The Department can deny a license for any cause listed in Arizona Revised Statutes ("ARS") § 20-295. You should review this statute before deciding to spend the time, effort and money (fees are nonrefundable) to apply for a license. If you apply for a license, you must truthfully and completely answer questions asked on the application, and you may need to provide additional documentation.

You must be at least 18 years old.

You generally must pass an Arizona insurance examination for the license authority you want to have if either:

• Your primary residence or principal place of business is in Arizona; or, 
• You relocate from a state where you did not hold the license that you want to have in Arizona (perhaps because the state did not issue that type of license).

However, you do not need to pass an Arizona insurance exam if: 

• You are only applying for a limited-line credit insurance producer authority.
• You are only adding variable life and variable annuity insurance producer authority to an existing insurance producer license for which you hold life insurance producer authority (but you must be licensed by the financial industry regulatory authority as a principal or a registered representative).
• You are only applying for authority as a health insurance navigator or certified application counselor (but you must provide evidence of having required federal certification).
• You are licensed in good standing in your home state for the license you want to have (as a nonresident) in Arizona.
• You are relocating to Arizona from a state where you have a resident license in good standing, and you want to hold the same license in Arizona, and Arizona offers that same resident license authority, and we receive your license application within 90 days after you cancel your license in your former home state, and you submit a clearance letter from that former home state.

IMPORTANT! Arizona law limits you to four attempts to pass an exam for a particular line of authority within a one-year period. After a fourth unsuccessful attempt, you will have to wait one year from the date of the last attempt to retake the exam. Arizona law treats failing an examination that covers more than one line of license authority the same as failing the examination for each individual line of license authority. ARS §20-284(H).

Insurance license examinations are administered by Prometric.  Prometric's Internet web sites contain license candidate publications that describe Arizona insurance licensing requirements and that outline material covered on each of the examinations. The outlines show the percentage of the examination that will deal with particular topic areas.  Neither Prometric nor the Department of Insurance publish study materials. However, the Department has available a document available on this web page that lists some resources that you may want to use to help you to prepare for your exam. 

Schedule to take your examination at any Prometric test center throughout the U.S. in which insurance examinations are offered:
live-prometric.pantheonsite.io/arizona/insurance

After you complete your exam, you will first see your exam score on the computer screen. Before you leave the test center, the test center staff will give you a printed score report showing your overall score and whether you passed or failed.  If you apply for your license on paper (rather than online), submit your score report with your license application. Keep a copy for your records. If you failed, you must retake the entire exam. You cannot just retake the sections of the exam on which you scored poorly. Focus your studies on the sections of the exam with the most questions and sections on which you performed poorly.

IMPORTANT! Once you pass an exam, you must apply for the corresponding license within one year.  ARS §20-284(A).

Pursuant to ARS §§ 20-142(E) and 41-1750(G)(2), you must submit fingerprints to the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions if any of the following apply:

• You are an Arizona resident and do not already hold an Arizona insurance license for which you needed to furnish fingerprints
• You are relocating to Arizona from another state
• You are a resident of a state that does not issue the type of license you want to have in Arizona

If you are required to submit fingerprints:

Individual License application process  

Your fingerprints and Your Rights to Your Criminal History Record
Fingerprints that you provide in conjunction with a license application will be submitted to and checked against Arizona and FBI criminal history databases.  You have the right to review, and will have up to 60 days, to challenge your own criminal history records to correct or complete the record (or decline to do so) before your license is officially denied based on information in the criminal history record.

Privacy Act Statement

• Arizona Criminal History Record: To obtain a copy of your Arizona criminal history record in order to review/update/correct the record, you can contact the Arizona Department of Public Safety (ADPS) Criminal History Records Unit at (602) 223-2222. Information concerning the review and challenge process is available on the ADPS website at https://www.azdps.gov/services/public/records/criminal.
   
• Federal Identity History Summary Checks: The procedures for changing, correcting or updating your FBI criminal history record are set forth in Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 28, Chapter I, Part 16, Subpart C (§§ 16.30 through 16.34). Information on how to review and challenge an FBI criminal history record is available from the FBI website at https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/challenge-brochure.pdf/view.

An Arizona resident that does not already hold an Arizona insurance license (or an individual who has not already submitted evidence pursuant to obtaining an Arizona insurance license) must submit Form L-152 (ARS § 41-1080) with one of the required forms of identification.  This form is not necessary if your fingerprints were submitted to the department electronically. 

• You can pay with a credit card if you submit your application online through the National Insurance Producer Registry.
• You can pay by debit/credit card, check or money order, made payable to "Insurance Licensing Section" if you deliver your payment with your license application and other required materials to the Department of Insurance Licensing Section.
• You can pay by check or money order, made payable to "Insurance Licensing Section" if you mail your payment with your license application and other required materials to the Department of Insurance Licensing Section.

Submit your license application: You can either apply online through the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) or you can submit a paper application (NAIC uniform license application for an Individual).  NIPR online applications are generally processed more quickly than applications submitted on paper. 

We will review your application and you will receive one of the following:

• A notice telling you that your application was approved.  Use License Search to view your license on our web site to ensure that your license information appears correctly.  Use the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) to correct or update information.
• A notice telling you that your renewal application was denied.  The notice will tell you the reason for the denial and will provide you with instructions concerning your right to appeal the decision.
• A notice telling you that your renewal application was deficient.  This notice will be emailed to you.  You must provide the Department with any additional materials identified in the deficiency notice or accompanying instructions.  You must cure all identified deficiencies or we may deny your license and you will forfeit the fees you paid.

NOTE:  We do not produce paper license certificates.  Licenses are accessible online through the LICENSE SEARCH option on our web site's main menu.

Your license will be available from the License Search option on this web site as soon as the Arizona Department of Insurance verifies you meet all license requirements.  You will not receive a printed license certificate. 

License applications can take up to one month to process.  You must not conduct insurance business until you are licensed.