Living in Iowa, working in Arizona
Can an Iowa nurse work in Arizona?
If your primary state of residence is Iowa and you hold an active multistate license from Iowa, you may generally practice in Arizona under compact privilege — without applying for a separate Arizona license.
Iowa vs Arizona at a glance
| Iowa (home) | Arizona (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | Iowa board ↗ | Arizona 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 Iowa license is multistate in Nursys, then review any Arizona-specific requirements with the Arizona State 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 Arizona’s current requirements with the Arizona State 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: Iowa is what you will be asked to produce, Arizona is what an employer there will run.
Your home state
Iowa
Iowa nursing license verification ↗Iowa publishes free public rosters alongside individual lookup, and neither requires an account. If you are credentialing at volume rather than checking one nurse, that bulk route exists here where most states force you through one-at-a-time searches or ongoing Nursys e-Notify enrollment.
Where you want to work
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.
How long each has been part of this
Both Iowa and Arizona 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
Iowa
Iowa Code ch. 152E (Nurse Licensure Compacts) ↗Iowa titles the chapter in the PLURAL — "Nurse Licensure Compacts" — because it carries the APRN compact alongside the RN/LPN one in the same place. That is unusual and easy to misread: finding APRN compact language in Iowa law does not mean APRN privilege is available, only that Iowa has legislated for it. Keep the two compacts separate when reading this chapter.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from Iowa Code ch. 152 (Nursing) ↗.
Where you want to work
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) ↗.
Things to keep in mind
- Compact privilege only applies if your license is multistate, not single-state. Check this in Nursys.
- You must meet Arizona'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.