Is Indiana a nursing compact state?

What Indiana’s compact status means

Because Indiana is a full compact state, a single multistate license issued by Indiana lets you practice in Indiana and in other compact states without applying for a separate license in each one.

If you live in another compact state and hold an active multistate license there, you can generally practice in Indiana under compact privilege — but you still have to follow Indiana's laws and scope-of-practice rules while you work here.

Compact privilege only works if your license is the multistate type, not single-state. Check this before you rely on it.

What Indiana residents should know

If Indiana is your primary state of residence and you hold an active Indiana multistate license, you can practice in Indiana and in other compact states. If your Indiana license is single-state, ask the Indiana State Board of Nursing about converting it to multistate.

What nurses coming to Indiana should know

Coming from another compact state with an active multistate license? You can generally practice in Indiana under compact privilege — just follow Indiana’s practice rules. Coming from a non-compact state? You’ll apply for an Indiana license by endorsement.

When Indiana joined the Nurse Licensure Compact

The compact became usable in Indiana on July 1, 2020. From that date, nurses holding an active multistate license issued by another compact state could practice in Indiana under compact privilege.

The Indiana State Board of Nursing began accepting multistate license applications on the implementation date.

Sourced from in.gov, yearinreview.ncsbn.org. See the full NLC adoption timeline for every jurisdiction’s dates and methodology, or the Nursing Compact States Report 2026 for how far the compact reaches overall.

The law behind Indiana’s status

Compact status is not an opinion or a listing — it is a statute. These are the primary sources that actually govern licensure in Indiana, so you can check our answer against the law rather than taking our word for it.

Compact statute

Ind. Code tit. 25, art. 42 (Interstate Nurse Licensure Compact); residence-change duties at IC 25-42-4-3 and 25-42-4-4 ↗

Indiana is the clean structural opposite of Kentucky. Where Kentucky gives the compact one titled section inside the nursing chapter, Indiana gives it an entire separate article — art. 42 — sitting apart from art. 23, which holds the nurse practice act. So the nursing article is not where Indiana’s compact law lives, and a search confined to it finds nothing. The residence-change duties that catch nurses after a move are at IC 25-42-4-3 and 25-42-4-4.

Nurse practice act

Ind. Code tit. 25, art. 23 (Nurses) ↗

Indiana’s own license lookup

Indiana PLA free search & verify ↗

Indiana tiers this: the free search is updated in real time and is enough to confirm status, while a paid official verification returns additional fields in a printable format. For a credentialing file the paid version is usually what an auditor expects to see.

Board of nursing

Indiana State Board of Nursing ↗

Statutory citations reviewed 2026-07-31. Citations change far more slowly than fees or processing times — which is why we publish these and not those. Enactment is not the same as implementation: check the dates above before relying on the compact here.

RN, LPN/LVN, and APRN coverage in Indiana

The Nurse Licensure Compact covers RN and LPN/LVN licenses. It does not, on its own, cover APRN roles — nurse practitioners, CRNAs, CNSs, and CNMs generally need separate APRN authorization in each state, including Indiana. See the APRN and the compact guide, and confirm specifics with the Indiana State Board of Nursing.

Coverage is the same for both credentials, so the state lists are the same: every RN compact state and every LPN/LVN compact state both include Indiana.

By credential: Indiana RN & the compact, Indiana LPN, and Indiana APRN.

Primary state of residence, moving, and endorsement

Your primary state of residence (PSOR) drives multistate eligibility — you can hold it in only one state at a time. Because Indiana is a compact state, if you make it your PSOR you may qualify for a multistate license issued by Indiana — often more useful than a plain single-state license. Coming from another state, you generally apply to the Indiana State Board of Nursing by endorsement. If you are relocating, the 60-day rule governs the timing.

Verifying a Indiana nursing license

Look any Indiana license up on Nursys QuickConfirm — it shows whether the license is single-state or multistate, its status, and its expiration. For anything Nursys does not show, use the Indiana State Board of Nursing. See the full Indiana verification guide. CompactStates is an independent reference, not a verification service, and holds no license records.

Travel assignments and telehealth in Indiana

Because Indiana recognizes compact privilege, an active multistate license from your compact home state generally covers a Indiana travel assignment, and telehealth to patients located in Indiana, without a separate Indiana license. Telehealth licensure generally follows the patient’s location. See the Indiana travel and telehealth guides.

Renewal and continuing education

Renewal cycles, fees, and continuing-education requirements are set by the Indiana State Board of Nursing and change over time, so we link you to the official source rather than list figures that could go stale. Nursys shows your expiration date and license type. See the Indiana renewal guide. If your Indiana license is multistate, keeping it renewed is what keeps your compact privilege active in every other compact state.