Which route applies to you
- New nurse: licensure by examination — apply to the board, meet education requirements, pass the NCLEX. See the new-graduate guide.
- Already licensed elsewhere: licensure by endorsement based on your existing license.
- Internationally educated: additional credential evaluation and requirements apply — see internationally educated nurses.
Where the compact fits
If your primary state of residence is a compact state, applying there can make you eligible for a multistate license instead of a single-state one — one license that covers every compact state. If your home state is non-compact, you hold a single-state license and apply separately in each additional state.
The choice most people do not know they are making
If you live in a compact state, your application has a fork in it that is easy to miss: the license can be issued as single-state or multistate, and those are meaningfully different things. Single-state authorizes practice in the issuing state. Multistate does that and carries privilege into every other compact state.
Two things follow, and both cost people time when they are missed. Ask for the multistate type — it is a request on the application rather than something applied automatically. And expect to evidence where you live, because a multistate license rests on your primary state of residence; thin residency evidence is the usual reason a multistate request comes back as single-state. The eligibility self-check walks the conditions if you want to know where you stand before applying.
Two registrations, not one
The examination route catches first-time applicants because it runs on two tracks that have to meet. You apply to the board for licensure, and you register separately with the testing service for the NCLEX itself. Neither one produces an exam date on its own: the board declares you eligible, the authorization to test follows from that, and only then can you schedule. So the usual delay is not the exam — it is a board application waiting on a transcript or a background check while the calendar runs. Start both early, and treat anything the board is waiting on as the actual deadline.
What varies by state
Education requirements, background checks, fees, and processing times are set by each board and change. We do not list them — use your board of nursing. Once licensed, confirm the result on Nursys.