The Temporary Authorization to Practice is the least discussed part of PSYPACT® and the most useful part for a specific group of psychologists: the ones whose work is in-person, episodic, and out of state.
Forensic evaluators. Neuropsychologists administering batteries that cannot defensibly be done by video. Consultants engaged on site. For them the APIT® is beside the point, because their problem was never telepsychology.
What TAP gives you
TAP®, built on an ASPPB Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate, authorizes in-person, face-to-face psychology in a participating state where you are not licensed, for up to 30 calendar days per calendar year, per jurisdiction.
Third-party fees run about $240 initially and about $90 a year — materially cheaper than the telepsychology route, and vastly cheaper than licensing in every state you might be deposed in.
How to count the days
Three details in that sentence do the damage.
Calendar days, not working days. A four-day trip is four days, weekend included if you are there under the authority. Travel days on which you conduct no professional activity are the arguable case, and "arguable" is not where you want to be — document conservatively.
Per jurisdiction, not in total. This is the generous part. A forensic psychologist working five participating states has 150 days of capacity, not 30. What they do not have is 40 days in any one of them.
Per calendar year. Resets 1 January, not on your authorization anniversary. A matter spanning December and January draws on two separate allowances, which occasionally works in your favour and occasionally means a trial that started in November runs out of days in the same state in March.
Where the cap actually bites
For most episodic work, 30 days is comfortable. A typical independent evaluation — records review off site, one or two days of in-person assessment, report written at home — consumes two or three days of the allowance. Ten such matters in a state still leaves headroom.
Two patterns break it.
Protracted litigation. A single complex matter with multiple assessment sessions, a deposition, and trial testimony spread across months can consume the whole year's allowance in one state. And you will not know at the outset that it is going to.
A recurring institutional engagement. Monthly on-site work for an employer or facility in another state is 12+ days a year before anything else, and it is not really temporary — which is the deeper problem. TAP® is explicitly for temporary practice, and using it to sustain what is functionally an ongoing arrangement is the kind of thing that gets examined unfavourably if a complaint arises. If the engagement is permanent, license there.
Practical management
Track days per state, in writing, contemporaneously. Not from memory at year end. A simple log with dates, state, and matter reference is enough, and it is the only thing that will help you if you are ever asked.
Ask about scope before accepting out-of-state matters. "How many in-person days do you anticipate?" is a reasonable intake question and it lets you decline a matter that would blow the cap rather than abandoning it midway — which is a far worse outcome for the client and the court.
Reserve headroom in states you work often. If you routinely take matters in a particular state, do not spend the allowance in the first quarter. Trial dates move, and they move later.
Know when to just get licensed. If you are consistently near the cap in a state, a license there is the answer. It removes the counting problem entirely, authorizes unlimited in-person practice, and stops a scheduling change from becoming a regulatory question.
Two things TAP does not do
It does not cover telepsychology — that is the APIT®, a separate credential with a separate fee. Many evaluators hold both, and there is no conflict in doing so.
It does not reach non-participating states. A forensic psychologist retained in California, New York, or Oregon needs that state's license or must work within whatever narrow temporary-practice provision the state itself offers. Note that California tightened its own allowance effective 1 January 2026, from 30 non-consecutive days to 30 consecutive days — which for episodic evaluation work is a real narrowing, not an expansion.
The renewal dependency
As with the telepsychology route, TAP® sits on top of an ASPPB credential and cannot outlive it. If the Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate lapses, ASPPB notifies the Commission and the TAP® suspends — on that date, with no grace period.
For an evaluator, the exposure profile is distinctive: your work is frequently reviewed adversarially by opposing counsel, and authorization status is a matter of public record through the Commission's verification system. A lapse is not merely a regulatory risk. It is a cross-examination waiting to happen.
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