The Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System & Registry (NMLS) has announced a change in regard to the number of times a license applicant can retake a licensing exam before being required to sit out a 180-day waiting period.

Under current policy, applicants may who fail the national or state licensing exams, may take the test a total of 4 times before being forced to wait out a 180-day waiting period to try again.  Beginning with any enrollments to take tests on or after August 29th, the number of initial test before the waiting period will be reduced to three.

For the first 3 attempts to pass, the new Final Rule still allows applicants to retake an exam 30 days after failing.

Applicants who currently have two or more test failures on any component will be allowed to retake an exam a fourth time under current rules as long as that fourth enrollment window is opened by August 28th.  Essentially, they would need take (and fail) the test for the third time, and then go into NMLS and select and pay for the test component they wish to schedule, all by August 28th.