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CompactStates

Find your situation

The compact answer depends on your circumstances. Pick the scenario that fits you and go straight to the guidance for it.

Which nursing compact guidance applies to me?

Your compact situation comes down to a few things: your license type, your primary state of residence, and where you want to practice. Pick the scenario below that matches you — each links to a focused guide — or start with the compact state checker to see how your home and work states interact.

Every scenario below reduces to the same three questions

The compact looks complicated because the situations are varied. The test underneath them is not. Answer these three and you have your answer, whichever row you would have clicked:

  1. Where do you legally live? Your primary state of residence is the only state that can issue you a multistate license, and it is a question about domicile rather than about where you work or where your post arrives.
  2. What kind of license do you actually hold? A license from a compact state is not automatically a multistate one — boards issue both, and only verification settles which you have.
  3. Does the destination recognize compact privilege today? Enacted is not the same as implemented, and a state can leave.

All three have to be true at the same moment. If one stops being true, privilege ends — and nothing notifies you.

The distinction that decides which row you are in

Half the scenarios below are about visiting and half are about moving, and people routinely read a page about one while living the other.

  • Visiting — taking an assignment, covering shifts, or treating a patient across a line while your legal home stays put. Compact privilege is built for exactly this, and nothing about your license changes.
  • Moving — changing where you legally live. This changes which board issues your license, so the multistate license you hold now is not the one you will hold afterwards. There is a window, not an indefinite grace period.

A long travel assignment is still visiting. What decides it is where your driving license, voter registration and tax filing say you live — not how many months you are away.

I want to work in another stateWhether your license travels depends on your license type and both states’ status.I’m moving to a compact stateEstablishing residency changes your primary state — and your license options.I’m moving between two compact statesThe 60-day rule and re-declaring your primary state of residence apply.I’m moving from a non-compact to a compact stateYou may become eligible for a multistate license for the first time.I’m moving from a compact to a non-compact stateYou can lose multistate eligibility when your home state changes.I live in a non-compact stateWhat a compact license does and does not do for you.I’m a travel nurseA pre-assignment checklist so you’re covered before your first shift.I do telehealth across state linesWhere your patient is usually decides which license you need.I’m checking if my license is multistateHow to tell single-state from multistate, and where to verify it.I’m a new graduateHow the compact works when you’re first getting licensed.I’m an LPN or LVNThe compact covers LPN/VN licenses too — here’s how.I’m an APRNWhy the standard compact doesn’t cover advanced practice.I’m a military spouseSpecial provisions and how the compact helps with frequent moves.I need to verify a licenseUse Nursys to confirm license type and status.I want to know whether I qualify for a multistate licenseThe eleven uniform requirements, asked one at a time. Nothing is sent or stored.My license has expiredAn expired multistate license ends privilege in every compact state at once.I’m returning to nursing after time awayRenewal or reinstatement, and what the board decides between them.My name has changedWhich board to tell, and why a mismatch surfaces at the worst moment.Something has happened with my license in another stateWhich state has authority, and why an action does not stay where it happened.I trained outside the United StatesWhere the compact’s requirements bite for internationally educated nurses.