Veterinarian Licensure Requirements in Georgia

Georgia has adopted the NAVLE administered by the International Council for Veterinary Assessment as its licensure examination, and all NAVLE applications and fees go directly to the ICVA rather than through the Board.

The state's own rule then sets the bar itself: a NAVLE score of 75 or greater is required for licensure consideration.

That number sits on the older 0-100 scale, and it remains the current, in-force rule text — last amended April 13, 2021 — even though ICVA's scale now runs 200-800, so it is worth confirming the threshold the Board applies today before you schedule a retake.

An applicant who does not obtain the stated score may reapply to sit for the NAVLE, pay the appropriate fee and submit a new application directly to the ICVA.

Every application for licensure must include proof of a passing score on the Georgia Veterinary Law Exam, a separate, Georgia-specific test sitting alongside the national exam requirement.

The rule reaches everyone: a military spouse or transitioning service member admitted on a temporary license must still complete and pass the Georgia Law Exam before the Board will issue a permanent license.

What the codified rules do not tell you is what the test looks like — its format and its numeric passing score are genuinely absent from the rules read, a confirmed gap rather than an overlooked detail.

A new graduate should ask the Board how the exam is administered and scored before counting on a start date.

The application asks for proof of graduation submitted directly from an accredited college or school of veterinary medicine certifying completion of a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program — and a new graduate whose transcript is not yet available can substitute a letter from the Dean certifying the graduation date, or an electronic proof of graduation followed by the official transcript within thirty days.

A graduate of a foreign college or school of veterinary medicine must additionally submit a qualifying credential: the ECFVG certificate from the American Veterinary Medical Association, proof of completion of the PAVE program from the American Association of Veterinary State Boards, or an equivalent document acceptable to the Board.

Both certifications are named in the rule text itself, so neither depends on a case-by-case equivalency ruling before you apply.

Georgia's reciprocity rule is one sentence long and it closes the door: the Act does not provide for license by reciprocity, language in force unchanged since 1974 and re-confirmed as the current rule text.

Practically, a veterinarian relocating from another state applies exactly as a first-time applicant does — national exam scores (the NAVLE, or the legacy CCT plus NBE), the Georgia Veterinary Law Exam, and the standard application fee.

Years of practice elsewhere buy no exam waiver under the rules read.

The only instruments that soften the path at all are the two narrow temporary licenses described below, and neither covers ordinary out-of-state practice, so a relief veterinarian planning recurring Georgia work should plan on full licensure from the start.

Each veterinarian licensed in Georgia must obtain thirty (30) hours of Board-approved continuing education per biennium, and the rule builds requirements inside that total: two hours per renewal period in Georgia laws, rules and professionalism (LEAP) — waived for Georgia licensees who do not practice in the state — and eighteen hours of scientific subject matter.

Credits may not be carried over from one biennium license renewal period to the next.

The requirement phases in for a new licensee: a veterinarian licensed during the first year of a biennium owes fifteen hours and skips the LEAP requirement, and one licensed during the second year is exempt for that renewal period.

Licenses expire December 31 of even-numbered years and renew biennially upon payment of the biennial license fees.

Georgia issues two temporary licenses, and neither is a general relief permit.

The first is one-time and six months, granted for practice in government or nonprofit shelter medicine, nonprofit sterilization clinics, and nonprofit mobile sterilization programs registered with the state; the applicant must show verification of licensure from another state whose requirements substantially meet or exceed Georgia's, and once it expires it cannot be renewed — the holder must cease practice until fully licensed.

The second covers military spouses and transitioning service members: it runs up to six months or until the permanent license is issued, whichever comes first, and the Board may renew it once for a six-month period.

Converting to a permanent license still requires the national exam and the Georgia Law Exam, so this is a bridge, not a shortcut.

No dollar amount for any veterinarian fee appears in Georgia's rules, and that is by design rather than an omission: the fee rule lists veterinarian application fees, renewal fees and renewal-delinquency fees as set forth on the fee schedule adopted by the Board — a separate, non-codified document — while the NAVLE examination fee is set by the ICVA.

The figures a Georgia applicant actually pays therefore live on the Board's current fee schedule, not in the rules read for this page, so budget from the Board's published schedule rather than from this page.

Timing has a price, too: a renewal filed after December 31st of the renewal year must be accompanied by the delinquent fee plus the renewal fee.