If you’re a Licensed Practical Nurse (or a Licensed Vocational Nurse, in Texas and California) wondering whether you can just start working in another state on your current license, the honest answer is: it depends entirely on which two states are involved. The Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) is the mechanism that, for a growing majority of states, turns that “it depends” into “yes, automatically.” Here’s where the compact actually stands in 2026, and — just as important — where it doesn’t apply.
What the compact actually does
The NLC lets a nurse who lives in a compact state hold one multistate license that’s valid to practice in every other compact state, without applying for a separate license in each one. It’s administered by the Interstate Commission of Nurse Licensure Compact Administrators, and the current, authoritative list of member states lives at nursecompact.com. That distinction matters: a lot of the “compact states” lists that circulate online are copied from older versions of that map and go stale as soon as a new state implements.
A multistate license only exists if your home state — the state where you legally reside — is a compact member. If you live in a non-compact state, you don’t get a multistate privilege no matter how many compact states you want to work in; you’ll need a single-state license (or license by endorsement) in each one, the traditional way.
Who’s actually in the compact right now
As of the most recent update to the compact commission’s own jurisdiction table, 43 jurisdictions have enacted the NLC — 41 states plus Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Of those, 40 states have fully implemented it, meaning both directions work: nurses with an active compact license from elsewhere can practice there today, and residents can apply for their own multistate license.
Two additions from just the past year: Pennsylvania implemented on July 7, 2025, and Connecticut implemented on October 1, 2025 — both confirmed on the compact commission’s jurisdiction map. If you last checked a “compact states” list before mid-2025, it’s missing both.
Three enacted jurisdictions are not yet implemented, which is a meaningfully different status from “not in the compact”:
- Guam — partial implementation. Nurses holding an active compact license from elsewhere can already practice there, but Guam residents can’t yet apply for their own multistate license (implementation date not yet set).
- Massachusetts — enacted the compact into law but has not implemented it. A Massachusetts LPN cannot yet hold or use a multistate license under the NLC, despite the state technically being “in” the compact on paper.
- U.S. Virgin Islands — enacted, not implemented, no date set.
Massachusetts is the case that trips people up most: search “is Massachusetts a compact state” and you’ll get a yes/no answer depending on whether the source is counting enactment or implementation. For a practicing nurse, implementation is the number that matters.
States that are not in the compact at all
Nine states plus the District of Columbia have taken no action to join the NLC as of 2026: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, and Oregon, along with DC. If your home state is on that list, the NLC doesn’t help you — you’ll need to pursue licensure by endorsement to practice in another state, which is the traditional route where the target state’s board reviews your existing license and (usually) waives you from retaking the full exam, but does require a separate application, fee, and often a separate background check per state.
To see what endorsement looks like state by state for LPNs specifically, our LPN license requirements hub and LPN reciprocity page track the endorsement pathway and any compact participation we’ve verified for each state, tied to the same sourced records behind every requirement page on this site.
Compact vs. endorsement, in plain terms
It’s easy to conflate these, so here’s the distinction:
- Compact (multistate license): One license from your home state, automatically valid to practice in every other implemented compact state. No separate application per state. Only available if your home state has implemented the NLC.
- Endorsement (reciprocity): You hold a license in State A and want to practice in State B. State B’s board reviews your existing license, education, and exam history, and — assuming you meet its requirements — issues you a new, separate License B. This works between any two states, compact or not, but it’s a per-state process with its own fee and timeline every time you move.
If both your home state and the state you’re moving to have implemented the NLC, you likely don’t need to do anything beyond notify your employer — your existing multistate license already covers you. If either state is outside the compact, endorsement is your path, and the requirements vary by board.
The part everyone gets wrong: CNAs are not covered
This is worth stating plainly because it’s one of the most common points of confusion we see: the Nurse Licensure Compact covers Registered Nurses (RNs) and Licensed Practical/Vocational Nurses (LPN/LVN) only. Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) — sometimes called Nurse Aides — are governed by an entirely different, state-by-state system with no interstate compact at all. Every state maintains its own Nurse Aide Registry, and moving a CNA certification across state lines means going through that state’s individual reciprocity process, one state at a time, with no multistate shortcut.
We cover exactly what that process looks like, state by state, on our CNA requirements hub — including the training-hour minimums, exam vendors, and reciprocity notes for all 51 jurisdictions.
Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs — nurse practitioners, certified nurse anesthetists, and similar roles) are also outside the NLC’s scope; they’re covered by a separate compact, the APRN Compact, with its own membership list.
How to verify your specific state pair
Because compact membership changes multiple times a year — two states implemented in 2025 alone — treat any list you find online, including this one, as a starting point rather than a final answer before you make a move. Before relying on compact eligibility for a job offer or relocation:
- Check your home state’s status on the compact commission’s own map at nursecompact.com, not a secondhand list.
- Confirm the status is “implemented,” not just “enacted” — Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands illustrate why that distinction matters.
- Contact your state board of nursing directly to confirm your license type (RN vs. LPN/LVN) is covered and your current license is in good standing, since compact eligibility can be affected by certain disciplinary history.
For more on how we source and date the facts on this site — and why that matters for a topic that changes as often as compact membership — see our methodology.