Veterinarian Licensure Requirements in Delaware

Delaware requires the national exam and attaches one recency condition: an applicant who passed the NBE/CCT or NAVLE more than two years ago must prove 36 hours of continuing education completed within the previous three years.

For a veterinarian relocating after time away from exam-taking, that means assembling CE documentation before applying, not after.

Score reports reach the Board office through AAVSB, and an applicant who has not yet passed the NAVLE registers through ICVA.

A student in the final year of an AVMA-accredited program may apply to take the NAVLE before graduation, with a school letter verifying good standing and an expected degree date.

One procedural trap: a DELPROS application must be submitted within six months of the day you start it, or it restarts from the beginning.

A U.S. graduate documents eligibility with an official transcript showing the degree and its date, sent directly from an AVMA-accredited college to the Board.

A graduate of a non-AVMA-accredited foreign school must go further: a credential evaluation, completed before the Board permits them to sit the NAVLE, from a Board-named evaluator — the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA), ECFVG, or PAVE.

The list is reproduced exactly as the Board publishes it rather than silently corrected; a foreign-trained applicant should confirm with the Board which evaluator it will accept before paying for an evaluation.

The same first-time requirements sit underneath reciprocity, so the credential-evaluation rule follows a relocating foreign-trained veterinarian too.

Delaware's FAQ draws the line cleanly: apply for original licensure if you have not passed the NBE/CCT or NAVLE and either never held a license elsewhere or hold none current; apply by reciprocity if you hold a current, active veterinary license issued by another state.

Reciprocity is not a paperwork shortcut — licensure verification must be sent directly to the Board office from each state or jurisdiction in which you currently hold or ever have held a license, and otherwise the same requirements as a first-time applicant apply.

A veterinarian with a multi-state history should request those verifications early, because each one routes through a different board's office.

The sources read state no explicit years-of-practice threshold for reciprocity, and the temporary license covered below exists precisely for an applicant whose reciprocity case is being considered.

Licenses renew on a two-year cycle running August 1 through July 31 of even-numbered years, and a full period owes 24 hours of approved CE; hours completed outside the period are not accepted.

A first renewal is prorated by issue date: 12 hours for a license issued on or after August 1 of an even year but before August 1 of an odd year, 6 hours for one issued on or after August 1 of an odd year but before February 1 of an even year, and 0 hours for one issued on or after February 1 of an even year but before April 1.

Approved CE comes from sources the Board lists — the AVMA, AVMA-accredited schools, federal/state/county veterinary associations and the USDA, publications including VIN, and RACE-registry courses — logged in the DELPROS CE tracker, with documentation uploaded only if the random audit selects you.

Stated fees: $210 to apply, $285 to reinstate, a renewal fee announced at renewal, and a 50%-of-renewal late fee after expiration.

The fee schedule lists two instruments — a $40 'Temporary License Veterinarian' and a $65 'Temporary Permit Veterinarian' — and the Board's licensure page describes the mechanism behind the license: an applicant already in the pipeline, either being considered for licensure by reciprocity or eligible to sit the examination, who also meets every standard requirement.

The supervising veterinarian's letter is the operative condition, certifying continuous employ, supervision, monitoring of professional activities, and full responsibility for the applicant's work — and practice may not begin before the temporary license is issued.

For a relief veterinarian, this is an application-bridge instrument tied to a pending Delaware application, not a recurring credential for repeated short stints.

What the $65 'Temporary Permit' adds beyond the $40 license is not stated in the sources read, so ask the Board what distinguishes the two before paying for either.

Two housekeeping rules from the Board's FAQ complete the picture.

You must be licensed before you begin working in Delaware — true even for a veterinarian already licensed elsewhere — and the only exceptions are the ones the statute itself lists, which the FAQ points to as 24 Del.

C. §3303.

Separately, a license can be placed on inactive status through a DELPROS service request at no fee, but practicing on an inactive license is illegal; no CE is required to renew an inactive license, yet the full CE total comes due when you reactivate.