You apply to FSRA to transfer the licence, the new brokerage authorises it, and your former principal broker reports the termination. It is administrative, and your licence stays yours.
In Ontario your mortgage agent or broker licence belongs to you, not to the brokerage. Moving it is an administrative change filed with the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario rather than a new licence application, so you do not requalify and you do not resit anything.
Three parties touch the file. You submit the transfer request to FSRA through the licensing portal. The new brokerage authorises the transfer, which is why the paperwork usually runs through their licensing administrator rather than through you. And your former principal broker reports the termination to FSRA, which is their obligation, not yours, although it is worth confirming they have done it.
What actually decides how smoothly it goes is not FSRA, it is the sequence around it. Read your current agreement for the notice period and any clause covering files in progress, client data or non solicitation. Map every live file by stage and agree with both brokerages which ones close where. And start lender registrations under the new brokerage in parallel with the transfer, because lender access does not travel with the licence and a broker who is licensed but not registered cannot submit.
Check the current fee and processing time with FSRA directly, since both change. The mechanics guide sets out the full order for all three provinces.
A transfer here is planned around your pipeline, not ours. We map every live file with you, run the licence transfer and the lender registrations in parallel, and line up the first hard file for the Deal Desk so your first week is a funded file rather than a form. Clients you originate are yours, including the renewal and the referral, and that is written down.
The full sequence, province by province.
Transfer your mortgage licence to a new brokerageThe eight reasons mortgage brokers switch brokerages, what each one costs, and the questions that tell you whether the next brokerage has fixed it.
Six things that decide whether a new mortgage agent funds files in year one: training, a mentor, lender status, underwriting support and a 90 day plan.
Ten brand names, three parent companies. Who owns what in Canada's mortgage brokerage networks and how that changes the way you read a recruiting pitch.
Bring your questions to a discovery call and a broker owner will answer them directly.