Living in Arizona, working in Florida
Can an Arizona nurse work in Florida?
If your primary state of residence is Arizona and you hold an active multistate license from Arizona, you may generally practice in Florida under compact privilege — without applying for a separate Florida license.
Arizona vs Florida at a glance
| Arizona (home) | Florida (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | Arizona board ↗ | Florida board ↗ |
Status shown as of 2026-06-17. Compact law changes — confirm anything that affects your license with the state board.
Recommended next step
Verify that your Arizona license is multistate in Nursys, then review any Florida-specific requirements with the Florida Board of Nursing.
Verify before you rely on this
Whether you can practice comes down to your actual license type, not just the two states’ status. Look your license up on Nursys to confirm it is single-state or multistate, then check Florida’s current requirements with the Florida Board of Nursing.
Where each license is actually checked
These two states do not verify the same way, and the difference matters at different moments: Arizona is what you will be asked to produce, Florida is what an employer there will run.
Your home state
Arizona
Arizona BON primary source verification ↗Arizona splits by credential: RN, LPN and APRN records are uploaded to Nursys daily, while CNA and other certifications stay on the board’s own portal. If you are verifying a nursing assistant, Nursys will not have them.
Where you want to work
Florida
Florida MQA license verification ↗Florida is the state where the obvious route is the wrong one. MQA and FL HealthSource are the front door for Florida health-professional licensing generally, so that is where an employer lands — but the board directs NURSE license verification, RN and LPN, to Nursys. The MQA search will show you a Florida practitioner record; it is not the route the board points employers at for nurses. Official certifications are ordered separately and are a paid service.
How long each has been part of this
Both Arizona and Florida began recognizing compact privilege in 2018. A pairing of two states that arrived together is the simplest case there is: neither has a transitional quirk the other lacks.
The law behind each side
Compact privilege is not a courtesy between states — it is each legislature having enacted the compact into its own code. These are the provisions that do it.
Your home state
Arizona
A.R.S. tit. 32, ch. 15, art. 2.1 (§§ 32-1660 to 32-1660.03) — Nurse Licensure Compact ↗Confirmed at section level from the Arizona Legislature’s own text: § 32-1660 is headed "Nurse Licensure Compact" and opens "The nurse licensure compact is adopted and enacted into law as follows:". This replaces A.R.S. §§ 32-1668 and 32-1669, which were REPEALED when Arizona moved to the enhanced compact — those sections still surface in search results and on third-party mirrors, and citing them is the specific error this dataset exists to avoid. Which version of the compact text sits in art. 2.1 is not recorded here, because both versions carry the same heading and we have not read the uniform-requirements provisions; Arizona’s membership status is tracked separately and does not rest on that question.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from A.R.S. tit. 32, ch. 15 (Nursing) ↗.
Where you want to work
Florida
Fla. Stat. § 464.0095 ↗The compact text is codified as a single section within the nursing chapter.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from Fla. Stat. ch. 464 (Nurse Practice Act) ↗.
Things to keep in mind
- Compact privilege only applies if your license is multistate, not single-state. Check this in Nursys.
- You must meet Florida's practice requirements (for example, scope of practice and any continuing-education rules).
- APRN roles are generally not covered by the standard compact — APRNs usually need separate authorization in each state.
Frequently asked questions
Related pages
Sources & last reviewed
- NLC frequently asked questions— NCSBN / NurseCompact (nursecompact.com)
Covers multistate licenses, primary state of residence, the 60-day rule, telehealth, and license type coverage.
- NLC member states map & status— NCSBN / NurseCompact (nursecompact.com)
Identifies full members, partial implementation (Guam), and enacted/awaiting implementation (Massachusetts, U.S. Virgin Islands).
- Nursys QuickConfirm license verification— NCSBN / Nursys (nursys.com)
Recommended destination to verify whether a license is single-state or multistate.
Facts on this page were last reviewed against official sources on 2026-06-17. Compact law changes — always verify with your state board of nursing.