Don’t be fooled by multiple CE deadlines for MLOs. No matter what the NMLS says, in certain states you must submit your CE based on earlier dates that are different from the NMLS’ deadlines. If you thought a deadline was a single date, not multiple dates, I admire your innocence. In fact, depending on the state, there are as many as four different deadlines for MLO CE, each with different implications. A simple, single deadline would be rather boring, since there wouldn’t be the thrill of confusion and uncertainty.
The ultimate deadline mandated by the NMLS is December 31st for completing your continuing education. However, submitting your CE near this date will result in a period of time where you will not be able to legally practice loan origination while your CE submission is processed. This is why the NMLS has an “At-Risk-to-Miss” deadline of December 15th, which means you may have a period of time during which you cannot legally originate loans while your CE submission is processed, but not necessarily. Additionally, there’s a SMART deadline of December 8th, which is the deadline for CE submissions that should not result in any period of time in January during which you will not be able to originate loans while your CE is processed.
This so far seems a bit complicated, but fairly straightforward. However, just to make things more exciting, certain states have their own different deadlines to guarantee that your CE submission will be processed before January 1st. For example, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Vermont, and Delaware have Dec. 1st deadlines.
Since there are so many deadlines with different implications, it’s very easy to miss these unintentionally. Getting your CE over with as early as possible will allow you to breezily originate loans without a care in the world, rather than having to stress about multiple dates with varying degrees of uncertainty. Here’s a link to our CE courses so you can get a head start: https://www.onlineed.com/catalog/mortgage
All states use the same deadlines as the NMLS that we’ve outlined above except for the following states, which have their own, different deadlines for CE submissions. These dates supersede the Dec. 31st deadline mandated by the NMLS. Note that South Carolina has two different dates depending on which bureau you are licensed under.
Deadlines for States That Do Not Use The NMLS’ Dec. 31st Deadline:
- Delaware: Dec. 1st
- District of Columbia: Nov. 1st
- Georgia: Oct 31st
- Idaho: Dec.1
- Iowa: Dec 1
- Kansas: Dec 1
- Kentucky: Nov. 30th
- Puerto Rico: Dec. 1
- South Carolina: Nov. 30th IF LICENSED BY DCA, Dec. 31st IF LICENSED BY BFI
- Utah: Dec. 15th
- Vermont: Dec. 1
- Washington: Dec 15th
- West Virginia: Nov 1st
