Living in Iowa, working in Texas
Can an Iowa nurse work in Texas?
If your primary state of residence is Iowa and you hold an active multistate license from Iowa, you may generally practice in Texas under compact privilege — without applying for a separate Texas license.
Iowa vs Texas at a glance
| Iowa (home) | Texas (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | Iowa board ↗ | Texas 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 Texas-specific requirements with the Texas 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 Texas’s current requirements with the Texas 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, Texas 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
Texas
Texas BON license verification ↗Texas runs two different things under the word “verification”, and confusing them costs weeks. The online lookup answers “is this license real and current” for an employer, immediately. But board-to-board verification for ENDORSEMENT into another state is a separate paper process — a Verification of Registered/Professional Nurse Licensure form, returned to the board by email — not something the public lookup produces. If another state has asked you for verification of your Texas license, a printout of the online result is unlikely to be what they meant.
How long each has been part of this
Both Iowa and Texas 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
Texas
Tex. Occ. Code ch. 304 (§§ 304.001–304.010) ↗Chapter 304 is the compact itself; the Board’s implementing rules sit in the Texas Administrative Code.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from Tex. Occ. Code ch. 301 (Nursing 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 Texas'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.