Annual Practising Certificates (APC)
You must hold a current annual practising certificate (APC) to practise as a medical radiation technology practitioner in Aotearoa New Zealand.
You'll be granted an APC if the Board is satisfied that you meet the criteria set out in section 27 of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 (HPCA/the Act).
Holding a current APC means you:
- are fit to practise
- have maintained the standard of competence required for your scope of practice
- have held an APC within the three-years immediately before your application
- have lawfully practised in your profession within the three-years immediately before the application
- have complied with any conditions included on your scope of practice
- have completed the requirements of any competence programme that we, the Board, may have directed you to undertake
- Do not have a health condition that adversely affects your ability to practise.
It's an offence to practise without an APC. If you do so, you may be:
- prosecuted by the Ministry of Health and liable to a fine of up to $10,000, and
- liable to disciplinary proceedings before the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, and cancellation of your registration.
For new graduates from a New Zealand accredited programme, you're “deemed” to be competent if applying for your first APC within a year of graduation.
APC cycle
The practising year runs from 1 April to 31 March of the following year. An APC may be issued for a part of the relevant twelve-month period. APCs must be renewed before 1 April each year. If you haven’t renewed your APC by 1 April, you must cease practise until you have a current APC.
How do I apply for an APC?
You can apply for an APC through your portal (on the Board website) – follow this step by step guide on How to apply for an APC):
You can track the status of your application on the ‘My submitted applications’ tab of your online portal.
APC fees paid using bulk funding
Practitioners can pay their fees individually or may have an agreement where their fees are paid for them by their employer. Where an employer has agreed to pay their employee's APC fee, the employer may choose to pay in a way that is referred to as ‘bulk funding’ - that is where they pay for several employee APC fees all at once. But the practitioner must apply for their APC first to get an SO number, which they need to pass onto their employer).
View the process for doing so here.
Demographic data
The Board is required by the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 (HPCA/the Act) (s123) to share practitioner information with the Ministry of Health for workforce and planning purposes. When you renew your APC you'll be asked for details about the work you're doing, how many hours you're practising, as well as other demographic information.
For further information, please see the Board’s practitioner privacy statement below.
I’ve applied for my APC. What’s next?
If your APC application is approved and your APC is issued, you can access your APC through your online portal. Go to the ‘My Information’ tab and find ‘Registration and Practising Information’.
If you've applied and paid for your APC, but haven’t received it, this could be because the Board:
- Is waiting for your nominated supervisor to confirm their role
- Ask your supervisor to check if they have received an email from the Board or check the ‘Supervision’ tab of their portal
- Needs to review your declarations
- Has requested further information from you
- Check if you've received an email from the Board or check the ‘more information requests’ on the home page of your portal
- Requires further assessment of your application
- Check the Ceasing or returning to practise page on our website for more information.
Annual Practising Certificate FAQs
You must hold a current APC to practise as a medical imaging or radiation therapy practitioner in Aotearoa New Zealand. Being registered as a practitioner and holding a current APC are two different things.
Being registered means you’ve applied for registration, the Board has assessed that you meet the requirements for registration, that you hold a suitable qualification and have met the fitness for registration requirements. Registration is something that you only do once.
Whereas you must renew your APC every year. For details about what it means to hold a current APC view details on this page of the website.
All registered practitioners must renew their Annual Practising Certificate (APC) every year – that’s how long an APC is valid for. The renewal period runs for about six weeks. This year it started on 14 February and will finish on 31 March 2025. However, as the Finance team need a few days to process payments (which is required to issue the APC) we recommend you apply and pay for your APC by 20 March to make sure you receive your APC by 31 March.
Assuming you meet the criteria, and there's no further information required, you'll likely receive your APC within two to five working days.
During the APC renewal period staff will process nearly 10,000 applications – it’s a very busy time, so please be patient. If you have any queries, we recommend you check the website details first (including the FAQs) before emailing (it's the best way to get in touch at this time).
Practitioners can pay their fees individually (then request a reimbursement from their employer if that arrangement has been agreed).
Where an employer has several practitioner employees, and they’ve arranged to pay their APC fees, they can choose to pay the fees using the ‘bulk funding’ method - this means practitioners wouldn’t have to pay the fees first and then request a reimbursement from their employer. But employees still have to apply for their APC first in order to get an SO number (and pass that on to their employer).
Firstly, seek confirmation from your employer that they will pay the Board directly for your APC. Then apply for your APC to get an SO number (which you need to give to their employer).
Note: in addition to giving your employer an SO number you'll also need to confirm your name, registration number and the amount to be paid/the APC fee. Regardless of the method used, if you wish to have an APC by 1 April you must have paid before 26 March 2024, and your employer must pay (using the bulk funding method) before 20 March 2024. That allows time for us to process the payment and issue the APC.
You must talk with your employer, and they will advise you. If no one pays for your practising certificate, then it will not be issued.
If you don’t hold a current APC, you are not legally able to work. So, make sure you allow enough time to apply and receive your APC. If you miss the deadline, get in touch immediately by emailing mrt@medsci.co.nz or phone +64 4 801 6250.
Our finance system is not currently set up to send an invoice to anyone but the person for whom it was created, ie the practitioner applying for their APC. And our system isn’t set up to issue employers with an invoice that’s been generated by a practitioner applying for their APC.
Here’s how the set-up works:
- a practitioner goes into the portal and applies for their Annual Practising Certificate (APC)
- this creates an SO number (Sales Order) – the practitioner then pays their APC fee
- our finance system then gets a prompt to create an invoice (for system use only) - the practitioner will be sent a ‘remittance’ once payment has been received.
However, if the practitioner doesn’t pay their APC fee (because they have an arrangement where their employer has agreed to pay it on their behalf as part of a ‘bulk funding’ arrangement, then the practitioner needs to provide the following information to their employer:
- name, registration number (in case there are two people with the same name), an SO number and the amount/APC fee.
The employer then emails us at accounts@medci.co.nz with the following details:
- a list of all employee names, their practitioner numbers, SO numbers and APC fee amounts (including the total amount being paid)
- and pays the total amount into our bank account.
Note: employers don’t have to write anything specific in the online banking transaction for our benefit (we’ll be able to line the payment up with the email details they have emailed to us).
Yes, but you must apply AND pay for your APC before 8 April if you don’t want to incur an additional administration fee.
You’ll still be on the register but your previous APC will have expired – this means you’re not able to work legally. It is an offence to practise without a current APC. If you have any queries or concerns about this please get in touch as soon as possible.
Send an email to failed.login@medsci.co.nz if you’re having trouble using the password reset function on the website.
If you’ve completed the application and your fee has been paid, and you’re currently under supervision, check with your supervisor to see whether they’ve confirmed your ‘ongoing competence’. This is required before we can issue your APC.
If you’re a supervisor we recommend you regularly check your online profile and confirm the ongoing competence of the people under your supervision.
You don’t need to renew your APC until you are ready to return to work. Please contact the Board by email - let us know when you stopped practising and why, and we’ll update this on your file. You should get in touch with us three-to-four weeks before you plan on returning to work so we can help you to renew your APC.
Yes, all practising certificates expire on 31 March each year. You will need to make sure you renew your APC to cover you for the 2025/26 period by 31 March 2025.
Practising before 1 April without a 2024/25 APC is illegal. You will need to apply for and hold a 2024/25 APC if you will be practising before 1 April. Once this has been issued, you will then need to apply to renew your APC for 2025/26.
For details about the Board fees to information on the website under the Resources page, Secondary legislation ǀ Gazette notices / Fees payable to MRTB from 12 February 2024 see also the Corrigendum-fees payable to MRTB from 12 February 2024
If you haven’t held a 2024/25 APC, you won’t be able to apply for a 2025/26 APC until 1 April. You will need to wait until you have received your APC to begin any clinical work.
APC applications are all handled by our staff and are not issued automatically. There are a few reasons your APC might not be issued right away. Please consider the following before contacting us for an update on your application as we will be very busy during the renewal period:
- You paid by bank transfer; this can take time to show up in our account and be allocated to your application by our finance team.
- You made a declaration on your APC that needs to be reviewed. These are all handled on a case-by-case basis, and some can take longer to resolve. Sometimes we may need to contact you for more information.
- We’re waiting for your supervisor to confirm your ongoing competence.
- If you recently graduated, we may be waiting for you to provide a certified copy of your qualification certificate.
- If you hold an APC in a trainee scope, we may be waiting for evidence that you are still enrolled in your studies. If you are studying at the University of Auckland, we will receive a list of current students before the renewal period closes, so you don’t need to do anything. If you are studying somewhere else, you will need to send us evidence of your enrolment via email.
Once your payment has been confirmed by our accounts team you'll find a copy of your receipt on your online profile.