How to transfer your LCSW to New York: endorsement or the regular application

At a glance

Do you qualify for endorsement?

NYSED says endorsement is “often referred to as reciprocity”. Its requirements page: “Endorsement ... is available to an applicant for LCSW who was licensed as a clinical social worker in another jurisdiction and has at least 10 years of practice in the 15 years prior to application.” The regulation, 8 NYCRR 74.9, asks for evidence of:

• Age: at least 21
• A license in clinical social work from another state, country or territory
• A master’s degree in social work with clinical content that qualified you for the clinical license there
• Supervised experience in clinical social work and psychotherapy that qualified you for your first license there
• An exam acceptable to NYSED for clinical social work (NYSED’s page names the ASWB clinical social work examination)
• At least 10 years of experience in clinical social work “satisfactory to the State Board for Social Work, within the 15 years immediately preceding the application”
• New York’s child abuse identification and reporting coursework, or an exemption from it
• Good moral character, as NYSED determines
• An acceptable license and discipline status in every jurisdiction where you hold a professional license

How the years are counted

• The 15 years count back from your application: practice older than that doesn’t count toward the 10. NYSED doesn’t say which date it treats as the application date (when Form 1 is filed, or when the file is complete)
• Forms 4E and 4F and NYSED’s FAQ call it licensed experience: “at least 10 years of licensed experience in clinical social work, in the 15 year period prior to applying”. Your colleagues certify the dates of your licensed practice, setting by setting
• Each colleague attests that your work met New York’s definition of licensed clinical social work: diagnosis, assessment-based treatment plans and psychotherapy, among the rest. Form 4E asks for colleagues who know your experience in diagnosis, psychotherapy and assessment-based treatment plans
• Practice in more than one jurisdiction can be listed: NYSED’s FAQ speaks of practice “in the other jurisdiction(s)”
• NYSED doesn’t say whether part-time years count in full, or whether the years must run without a break; its checklist asks for “verification of at least 10 years of LCSW independent practice”. The State Board decides what is satisfactory. If your years are part time or broken up, ask NYSED; it may answer only once it has your application

Endorsement: what you send, and who sends it

NYSED: “Full documentation ... must be submitted directly to the Department by the appropriate entity, not by the applicant.” You ask each one, and “It is your responsibility to follow up with anyone you have asked to send us material.”

• You: Form 1, the Application for Licensure, online, with the $294 fee (paid by credit card online)
• Your school: Form 2, Certification of Professional Education, completed by the registrar and sent by email to DPLSEduc@nysed.gov or by mail. If your program wasn’t registered by NYSED as licensure-qualifying, the school also sends an official transcript, and Form 2’s Part B asks for “a syllabus on the course of studies completed” (NYSED’s checklist also asks for course syllabi or other documentation of substantial equivalence)
• Each licensing board: Form 3, Verification of Other Professional Licensure/Certification, from every jurisdiction where you hold or ever held a license in a profession New York licenses, not only social work. The board returns it directly. NYSED accepts electronic verifications from licensing authorities in the United States or Canada, and doesn’t need Form 3 where a U.S. board’s own verification gives the same information. “A Form 3 is not required for licenses/certificates issued by the New York State Education Department.”
• You: Form 4E, Endorsement Applicant Experience Record, listing each colleague who will verify your experience, the setting and the dates. Upload it at eservices.nysed.gov/professions/wf/document if you applied online, or email it to DPLSExperience@nysed.gov, or mail it to NYSED, Office of the Professions, Division of Professional Licensing Services, Social Work Unit, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234-1000
• Each colleague: Form 4F, Certification of Licensed Experience, one for each colleague on Form 4E. You complete and sign Section I; the colleague completes Section II, attaches a copy of their license if it isn’t a New York license, and sends it by email to DPLSExperience@nysed.gov or by mail. “This form will not be accepted if returned by the applicant.”
• ASWB: your Clinical exam score, by score transfer (below)
• You: proof of the child abuse training, the certificate your approved provider gives you, uploaded to NYSED (below)

Not eligible for endorsement? The regular application

NYSED: “An individual who does not meet the requirements for endorsement of a clinical social work license must apply for LCSW using the standard methods and meet all requirements for initial licensure in New York State.” That means New York’s own requirements, met with what you already have: NYSED reviews your degree, your supervised experience and your exam score.

• Education: an MSW NYSED accepts, and 12 semester hours of clinical coursework covering diagnosis and assessment, clinical treatment, and practice with general and special populations, from an acceptable graduate social work program. May be completed after the MSW. Continuing education does not count.
• Supervised experience: 2,000 client contact hours in diagnosis, psychotherapy and assessment-based treatment planning, with at least 100 hours of individual or group supervision (secure video allowed), over at least 36 months and within six years
• Experience in another jurisdiction counts only if it came after your master’s degree, in a setting authorized there to provide those services, under a supervisor NYSED accepts (8 NYCRR 74.3(b)). For each such setting, you and your supervisor “must provide appropriate documentation for the setting in that jurisdiction”
• You: Form 1 and the $294 fee; Form 4, the Applicant Experience Record, listing each supervisor and setting (eServices upload, email to DPLSExperience@nysed.gov, or mail)
• Your school: Form 2, as above. Each licensing board: Form 3, as above
• Each supervisor: Form 4B, Certification of Experience, sent directly to NYSED by email or mail, with your client contact and supervision hours. It is never accepted from you
• For experience completed outside New York: Form 4Q from that supervisor as well (see Common snags)
• ASWB: your Clinical score, by score transfer

NYSED Form 4B, explained

Your ASWB Clinical exam

NYSED: “Applicants who have passed the ASWB examination for licensure in another jurisdiction must have ASWB submit the score directly to the Department. We will not accept examination scores from third-parties, including the candidate or other jurisdictions.” For endorsement, NYSED asks for “verification of clinical examination score from ASWB”.

You request the transfer from ASWB: in your ASWBCentral account, under Exam Registration, choose the passed exam and Purchase Score Transfer. ASWB charges a fee for each transfer, and says to apply to the new board first. ASWB: “Your exam result is valid in any state or province that uses that licensing exam.”

If your first license rested on another exam rather than the ASWB Clinical, ask NYSED: the regulation asks for “an examination acceptable to the department”, while NYSED’s page names the ASWB clinical exam.

Child abuse training

Both routes need coursework or training in the identification and reporting of child abuse “offered by a New York State approved provider”, in the words of NYSED’s requirements page; for endorsement, 8 NYCRR 74.9 asks for the coursework or the exemption. NYSED’s exemption covers graduates of New York State registered social work programs (on or after September 1, 2004), so with a degree from elsewhere, plan to take it.

The approved provider gives you the Certification of Completion; you upload it at eservices.nysed.gov/professions/addl-doc. NYSED says mandated reporters must complete the updated curriculum by November 17, 2026, and approved providers began offering it on September 1, 2025. NYSED may exempt someone whose practice involves no professional contact with people under 18 (or with certain adults in residential care schools or facilities), on its Certification of Exemption form.

Can I work in New York before my license is issued?

• Not as a clinical social worker. NYSED’s FAQ: “Licensure in another jurisdiction does not authorize you to practice in New York whether services are provided in-person, by telephone, over the Internet, or any other format.” That includes seeing New York clients by video from another state
• You may practice from the effective date of your New York license. Your name and license number appear in NYSED’s online license verification once it is issued; the parchment and registration certificate follow by mail
• If you don’t meet the LCSW’s requirements, NYSED says to apply for the LMSW “in order to practice under supervision in New York while meeting the requirements for licensure as an LCSW”. There is no endorsement for the LMSW: NYSED’s FAQ says an LMSW applicant meets the LMSW’s own requirements, including the ASWB Masters exam
• The LCSW limited permit is for someone who has met every requirement except the exam, for a specific setting (a Form 5 for each setting), under an LCSW. NYSED’s checklist lists Forms 4E and 4F among the documents for the permit, but its pages describe the permit as for someone waiting to pass the exam. If you have already passed it, ask NYSED; it may answer only once it has your application
• ASWB says the Social Work Licensure Compact’s multistate licenses are not available yet, and NYSED’s LCSW pages don’t mention the Compact

License and registration

A New York license is “valid for life unless it is revoked, annulled, or suspended by the Board of Regents”. To practice, it must also be registered. You are registered for the first period automatically when the license is issued (the $294 covers licensure and first registration), and after that, NYSED says, “you must reregister every three years”.

An LMSW and an LCSW are separate New York licenses with separate registrations (NYSED’s FAQ). Your other state’s license doesn’t let you practice here.

New York continuing education for the LMSW, LCSW, LMHC and LMFT

Common snags

• A supervisor outside New York (regular route): NYSED reviews that supervisor’s qualifications. The supervisor sends Form 4Q, Approval of Qualifications to Supervise Psychotherapy, with a copy of their license and their curriculum vitae, by email to DPLSExperience@nysed.gov or by mail. Form 4Q isn’t needed from a supervisor who held a New York LCSW, psychologist or physician license while supervising you (Form 4Q: “during the time you supervised the applicant”)
• A supervisor who has died or isn’t available (regular route): “the verification may be submitted by a licensed colleague who attests to the name and qualifications of the supervisor, the dates of supervised experience, client contact hours and supervision hours” (8 NYCRR 74.3(e)). NYSED’s forms page says that for a deceased supervisor, Form 4B may be completed by an LCSW
• Who can be your Form 4F colleague: NYSED says “licensed colleague(s)”, and the form asks the colleague’s professional title and jurisdiction without naming a profession. If your colleague isn’t a clinical social worker, ask NYSED; it may answer only once it has your application
• An employer that has closed: NYSED’s pages don’t address it. Ask NYSED what it needs for that setting; it may answer only once it has your application
• A license in another profession: Form 3 covers every license or certificate you hold or held in a profession New York licenses, from each jurisdiction. “A Form 3 is not required for licenses/certificates issued by the New York State Education Department.”
• Sending documents yourself: transcripts, Forms 2, 3, 4B, 4F and 4Q, and exam scores aren’t accepted from you. Ask early, keep a record of each request, and follow up

Ask NYSED

• Licensure information: the Social Work Unit, opunit5@nysed.gov, 518-474-3817 ext. 592 (NYSED’s requirements page and checklist)
• Whether you qualify: NYSED decides when it reviews your full application. Its FAQ: “The Department cannot determine whether or not applicants have the necessary qualifications for licensure over the phone or through e-mail.” Questions about your own application go through NYSED’s Contact Us form
• Status: “After you have submitted all your documentation, please allow 6 weeks before submitting a Contact Us Form to request a status update.” NYSED publishes no processing time
• Practice questions and continuing education: the State Board for Social Work, swbd@nysed.gov
• The DPLSEduc, DPLSVerif and DPLSExperience addresses take documents only: NYSED says not to send questions there