Pending & partial nursing compact states
Which states are pending or partial in the nursing compact?
A few jurisdictions are in between: enacted but awaiting implementation, or partially implemented. In these places you generally cannot assume compact privilege is active yet — treat them as non-compact for now and verify with the board before you practice.
Enacted — awaiting implementation
The law passed, but multistate licenses aren’t being issued and privilege isn’t recognized yet. Plan as if these were non-compact until a start date is announced.
- Massachusetts — Massachusetts has enacted Nurse Licensure Compact legislation but has not yet implemented it. Multistate licenses are not available to Massachusetts residents, and compact privilege does not apply in Massachusetts, until implementation is complete. Treat Massachusetts as non-compact for day-to-day practice until the board announces a start date.
- U.S. Virgin Islands — The U.S. Virgin Islands has enacted Nurse Licensure Compact legislation but is awaiting implementation. Multistate licenses are not yet issued and compact privilege does not yet apply. Verify current status before relying on the compact here.
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.
How long has this taken before?
The question everyone on this page is really asking, and the honest answer is that nobody can tell you. What can be shown is what has actually happened. These are every jurisdiction where we hold both an enactment date and the date privilege began — the only cases that say anything about how long the step takes.
| Jurisdiction | Enacted | Privilege began | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | Apr 21, 2023 | Jul 24, 2023 | 3 months |
| Rhode Island | Jun 24, 2023 | Jan 1, 2024 | 6 months |
| Vermont | Jun 7, 2021 | Feb 1, 2022 | 8 months |
| Connecticut | May 30, 2024 | Oct 1, 2025 | 1 year, 4 months |
| Ohio | Jul 1, 2021 | Jan 1, 2023 | 1 year, 6 months |
| Pennsylvania | Jul 1, 2021 | Jul 7, 2025 | 4 years |
The spread is the finding: 3 months at the fastest, 4 years at the slowest. That is a range wide enough to be useless as a forecast, which is precisely the point: it tells you not to plan around one. A nurse who turns down work on the assumption that a pending jurisdiction will be live “in about a year” is guessing.
This is 6 cases described, not a statistic — far too few to average, and we are not going to pretend otherwise by quoting one. Nor is it a prediction about any jurisdiction currently pending. What fills the gap is board work — rules, background-check infrastructure, systems — and only that board knows where it is up to. Every jurisdiction’s dates, with sources.
Why this matters before you accept work
“Enacted” headlines can be misleading. A state can announce it’s joining the compact long before nurses can actually use it. If you’re counting on compact privilege for a job, confirm the jurisdiction is fully implemented first — use the compact state checker and check the official board, and confirm your own license type in Nursys.
Pending & partial: common questions
Cite this page
Free to use with attribution. Cite the review date shown here rather than today’s — compact status changes as jurisdictions implement, and the figure you are quoting belongs to the date it was checked.
CompactStates.com. Pending and partial nursing compact states. Updated June 17, 2026. Accessed [date you accessed it]. https://www.compactstates.com/pending-nursing-compact-states
CompactStates.com. (2026, June 17). Pending and partial nursing compact states. https://www.compactstates.com/pending-nursing-compact-states
"Pending and partial nursing compact states", CompactStates.com, last reviewed June 17, 2026. https://www.compactstates.com/pending-nursing-compact-states
Quoting a specific jurisdiction? Cite that jurisdiction’s page rather than this one, so the date travels with the fact.