Non-compact nursing states
Which states are not nursing compact states?
13 U.S. jurisdictions are currently not compact states: a multistate license is not available to their residents, and a compact license from another state does not authorize practice there. They include several of the largest states — California, New York, and Illinois among them — and the one nurses ask about most is California, where the reasons it has stayed out are specific rather than accidental. A few additional jurisdictions have enacted the compact but haven’t implemented it yet, or are in partial implementation — treat those as non-compact for now too. The full list is below.
Looking for the other side of this? The remaining 43 jurisdictions have joined the compact — see the full list of compact nursing states, of which 40 have actually implemented it and can issue or honor a multistate license today.
Non-compact jurisdictions
Each of these licenses nurses under its own law rather than the compact. That statute is the thing actually governing you there, and it is the column nobody else publishes on a list like this — we read each citation off the jurisdiction’s own code.
Enacted but not yet implemented
These have passed compact legislation but aren’t issuing multistate licenses yet. Plan as if they were non-compact until an implementation date is announced.
Partial implementation
- Guam — Guam has partial implementation of the Nurse Licensure Compact. Nurses who hold an active multistate license from another compact state may practice in Guam under privilege, but nurses whose primary state of residence is Guam generally cannot obtain a Guam-issued multistate license until full implementation is complete.
Where each non-compact jurisdiction verifies a license
Being outside the compact does not mean being outside the system — it means an employer has to check you the long way, and these jurisdictions do not all check the same way. Each row below comes from that board’s own published route, reviewed individually rather than assumed from a national list.
| Jurisdiction | Where its licenses are checked |
|---|---|
| Alaska | Alaska online license verification |
| American Samoa | No public lookup published — verification runs through the American Samoa Health Services Regulatory Board directly |
| California | California BRN license verification |
| District of Columbia | DC Health license lookup |
| Hawaii | Hawaii PVL license search (MyPVL) |
| Illinois | IDFPR license lookup |
| Michigan | Michigan LARA license verification |
| Minnesota | Minnesota Board of Nursing license verification |
| Nevada | Nevada State Board of Nursing web verification |
| New York | NYSED Office of the Professions verification |
| Northern Mariana Islands | NMI Board of Nursing — License Verification Portal |
| Oregon | Oregon State Board of Nursing primary source verification |
| Puerto Rico | ORCPS — Registro de Profesionales de la Salud |
Two patterns worth knowing before you assume the obvious route. Some of these jurisdictions run a large state licensing portal that is not the nursing route — their board points nurse verification at Nursys instead, so the site an employer naturally lands on is the wrong one. And where a board runs its own lookup, that record controls if it and Nursys ever disagree: the board is the source and Nursys is the aggregator. Each state page sets out its own quirks, and what Nursys does and does not cover explains the pattern across all fifty-six.
How to work in a non-compact state
You generally apply for a single-state license or a license by endorsement directly with that state’s board of nursing. If you’re moving there permanently, that state becomes your primary state of residence, and you’d hold a single-state license. Check any specific move with the compact state checker.
If your state is on this list
Not being in the compact does not stop you working in another state — it changes how you get there.
- How do I work in another state without a multistate license?Endorsement is the route when the compact is not available: you apply to the second state with the license you already hold.
- Which states are in the compact?The full list with each jurisdiction’s implementation status — worth checking before a move, because membership changes.
- Would moving actually make me eligible?A multistate license comes from your primary state of residence, so eligibility follows your legal home rather than where you work.
- How do I verify a license in a non-compact state?Nursys and the state board show different things, and for some jurisdictions only one of them has the record.
Where a multistate license stops working: the border seams
A multistate (compact) license is powerful, but it has hard geographic edges. There are 24 land borders where a fully implemented compact state sits directly against a state that has not adopted the compact. Cross one of these seams — in person or by telehealth to a patient on the other side — and your compact privilege stops at the state line; you need that state’s own license to keep working. Below, grouped by the state privilege does not reach. (For the full pair-by-pair breakdown and the states still in transition, see the Nursing Compact States Report 2026.)
The islands: non-compact states ringed by compact states
4 non-compact states are surrounded on every land border by fully compact states, which makes them easy to overlook — every neighbor honors compact privilege, but they do not. For a nurse in one of these, every border crossing changes the rules:
Crossing into Illinois
Privilege stops here. A multistate license from these 5 bordering compact states does not authorize practice:
Crossing into Minnesota
Privilege stops here. A multistate license from these 4 bordering compact states does not authorize practice:
Crossing into New York
Privilege stops here. A multistate license from these 4 bordering compact states does not authorize practice:
Crossing into Michigan
Privilege stops here. A multistate license from these 3 bordering compact states does not authorize practice:
Crossing into Nevada
Privilege stops here. A multistate license from these 3 bordering compact states does not authorize practice:
Crossing into District of Columbia
Privilege stops here. A multistate license from these 2 bordering compact states does not authorize practice:
Crossing into Oregon
Privilege stops here. A multistate license from these 2 bordering compact states does not authorize practice:
Crossing into California
Privilege stops here. A multistate license from this bordering compact state does not authorize practice:
The reverse is just as important: a nurse living in one of these non-compact states cannot get a multistate license at all, even though the states next door can. To see exactly what applies to your own home and work states, use the compact state checker.