The Licence Itself · 8 min
Getting licensed: the paperwork
Why this matters
Nearly everyone who fails to get licensed in the year they intended fails on paperwork, not on the exam. The certificates take weeks to arrange, the physician's statement has a thirty-day shelf life, and the exam runs on fixed dates. Knowing the sequence is the difference between guiding this season and guiding next season.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- List the nine requirements of 6 NYCRR 197.3(a)
- State the fees in 197.5 and what each one buys
- Sequence the application so nothing expires before it is used
6 NYCRR 197.3(a) issues a five-year licence to a person who does all of the following.
- Submits a complete application on the department's form
- Submits proof of identity
- Submits proof of age
- Submits proof of residence
- Submits a twenty-five dollar nonrefundable application fee
- Submits a completed physician's statement of physical condition, signed and dated no more than thirty days before submission
- Submits proof of current certification in Standard First Aid, CPR and Basic Water Safety, American Red Cross or equivalent
- Passes the written examination
- Submits the remaining licence fee under 197.5
Residency in New York is not among them. You must prove a residence, not a New York one.
The three certificates
These are the long pole. Standard First Aid and CPR are widely available; Basic Water Safety, since renamed Community Water Safety, is not offered everywhere and often has to be booked well ahead. Whitewater guides may substitute department-approved whitewater guide training for Basic Water Safety, but must send the course description with the application.
197.7(c) is the part people forget: those certifications must be in effect and current whenever a licensed guide is guiding. Not just on the day you applied. If your CPR card lapses in July, you stop guiding in July.
The money
| Payment | Amount | When |
|---|---|---|
| Application fee, nonrefundable | $25 | With the application |
| Remaining fee, single activity | $75 | After passing, before issuance |
| Each additional activity | $20 | Same time |
| Maximum for all six activities | $200 | Ceiling set by 197.5(b)(3) |
| Renewal, single activity | $100 | Every five years |
| Renewal, each additional activity | $20 | Same time |
So a one-activity licence costs $100 all in, and the statutory ceiling in ECL 11-0533(5) is two hundred dollars, which is exactly where 197.5 lands the six-activity licence. Boats and canoes carries no additional fee.
The order that works
Book the first aid, CPR and water safety courses first, because they set your earliest possible date. Register for an exam sitting next. Get the physician's statement last, in the thirty days before you submit, or you will pay for a second one.
Renewal, which is not the same list
197.4 asks for four things: the renewal application, a physician's statement dated within thirty days, a current First Aid certificate, a current CPR certificate, and the fee. There is no re-examination, and Basic Water Safety is not on the renewal list, although 197.7(c) still requires every certification named in 197.3 to be current while you are guiding.
From the field
You pass the exam in June, having had your physician sign the statement in March so it would be ready. DEC returns the application. The statement had to be dated within thirty days of submission, and yours was ninety days old. You are now waiting on a second appointment while the season starts without you.
This lesson is part of the NYS Licensed Guide Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.