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Troubleshooting Ecclesiastical Endorsements for Students

Troubleshooting Ecclesiastical Endorsements for Students

  • Students who have allowed their endorsement to expire will need to complete an additional interview with a member of their stake presidency. This includes students who requested an endorsement prior to the expiration date, but the Bishop did not click the “Endorse” button in their endorsement portal.

    Students who have allowed their endorsement to expire will not be removed from any current classes or future classes for which they have already registered. However, they will not be able to register for new classes, add classes from a waitlist, or graduate.

  • If you are planning to graduate soon, please be aware that you must have an active endorsement on the day of graduation for the semester/term you are graduating for your degree to post. If your endorsement is going to expire prior to this day, then you must renew your endorsement.

  • Please visit endorse.byu.edu. Once submitted, the endorsement request will automatically appear in your Bishop or Mission President’s queue. After submitting the request, schedule an interview with your ecclesiastical leader to complete the endorsement.

    Students who are seeking an endorsement for the first time or that have allowed their previous endorsement to expire will need an additional interview with a member of their stake presidency. For students currently serving a mission, the Mission President interview counts for both interviews.

    Once the ecclesiastical endorsement has been completed, please allow 24 hours for this to be reflected in MyMap.

  • No. An endorsement to attend BYU also fulfills the endorsement requirement to attend any of the other CES institutions (BYU-I, BYU-H, Ensign College, and BYU-Pathway). If you are transferring to another CES school or applying to a new BYU program (BYU Undergraduate, ELC, Graduate Studies, study abroad, Jerusalem Center, etc.), you only need to maintain this current endorsement; you do not need to obtain a second one for that specific school/program.

  • Ecclesiastical Endorsements are completed as part of a Bishop’s Priesthood Keys. Thus, a student may seek an endorsement only by the Bishop where they live AND where their Church records reside. If a student moves wards after a request is made, but before it is completed, the ecclesiastical endorsement will follow them to their new ward. Once a student's records are in the new ward, the endorsement will automatically follow within about 48 hours.

    The Bishop can also call the Church’s Ecclesiastical Clearance Office directly. If the leader does not have the ECO’s phone number, they can call the HCO to get it. The ECO is an office at the Church that is staffed to support Ecclesiastical Leaders. They have asked that the HCO not share this information with someone who is not a Bishop, Mission President, or in a Stake Presidency.

  • The Church’s endorsement system and BYU’s MyMap system sync a few times throughout the day. Please allow up to 24 hours for the systems to sync. After 24 hours, if your endorsement isn’t showing as complete in MyMap, please do the following: 

  • This means that when you submitted the request it went to a bishop who marked that you do not currently live in their ward. Please complete the following steps to resolve this issue:

    1. Contact your ward clerk to have your records moved into the ward where you currently live.

    2. Once your records are in your new ward, please email us your current address, ward name, and bishop's full name.

    3. If all information is accurate, we will email the church asking them to transfer your request to your new bishop.

    Please be sure to follow the steps in order, to avoid an error occurring.

  • Mission deferment holds automatically come off 6 months prior to the semester the student said they were going to return on their mission deferment application. If you are returning to BYU earlier than you originally communicated when you placed your mission deferment the hold will not fall off automatically, and you will need to call the Admissions Office at 801.422.4104.

    Another issue that returning missionaries often experience is that they have selected the incorrect endorsement type. Check to see what kind of endorsement you submitted, whether as an applicant or continuing student. You can visit endorse.byu.edu to find this out.

    Anytime a student is placed on mission deferment and comes back, that student needs an applicant-level endorsement, which includes an interview with their stake president or mission president. At endorse.byu.edu, you need to select the second option “BYU student on mission deferment”.

    If you selected any of the other options, there is no way to switch it; you will just need to start a new endorsement request.

  • Go to endorse.byu.edu to confirm that you have submitted a request. Once you have confirmed that you have submitted a request, please call the HCO, so that the HCO can notify the Church to move the endorsement to the appropriate Bishop’s queue or assist the leader in completing the endorsement.

    The Bishop can also call the Church’s Ecclesiastical Clearance Office (ECO) directly. If the leader does not have the ECO’s phone number, they can call the HCO to get it. The ECO is an office at the Church that is staffed to support Ecclesiastical Leaders. They have asked that the HCO not share this information with someone who is not a Bishop, Mission President, or in a Stake Presidency.

    1. Please create a Church account (for detailed instructions on how to do this, please click here.) and then connect your church account to your BYU account by visiting https://myaccount.byu.edu/linked-accounts
    2. Once completed, please call the Honor Code Office to complete one additional step. 801.422.2847

  • Please follow the below steps to troubleshoot.

    1. Ensure that you have connected the correct Church account to your BYU account. Visit myaccount.byu.edu. At the top of the navigation, click on “Linked Accounts”. Does your church account show? Is it the same account you use in the LDS Tools app?

    • If no account is linked, click on the green button that says, “Add a Linked Account.” Follow the steps as they appear.
    • If the incorrect account is linked, click “Unlink” next to the incorrect account, and then click “Add a Linked Account” to add the correct account.

    2. Another issue might be related to your birthdate. Check that your birthday is correct on your BYU account and church account. If the birthdate is incorrect on your Church account, please speak with your Ward Clerk to get it changed.

    3. Lastly, your membership record number might not be attached to your Church account. Visit the settings page on churchofjesuschrist.org to see if you have a membership record number. If you do not, please speak with your Ward Clerk to get it changed.

    Once the birthdate or membership record number is corrected, we have found it necessary to “Unlink” and then “Relink” your BYU and Church accounts as described above in step #1.

  • If the site isn’t loading, try clearing your browser’s cache and cookies, then reopen it using Google Chrome for the best experience.

  • Faculty and staff that are planning to enroll in classes need to obtain a student ecclesiastical endorsement. The student ecclesiastical endorsement is different than the employee endorsement. To start the student ecclesiastical endorsement process please visit endorse.byu.edu.

  • Members of the Church (Includes anyone that is currently a member or has ever been a baptized member of the Church)

    • Students seeking an endorsement for the first time or that have allowed their endorsement to expire need to interview with their Bishop and a member of their stake presidency.
    • Students seeking to renew their current and active endorsement only need to interview with their Bishop.

    Individuals serving a current Teaching Mission are endorsed by their Mission President. If an individual called to a Service Mission is serving under a Mission President, he will conduct the endorsement interview. Otherwise, the interviews are completed by the missionary’s Bishop and a member of their stake presidency.

  • Students who have had an ecclesiastical endorsement in the past only need to complete one interview, which is with the non-denominational BYU chaplain, Jim Slaughter.

    For students who have never received an ecclesiastical endorsement, you will need two interviews. The first interview can be completed by a bishop or other denomination church leader.

    • If you would like to meet with a local bishop, please visit https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/., Enter your address and the closest building will populate. Once you click on the ward name, a bishop’s name will appear as well as the address to the church. You can message the bishop from here to schedule your interview.   
    • If you would like to meet with another denominational church leader, you will enter that leader's name and contact information. There will then be a form that you will download and give to your leader for them to complete.   

    The second interview is completed by the non-denominational BYU chaplain, Jim Slaughter. To set up an interview with him, please call 801-422-2293 or email james_slaughter@byu.edu.