Living in Georgia, working in Tennessee
Can a Georgia nurse work in Tennessee?
If your primary state of residence is Georgia and you hold an active multistate license from Georgia, you may generally practice in Tennessee under compact privilege — without applying for a separate Tennessee license.
Georgia vs Tennessee at a glance
| Georgia (home) | Tennessee (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | Georgia board ↗ | Tennessee 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 Georgia license is multistate in Nursys, then review any Tennessee-specific requirements with the Tennessee Board of Nursing.
Going the other way?
Georgia and Tennessee hold the same compact status, so the answer runs the same way in reverse — but the boards, the statutes and the license lookups are still each state’s own. See Tennessee to Georgia for that side of it.
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 Tennessee’s current requirements with the Tennessee Board of Nursing.
Georgia and Tennessee share a border
Both are on the same side of the compact, so crossing this particular border does not change your licensure position the way it would at a compact seam. The usual cross-border questions still apply — where you actually reside, and which state each employer sits in.
Where each license is actually checked
These two states do not verify the same way, and the difference matters at different moments: Georgia is what you will be asked to produce, Tennessee is what an employer there will run.
Your home state
Georgia
Georgia Secretary of State license lookup ↗Georgia licenses nurses through the Secretary of State’s Licensing Division rather than a standalone board agency.
Where you want to work
Tennessee
Tennessee Department of Health licensure verification ↗Tennessee has designated Nursys a primary-source equivalent, so either is acceptable for license status — but the state system additionally returns disciplinary profile and abuse-registry data that a Nursys lookup does not, which matters if you are credentialing rather than just confirming a license.
How long each has been part of this
Both Georgia and Tennessee 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
Georgia
O.C.G.A. tit. 43, ch. 26, art. 4 (multistate licensure / Nurse Licensure Compact) ↗Located at ARTICLE level from Georgia’s own signed legislation: SB 168 (2019) refers throughout to nurses "holding a multistate license pursuant to Article 4 of Chapter 26 of Title 43". The section range inside that article is deliberately NOT claimed — the Secretary of State’s Nurse Practice Act PDF and its compact page both refuse automated access, and the General Assembly’s site did not resolve, so a section-level citation here would be inference rather than research. Note also that SB 168’s own caption states it repeals "a provision relating to the Nurse Licensure Compact"; which provision is not confirmed, so treat an older Georgia compact citation as suspect rather than authoritative — the same trap Arizona, Colorado and Utah set.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from O.C.G.A. tit. 43, ch. 26 (Nurse Practice Act) ↗.
Where you want to work
Tennessee
Tennessee has enacted the compact, but we have not yet confirmed the exact citation against the state’s own published code. We would rather say that than print a section number we cannot stand behind.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from T.C.A. tit. 63, ch. 7 (Nursing); RNs at §§ 63-7-103, -104, LPNs at §§ 63-7-108, -109 ↗.
Things to keep in mind
- Compact privilege only applies if your license is multistate, not single-state. Check this in Nursys.
- You must meet Tennessee'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.