Licensure in Different States

The only way that you can begin working in a state without having a license issued by that state is if you are licensed in a nurse compact state and move to another nurse compact state. If you're not familiar with that, what it basically means is that if you live in a nurse compact state, you can take your compact license, which is issued by your home state, and use it to work in another compact state temporarily until you become fully licensed by that state. This was enacted so that nurses could have more flexability and be able to travel more freely and still find employment as a licensed nurse. Only some of the states, 24 of them to be exact, are compact states, so if you get your license in a noncompact state and want to work in a compact state after you get your license, you will have to become fully licensed in that state before you can be employed as a nurse there. That works in reverse too; if you are licensed in a compact state and want to work in a noncompact state, you will have to become fully licensed before you can legally be employed as a nurse there. However, if you are licensed in a compact state and want to work in another compact state, you can begin working right away (assuming you have a job lined up) and you will be covered by your compact license for a certain period of time (I'm not sure how long) until you can get your regular license in that state.

Here's an example:

A couple of years ago, we moved from Michigan to Arizona for my husband's job. Since Michigan is a noncompact state, I was not able to look for a nursing job in Arizona, which is a compact state, until I obtained my license through the Arizona board of nursing. Fortunately, both because there were no jobs in Arizona to be had (too many nurses, every hospital in Phoenix on a hiring freeze) and because we found that we absolutely hated Arizona, we ended up moving back to Michigan and it wasn't an issue. However, if I had moved to Arizona from Maryland, another compact state, I would have been able to work right away (had there been any jobs available), and then applied for my AZ license later.

Here is a list of which states are compact states:

http://www.nursetogether.com/Career/Resource-Article/itemid/189/US-States-Participating-in-the-Nurse-Licensure-C.aspx

Unless you are moving from a compact state to another compact state, no one will hire you until you are fully licensed in your new state. They can't legally hire someone who isn't licensed in their state, and with so many new grads out there looking for work, they would just hire someone who is already licensed in that state before they would hire someone and then wait for them to get their license.

I hope this wasn't too long and drawn out of an answer. Good luck to you with whatever you do and wherever you end up. :)

Thank you!! That was a very good summary!

I would advise you to apply well in advance of your move to the different state. I just moved to California and applied for the temporary license, which should have taken 2 weeks. It took 7 weeks and it will be another month before my permanent license goes through. The hospital I applied to said they couldn't even CONSIDER me for a position until I already had the license in place, so that means that if you want to apply for jobs early, then you better have your license early too just in case.

Good luck!