Living in Delaware, working in North Dakota
Can a Delaware nurse work in North Dakota?
If your primary state of residence is Delaware and you hold an active multistate license from Delaware, you may generally practice in North Dakota under compact privilege — without applying for a separate North Dakota license.
Delaware vs North Dakota at a glance
| Delaware (home) | North Dakota (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | Delaware board ↗ | North Dakota 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 Delaware license is multistate in Nursys, then review any North Dakota-specific requirements with the North Dakota 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 North Dakota’s current requirements with the North Dakota 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: Delaware is what you will be asked to produce, North Dakota is what an employer there will run.
Your home state
Delaware
Delaware DELPROS search & verify ↗Free lookup with a discipline column — where history exists it reads "Yes" and the Board Orders themselves are downloadable, not just flagged. Delaware does not issue written verifications for RNs and LPNs at all; that route is Nursys only, like Maine. APRNs go through a separate verification process instead — the second jurisdiction in this cohort, after D.C., where RN and LPN traffic rides shared national infrastructure and advanced practice is handled apart from it.
Where you want to work
North Dakota
North Dakota Board of Nursing license lookup ↗The strongest free lookup found so far: real-time against the board’s own database (not a nightly extract, so no Mississippi-style next-day gap), treated as primary source, and it shows discipline history inline with links to the public records rather than a bare flag. Paid extras sit above it — $35 for an official verification, $65 for a downloadable list of active LPNs, RNs and APRNs. Note that list refreshes monthly on the second business day, so it can be up to a month stale where the free lookup is current.
How long each has been part of this
Both Delaware and North Dakota 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
Delaware
Del. Code tit. 24, ch. 19A (Nurse Multistate Licensure Compact) ↗Delaware keeps the compact out of the nursing chapter entirely: ch. 19 is Nursing, ch. 19A is the Nurse Multistate Licensure Compact, and ch. 19B is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Compact. The APRN chapter is worth reading carefully — its heading in the code is qualified “[Effective upon …]”, so Delaware has enacted APRN compact law that is contingent rather than in force. That is primary-source confirmation of the general point: a state having APRN compact language on its books does not mean an APRN multistate license exists there.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from 24 Del. C. ch. 19 (Board of Nursing) ↗.
Where you want to work
North Dakota
N.D. Cent. Code ch. 43-12.4 (Nurse Licensure Compact) ↗The compact sits in its own chapter, 43-12.4, next to but separate from the Nurse Practices Act at 43-12.1 — close enough in numbering to mis-cite, far enough apart in subject to matter. North Dakota joined the original compact on 1 January 2004 and moved to the enhanced one on 19 January 2018, and it legislated for the APRN compact in the same 2017 session. That makes it the fourth jurisdiction here, with Iowa, Idaho and Delaware, carrying APRN compact law on the books.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from NDCC 43-12.1 (Nurse Practices 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 North Dakota'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.