New Hampshire Veterans Licensing Acceleration Program

RSA 110-B:91, added by 2024 chapter 240 effective July 1, 2024, creates the veterans licensing acceleration program, or VLAP. It is a navigation and determination programme rather than a waiver, and understanding that distinction is the point of this entry. What it is not: it does not itself grant a licence, waive an examination or shorten a statutory training period. A veteran reading "acceleration" should not expect to skip requirements. What it is: paragraph II establishes the programme "to provide accelerated licensing and certification processes for veterans seeking to enter licensed occupational professions overseen by boards organized under the OPLC", the office of professional licensure and certification. Paragraph III puts administration in the department of military affairs and veterans services in consultation with the OPLC, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the relevant licensing boards, relevant educational institutions, state and national veterans service organisations and relevant professional organisations, and requires the department to "designate a VLAP administrator within its office." A named person whose job is this is the practical benefit. The administrator's duties, in paragraph IV, are: To provide veterans with comprehensive resources and support in navigating the licensing process, including educational materials and access to mentors or subject matter experts. To collaborate with the federal Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies to provide employment counselling and assistance to participating veterans. To conduct an annual assessment of the programme's impact on licensure and employment outcomes of participating veterans. To submit an annual report to the house and senate committees with jurisdiction over veterans affairs detailing activities, participant outcomes and recommendations. And the substantive one: "Assist the OPLC in determining what military experience or training satisfies licensure requirements under RSA 310:16." That last duty is where the value sits. RSA 310:16 is the general provision under which the OPLC recognises training and experience toward a licence. The definitions in paragraph I are drafted to support it: "license" is defined to include "licenses, certifications or registrations required to practice a regulated occupation, or commensurate training and experience in a military occupational specialty as determined by the OPLC". So a military occupational specialty can itself be the thing that satisfies the requirement, and the determination of whether it does is made by the OPLC with the VLAP administrator's help. The remaining definitions are workmanlike but two are worth noting. "Board" means a regulatory body with jurisdiction over professions within the OPLC under RSA 310, so a profession regulated outside the OPLC is outside the section. And "written confirmation" is defined as "confirmation by any writing, including email or text message", which is a small modernisation that matters when a veteran needs proof of what a board told them. "Scope of practice" is defined as the procedures, actions, processes and work a person may perform under an occupational license issued in this state, which is the frame for comparing a military role to a civilian licence. Practical approach: contact the department of military affairs and veterans services and ask for the VLAP administrator by that title, bring the military occupational specialty code and the training records rather than only the DD214, and ask for the RSA 310:16 determination in writing. A separate provision helps a military spouse rather than a veteran, and is often confused with this one. New Hampshire participates in licensure compacts and the OPLC has its own reciprocity mechanisms, but RSA 110-B:91 is drawn to veterans seeking to enter licensed professions and says nothing about spouses. For a service member or spouse arriving on military orders, federal law now does more than either. 50 U.S.C. 4025a, added to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act in January 2023 and widened by section 587 of Public Law 118-159, requires the state to treat a covered professional licence from another jurisdiction as valid in New Hampshire, for the same scope of practice, when the holder moves here because of military orders. The holder must have actively used the licence in the two years before the move, be in good standing with no disciplinary action, submit it to the New Hampshire board, and follow the state's standards of practice and discipline. The rule does not cover a licence issued through an interstate compact, which follows the compact's own terms, and it does not cover the practice of law. It is a right that applies without any state statute or board rule adopting it, and it is the first thing to cite to an OPLC board that treats a military spouse as an ordinary out-of-state applicant.