The official board
Texas nursing licensure is regulated by the Texas Board of Nursing. That is where applications, renewals, endorsement, and official forms live. Requirements and fees are board-set and change, so we point you to the official site rather than list figures that could go stale.
Official Texas licensure resources
- Verify a license: Nursys QuickConfirm (national) or the board — see our Texas verification guide.
- Apply by endorsement: through the Texas Board of Nursing — see the Texas endorsement guide.
- Renew a license: through the board — see the Texas renewal guide.
- Compact status: is Texas a compact state? See the Texas compact status page.
The law that governs this in Texas
Licensing a nurse in Texas happens under Texas’s own nurse practice act — the same act that defines what practice means here — administered by the Texas Board of Nursing. That act is Tex. Occ. Code ch. 301 (Nursing Practice Act).
The compact itself is separate law. Texas adopted it at Tex. Occ. Code ch. 304 (§§ 304.001–304.010), which is what allows a multistate license issued elsewhere to reach Texas at all — the practice act still decides what you may do once it does.
What Texas runs itself
Beyond the national systems, Texas Board of Nursing publishes its own primary-source lookup — Texas BON license verification. Where a board runs its own, that is the record the board itself works from, which can matter when a national system and a board disagree or lag. How Texas’s route actually behaves, including what an empty result means there, is on verifying a Texas license.
Official vs independent
The Texas Board of Nursing and Nursys are the authorities — they make decisions and hold the records. CompactStates.com explains how Texas licensure works and gets you to those sources quickly. We never charge for or monetize official board or Nursys links.
What the Texas Board of Nursing controls
Because Texas is in the compact, this board does two jobs at once: it licenses Texas residents — including issuing multistate licenses, which it has done since January 19, 2018 — and it regulates every nurse practicing in Texas on another state’s multistate license. A visiting compact nurse answers to this board while working here, even though it never issued them anything.
Its authority comes from Tex. Occ. Code ch. 301 (Nursing Practice Act), and its compact role from Tex. Occ. Code ch. 304 (§§ 304.001–304.010). You can read the law rather than take our word for it.
The board runs its own license lookup — Texas BON license verification — separate from Nursys. Where the two disagree, the board’s record controls.