Living in South Dakota, working in Wyoming
Can a South Dakota nurse work in Wyoming?
If your primary state of residence is South Dakota and you hold an active multistate license from South Dakota, you may generally practice in Wyoming under compact privilege — without applying for a separate Wyoming license.
South Dakota vs Wyoming at a glance
| South Dakota (home) | Wyoming (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | South Dakota board ↗ | Wyoming 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 South Dakota license is multistate in Nursys, then review any Wyoming-specific requirements with the Wyoming 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 Wyoming’s current requirements with the Wyoming State Board of Nursing.
South Dakota and Wyoming share a border
Both are on the same side of the compact, so crossing this particular border does not change your licensure position the way it would at a compact seam. The usual cross-border questions still apply — where you actually reside, and which state each employer sits in.
Where each license is actually checked
These two states do not verify the same way, and the difference matters at different moments: South Dakota is what you will be asked to produce, Wyoming is what an employer there will run.
Your home state
South Dakota
South Dakota Board of Nursing license verification ↗Conventional public verification, with no fee gate, credential split or identifier requirement found in this review — the second such case after Utah. Structurally, South Dakota sits its board inside the Department of Health rather than running a standalone agency, the same arrangement as Hawaii under DCCA and Georgia under the Secretary of State. That affects where you look, not what you get.
Where you want to work
Wyoming
Wyoming State Board of Nursing ↗One caution specific to Wyoming: the board has moved domains, and its own older rule documents still cite state.wy.us addresses that no longer resolve. If you reach a dead link from an official-looking Wyoming PDF, the document is out of date rather than the board being unreachable — start from wsbn.wyo.gov instead. The board licenses registered nurses, practical nurses, advanced practice registered nurses and nursing assistants.
How long each has been part of this
Both South Dakota and Wyoming 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
South Dakota
S.D. Codified Laws §§ 36-9-98 to 36-9-99 (Nurse Licensure Compact) ↗South Dakota gives the compact no chapter of its own — it is two sections at the end of ch. 36-9, the registered and practical nurses chapter, which is why a search for a South Dakota compact CHAPTER finds nothing and why this citation went unconfirmed here for so long. § 36-9-98 carries the whole compact: “The Nurse Licensure Compact is enacted into law and entered into with all other jurisdictions that legally join the compact.” The section after it is the unusual one. § 36-9-99 is headed “General funds not to be used to support compact” — South Dakota legislated the compact and, in the very next breath, legislated how it may not be paid for. Most states say nothing about funding at all.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from South Dakota nursing licensure law (Board of Nursing, DOH) ↗.
Where you want to work
Wyoming
W.S. §§ 33-21-201 to 33-21-202 (Nurse Licensure Compact) ↗Read from Wyoming’s own compiled Title 33. § 33-21-201 is the short title — "This article shall be known and may be cited as the 'Nurse Licensure Compact.'" — and § 33-21-202 approves and ratifies it, with the compact text itself inside that section. Those are the only 33-21-2xx sections in the title, so the article is those two. The enacted text also settles which compact this is without guessing: it carries the supersession clause deeming party states to have withdrawn from the prior Nurse Licensure Compact, which is the ENHANCED compact’s language.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from W.S. ch. 33-21 (Wyoming Nurse Practice Act); board licensing authority at W.S. 33-21-122 ↗.
Things to keep in mind
- Compact privilege only applies if your license is multistate, not single-state. Check this in Nursys.
- You must meet Wyoming'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.