Living in Georgia, working in West Virginia
Can a Georgia nurse work in West Virginia?
If your primary state of residence is Georgia and you hold an active multistate license from Georgia, you may generally practice in West Virginia under compact privilege — without applying for a separate West Virginia license.
Georgia vs West Virginia at a glance
| Georgia (home) | West Virginia (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | Georgia board ↗ | West Virginia 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 West Virginia-specific requirements with the West Virginia RN Board / LPN Board.
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 West Virginia’s current requirements with the West Virginia RN Board / LPN Board.
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, West Virginia 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
West Virginia
WV RN Board (registered nurses) ↗The one state where you must know the credential BEFORE choosing where to look. West Virginia runs two independent boards with two separate lookups: the RN Board at wvrnboard.wv.gov, and the Board of Examiners for Licensed Practical Nurses at lpnboard.wv.gov. Searching the RN board for an LPN returns nothing — not because the license is invalid, but because it lives in a different agency. The RN board also regulates dialysis technicians, and notes that not every license type it holds is available through online verification. Our own board link for West Virginia points at the RN board, so treat it as RN-only.
How long each has been part of this
Both Georgia and West Virginia 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
West Virginia
W. Va. Code art. 30-7F (Nurse Licensure Compact) ↗The article letter matters here more than usual. 30-7F is the compact; 30-7E is nurse health programs, and the two are one letter apart in a chapter that also runs 30-7, 30-7A and 30-7B. Getting it wrong lands you in a genuinely different subject rather than on an error page. This is also the state that runs SEPARATE boards for registered and practical nurses, so West Virginia rewards checking twice on both counts.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from W. Va. Code art. 30-7 (registered nurses); art. 30-7A (licensed practical nurses) ↗.
Things to keep in mind
- Compact privilege only applies if your license is multistate, not single-state. Check this in Nursys.
- You must meet West Virginia'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.