Traveling Newbie.. Advice, please!

NedRN · Oct 22, 2012

Hard to negotiate signed up with single agency. Do you shop for cars at a single dealer? How will you know if you are getting a market rate?

San Diego is low pay for travelers, similar to Florida. So a "solid" contract is probably not in the works.

I'm not sure I understand your question about CA licensing. Where are you licensed now? A big issue with California is that they only verify their license by mail if you apply for another state license elsewhere. So if you go to a state such as Massachusetts or NJ that requires you verify every license ever held, it will cost you an extra $60 and perhaps an additional month to get a license because of California. Most states will verify through Nursys, all of them can be verified for $30 at one crack when you are applying for a new license.

So the optimal sequence is to work in the difficult to obtain license states first (they tend to pay more anyway), and California as late as possible. Even better if you arrange your permanent home (and hopefully tax home) in a compact state and then you will have much lower licensing costs (none when you work in a compact state).

But that is seldom practical. In your case, you may have already gotten your California license. And you want to work there NOW, not in 5 years. In practice, most travelers only get licenses in states they have been offered an assignment in. Typically agencies will chip in for that initial license, but not for a currently held one (unless it needs renewal). When a traveler knows that they will work in the next year or so in a difficult license state (for example California or Florida), they will typically get it in advance. Usually it is not possible to get an assignment and then a license in time to start such assignments.

By the way, with licenses you kind of get what you pay for. Hard to get licenses are a "barrier to entry" and typically those states pay travelers more. Compact states and "walk-through" states typically pay less.

alh387 · Oct 23, 2012

Thanks so much! This is really helpful, I had no idea about the compact states.. I'm currently licensed in NY. Do you try to get permanent licenses in states you think you might return to?

NedRN · Oct 23, 2012

Mostly, perm licenses are part of the process. I let them lapse when they expire, but in some states that effectively means you have to start the process all over again to get reinstated. But in many states, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, and California are states I often return to and they are all walkthrough renewal, even after a long expired period. You usually do have to pay more for later renewal, but less than the amount you would pay for continuous licensure (and usually the agency pays for the renewal anyway). I think some travelers keep up all their licenses, but that is an expensive proposition when you have traveled a long time.

I believe I have done assignments in three states with temps only and never gotten the perm. I did that just because of the hassle of verifying licenses at the time I started traveling. It was a paper process only. Technically, when you go to a state that requires verification of all licenses ever held, that probably includes temp licenses. But I've ignored that, and at least two of the jurisdictions have no process for verifying a temp license anyway - not even a number associated with it (such a gentle time that was!). Interestingly, I've done three assignments in DC all with temp licenses! In hindsight, I should have gotten a perm license.

But generally, you end up with perm licenses anyway. It doesn't cost less, unless you have to send transcripts and do a background check to get the perm (outside agency fees). Getting a temp only did kind of hurt me once. I had what I thought was a confirmed assignment in Ohio and got a temp, and didn't follow through with the perm. I'm from Ohio, and some years later I wanted to get a license so I could do some per diem when at home. The temp license was one time only, and I had to wait for the perm, which took a couple of months. Some state boards are a real pain.

It is more about getting perm licenses proactively in states you want to go to in the future so you are ready to accept a good assignment when it comes up.