Businesses seeking consent to practice a licensed profession in New York may experience longer than usual wait times for approval from NYSED Office of the Professions.
Organizations planning to engage in the practice of any of the more than 50 licensed professions in New York are first required to obtain consent from the New York State Department of Education’s (NYSED) Office of the Professions.
This office consents by issuing a Certificate of Authority that must be attached to the Certificate of Incorporation or similar document used to form a domestic entity or register a foreign professional entity with the New York Department of State.
Plan Ahead for Significant Delays
As of May 2019, the turnaround time for consent responses is 15-18 weeks. There is no expedited service available. The NYSED Office of the Professions processes consent requests in the order they were received.
Note that this estimated 15-18 week waiting time assumes best case scenario. If the office determines that the original submission does not meet their criteria, and subsequently refuses to issue consent, the corrected resubmission goes back to the end of the line. This means another four months or so could pass again before consent is issued.
Temporary Situation During System Upgrades
These long timeframes are expected to be a temporary condition as the office switches to a more automated system for processing consent requests. Office of the Professions staff have indicated that once training on the new computer system is completed, these wait times should shrink dramatically.
If you are a professional – or part of a group of professionals – seeking to offer licensed services in New York, understand that it will take quite some time to accomplish this prerequisite step of obtaining consent. While the NYSED Office of the Professions is taking steps to minimize these delays, your best approach is understanding the department’s specific requirements in order to avoid rejection of your documents.
Additional resources on consent processes in New York:
- NYS Consent for Professional Corporations and LLCs
- NYS Consent for Insurance/Education Filings and Certain Corporate Filings
This article is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered, or relied upon, as legal advice.
