Living in Pennsylvania, working in North Dakota
Can a Pennsylvania nurse work in North Dakota?
If your primary state of residence is Pennsylvania and you hold an active multistate license from Pennsylvania, you may generally practice in North Dakota under compact privilege — without applying for a separate North Dakota license.
Pennsylvania vs North Dakota at a glance
| Pennsylvania (home) | North Dakota (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | Pennsylvania board ↗ | North Dakota 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 Pennsylvania license is multistate in Nursys, then review any North Dakota-specific requirements with the North Dakota 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 North Dakota’s current requirements with the North Dakota 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: Pennsylvania is what you will be asked to produce, North Dakota 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
North Dakota
North Dakota Board of Nursing license lookup ↗The strongest free lookup found so far: real-time against the board’s own database (not a nightly extract, so no Mississippi-style next-day gap), treated as primary source, and it shows discipline history inline with links to the public records rather than a bare flag. Paid extras sit above it — $35 for an official verification, $65 for a downloadable list of active LPNs, RNs and APRNs. Note that list refreshes monthly on the second business day, so it can be up to a month stale where the free lookup is current.
How long each has been part of this
North Dakota has recognized compact privilege since January 19, 2018; Pennsylvania since July 7, 2025 — a gap of about 7 years. That is worth knowing because the newer member is where employers, staffing agencies and HR systems are most likely to still be working from an out-of-date understanding of what a multistate license covers.
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
North Dakota
N.D. Cent. Code ch. 43-12.4 (Nurse Licensure Compact) ↗The compact sits in its own chapter, 43-12.4, next to but separate from the Nurse Practices Act at 43-12.1 — close enough in numbering to mis-cite, far enough apart in subject to matter. North Dakota joined the original compact on 1 January 2004 and moved to the enhanced one on 19 January 2018, and it legislated for the APRN compact in the same 2017 session. That makes it the fourth jurisdiction here, with Iowa, Idaho and Delaware, carrying APRN compact law on the books.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from NDCC 43-12.1 (Nurse Practices 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 North Dakota'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.