Living in Puerto Rico, working in New York
Can a Puerto Rico nurse work in New York?
Neither Puerto Rico nor New York is a compact state, so the Nurse Licensure Compact does not apply to this move. You will need an active New York license — typically by endorsement — to work in New York.
Puerto Rico vs New York at a glance
| Puerto Rico (home) | New York (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Non-compact | Non-compact |
| Multistate license for residents | No | No |
| Compact nurses can practice here | No | No |
| Board of nursing | Puerto Rico 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).
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).
Where each license is actually checked
These two states do not verify the same way, and the difference matters at different moments: Puerto Rico is what you will be asked to produce, New York is what an employer there will run.
Your home state
Puerto Rico
ORCPS — Registro de Profesionales de la Salud ↗Puerto Rico separates issuing from verifying, and the split is by FUNCTION rather than by credential. The Junta Examinadora de Enfermería licenses; the Oficina de Reglamentación y Certificación de los Profesionales de la Salud (ORCPS) keeps the registry and issues the verification — so a request sent to the board is at the wrong office, and the board is not obviously the wrong place to send it. Ask for a “Certificación de Good Standing”, which is the name the portal uses. Note also that permanent licenses carry a three-year recertification tied to registry enrollment, so a license can be validly issued and still lapse on a cycle that has no mainland equivalent. Primary material is in Spanish; the English term you know may return nothing.
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.
Things to keep in mind
- The compact is not involved when neither state participates.
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.