Living in Washington, working in Maine
Can a Washington nurse work in Maine?
If your primary state of residence is Washington and you hold an active multistate license from Washington, you may generally practice in Maine under compact privilege — without applying for a separate Maine license.
Washington vs Maine at a glance
| Washington (home) | Maine (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | Washington board ↗ | Maine 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 Washington license is multistate in Nursys, then review any Maine-specific requirements with the Maine 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 Maine’s current requirements with the Maine 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: Washington is what you will be asked to produce, Maine is what an employer there will run.
Your home state
Washington
Washington DOH Provider Credential Search ↗Washington splits by LICENSE TYPE rather than credential: a Washington single-state license is verified through the DOH Provider Credential Search, while a multistate license issued by another state is verified through Nursys. Note the board will not verify a credential that is pending, closed, or holding only a temporary practice permit — so a genuinely new hire on a temporary permit will not return a verification, which is a timing problem rather than a red flag.
Where you want to work
Maine
Maine Board of Nursing license verification ↗Checking a Maine license is free. But Maine stopped processing verification forms to other jurisdictions in October 2002 — the board will not do it at all, and the only route is registering with Nursys and paying its fee. Any guidance telling a nurse to send a form to the Maine board is more than two decades out of date, and there is no fallback if Nursys does not cover the receiving jurisdiction.
How long each has been part of this
Maine has recognized compact privilege since January 19, 2018; Washington since July 24, 2023 — a gap of about 5 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.
One of these two ran a two-phase rollout — honouring incoming privilege before issuing multistate licenses to its own residents, which are separate switches on separate dates. The adoption timeline gives both dates for every jurisdiction.
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
Washington
Substitute Senate Bill 5499 (2023) ↗Signed 21 April 2023, making Washington the 40th jurisdiction to enact. The same legislation renamed the regulator from the Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission to the Washington State Board of Nursing.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from RCW ch. 18.79 (Nursing Care) ↗.
Where you want to work
Maine
Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 32, ch. 31, subch. 2-A (Nurse Licensure Compact), §§ 2171–2181 ↗Maine inserts the compact as its own subchapter — 2-A — wedged between the board subchapter and the registered-nurse one, which is why it does not appear in a straight run of section numbers. Worth noting for anyone reading the chapter through: Maine also legislates telehealth nursing in the same chapter at subchapter 7, so the two questions a cross-border nurse usually has to ask separately are answered in one place here.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from Maine nursing licensure law (Board of Nursing) ↗.
Things to keep in mind
- Compact privilege only applies if your license is multistate, not single-state. Check this in Nursys.
- You must meet Maine'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.