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Living in Texas, working in Wyoming

Texas Full compact stateWyoming Full compact state

Can a Texas nurse work in Wyoming?

If your primary state of residence is Texas and you hold an active multistate license from Texas, you may generally practice in Wyoming under compact privilege — without applying for a separate Wyoming license.

Nurse Licensure Compact FAQLast reviewed 2026-06-17

Texas vs Wyoming at a glance

Texas compared with Wyoming: compact status, whether residents can hold a multistate license, and whether compact nurses may practice there
 Texas (home)Wyoming (work)
Compact statusCompactCompact
Multistate license for residentsYesYes
Compact nurses can practice hereYesYes
Board of nursingTexas 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 Texas 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.

Where each license is actually checked

These two states do not verify the same way, and the difference matters at different moments: Texas is what you will be asked to produce, Wyoming is what an employer there will run.

Your home state

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.

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 Texas 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

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).

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

If your primary state of residence is Texas and you hold an active multistate license from Texas, you may generally practice in Wyoming under compact privilege — without applying for a separate Wyoming license.

Sources & last reviewed

  • NLC frequently asked questionsNCSBN / NurseCompact (nursecompact.com)

    Covers multistate licenses, primary state of residence, the 60-day rule, telehealth, and license type coverage.

  • NLC member states map & statusNCSBN / NurseCompact (nursecompact.com)

    Identifies full members, partial implementation (Guam), and enacted/awaiting implementation (Massachusetts, U.S. Virgin Islands).

  • Nursys QuickConfirm license verificationNCSBN / 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.