Licensed Massage Therapist International Licensure Applicant Requirements

The Board of Nursing requires an independent credential review by a Board approved agency to evaluate and verify that credentials earned from an international massage therapy education program is comparable or equivalent to those Board approved  massage therapy education programs required for licensure as a Massage Therapist in the U.S. Refer to the tables below for details.

Additionally, internationally educated licensure applicants whose pre-licensure massage therapy education program was not taught in English or English is not the applicant’s native language, are required to pass a Board approved English Language Proficiency (ELP) Exam. An ELP exam must include the components of reading, speaking, writing, and listening. See Virginia Code §54.1-3029 for requirements and the tables below for additional details.

Board accepts the following ELP Exams & Scores:

1. TOEFL Overall Score: 83; Speaking: 26
2. IELTS Academic Overall Score: 6.5; Speaking: 7.0
3. TOEIC Overall Score (Listening/reading): 725; Speaking 160; Writing 150
4. MET: Overall Score: 55; Speaking: 55
5. OET: Reading, Listening, Writing: 300; Speaking: 350 (note there is no overall score for OET)

Massage Therapists require an independent credential review. Click on the references for more information:

The table below contains information required for massage therapy licensure applications submitted to the Board of Nursing. Please refer to the applicable Application Instructions for more information on how to submit the required information to the Board.

List of VBON Approved Credential Evaluation Entities & English Language Proficiency (ELP) Exams

Note: Applicants are English Exempt if they were educated in Australia, Barbados, Canada (except Quebec), Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, South Africa, Trinidad/Tobago, United Kingdom, United States (except Puerto Rico).