Living in Pennsylvania, working in New York
Can a Pennsylvania nurse work in New York?
A multistate (compact) license from Pennsylvania generally does not authorize practice in New York, because New York is not a compact state. You will likely need a New York license by endorsement or a single-state New York license.
Pennsylvania vs New York at a glance
| Pennsylvania (home) | New York (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Non-compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | No |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | No |
| Board of nursing | Pennsylvania board ↗ | New York board ↗ |
Status shown as of 2026-06-17. Compact law changes — confirm anything that affects your license with the state board.
Recommended next step
Apply for licensure by endorsement with the New York State Board of Nursing (Office of the Professions) before practicing in New York.
Going the other way?
The answer is not the same in reverse. Living in New York and working in Pennsylvania is a different question with a different answer, because the state that issues your license changes places with the state that has to honour it — New York to Pennsylvania covers that direction.
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 New York’s current requirements with the New York State Board of Nursing (Office of the Professions).
Pennsylvania and New York share a border
That makes this pairing a compact seam — the line where multistate privilege stops. Pennsylvania issues and honours multistate licenses; New York does not. The boundary between them is a road people cross without thinking, and licensure changes at it.
This matters most for the people it is easiest to overlook: anyone living on one side and working on the other, picking up shifts across the line, or covering a facility that draws staff from both. A license that works at home does not follow you across a border a few minutes away. Our 2026 report maps every seam like this one.
Where each license is actually checked
These two states do not verify the same way, and the difference matters at different moments: Pennsylvania is what you will be asked to produce, New York is what an employer there will run.
Your home state
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Licensing System (PALS) verification ↗PALS answers the employer’s question — current status and expiry — from the public search, no account needed. The part that catches people is who has to act for the OTHER kind of verification: a Verification of License with History going to another state’s board must be requested by the licensee, logged into their own PALS dashboard. An employer or a receiving board cannot start it, and Pennsylvania asks that paper requests not be sent to the board office at all. If you are the nurse, this is on you and nobody will do it for you. Endorsement verification routed through Nursys is charged per license type and per destination board, so two licenses into two states is four charges, not one.
Where you want to work
New York
NYSED Office of the Professions verification ↗The Office of the Professions treats its online search as a primary source for verification. The part that catches people applying INTO New York is that the route depends on whether the state that issued your license participates in Nursys. Where it does, verification travels electronically. Where it does not, New York falls back to a paper instrument — Form 3, the Verification of Other Professional Licensure — which you send to your original licensing authority to complete and return to NYSED. That is a materially slower path, and it is chosen by your ISSUING state, not by you. We are deliberately not reproducing a list of non-participating states here: the lists published by different authorities disagree with each other, and at least one names a state whose own board documents its Nursys service. Check Nursys for your specific state rather than trusting any list, including ours.
How long each has been part of this
Pennsylvania has recognized compact privilege since July 7, 2025. New York does not recognize it, so the comparison is not between two dates — it is between a state where privilege exists and one where a license has to be held outright.
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
Pennsylvania
Act 68 of 2021 (Senate Bill 115) ↗Signed 1 July 2021 and effective immediately, but the compact did not become usable in Pennsylvania until implementation completed on 7 July 2025 — four years later.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from Professional Nursing Law, 63 P.S. § 211 et seq. ↗.
Where you want to work
New York
New York has no compact statute, because it has not enacted the compact. Practicing here means holding a New York license.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from N.Y. Educ. Law art. 139; 8 NYCRR pt. 64 ↗.
Things to keep in mind
- New York controls its own licensure — apply directly through the New York State Board of Nursing (Office of the Professions).
- Compact privilege does not extend into non-compact states.
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.