them. The board then has 30 days from receipt to issue the licence, issue a temporary one while you finish state-specific requirements, tell you exactly which criteria you failed, or tell you what is missing.
5If you are deploying, the licence stays valid until release from active duty and for at least 90 days after — the health professions boards renew automatically in that situation without a renewal fee or continuing education.

Form: The board’s affidavit form for the benefit claimed
File with: The Division of Occupational Licensure, or the Bureau of Health Professions Licensure for a health profession
Documents you will need: dd214
At each renewal: Claimed again whenever the underlying licence or registration renews.

CorrectionThe waiver is of "the commonwealth’s portion" of the fee, not of the whole cost of getting licensed. Where a profession’s fee is split between the Commonwealth and a testing or credentialing vendor, expect to pay the vendor side.

CorrectionThere is a real downside the licensure bureau publishes and the summaries do not: accepting the active-duty benefit "may result in the military deeming your license to be restricted even though it is not restricted under Massachusetts law." Nurses in particular should read the bureau’s own clarification letters before taking it.

Worth knowingThe 30-day duty is not merely a duty to decide. If the board cannot license you it must specify which criteria you failed and why, or say precisely what information is outstanding — a refusal without that detail does not discharge the section.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.