Timing of changing my residency for my Compact license

[Johanne Beaulieu, BSN]

Hi,

I am a psychiatric mental health nurse of 3 years and originally got my compact license in Colorado when I did my NCLEX in 2018. I graduated at 53 years old and it was a hard degree. I moved to Florida to work for two years. I applied and accepted a travel nurse contract in New Jersey two weeks ago. I have two daughters that live in New York and am attempting to be closer to them at this time.  Yesterday, I consulted with TravelTax to make sure that I did the right moves signing my Travel Nurse contract as an indigent nurse. I did that because I have no intention on going back to Florida at all. I cannot request stipends if I do not pay rent there. My plans are to switch my driver's license and registration as well as have my nursing license in New Jersey. New Jersey, by the way, just accepted the NLC and are presently allowing compact nurses to work in the state. My HUGE question is about the timing of changing my residency to New Jersey. First of all, there are no state taxes in Florida and at the moment since I just arrived in New Jersey, my 'residency' is Florida. Second of all, The NLC website does not indicate when New Jersey will be fully incorporated into the union but on the map, they are purple which means it is in process. Do I wait until New Jersey is fully in (at a date I do not know?), do I do it now? Will it make a difference? Do I lose my compact state privileges if I do that? I desperately need to keep my compact state privileges. I want to travel and help people all over right now. If anyone can guide me I would appreciate it. 

Thank you so much,

Johanne

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

If you no longer have a permanent residence in Florida, you do not have compact license privilege since you no longer live in a compact state.

[Epidural, BSN, RN]

New Jersey should announce their "compact implementation date" soon. I agree with "NICU Guy": if you no longer live in Florida, you can't have a Florida compact license. You can get a single state New Jersey RN license, and then upgrade it to a compact one. Hopefully that option will be possible before the end of 2021.