Florida Multistate Nursing License: Eligibility, Cost, Upgrade

A Florida multistate nursing license lets an RN or LPN whose primary residence is Florida practice in more than 40 other Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) states without applying for a separate license in each one.¹ You can request it as part of your initial Florida license application, or, if you already hold a single-state Florida license, you can upgrade for a $100 fee at any time.² Either path requires a fingerprint-based background check and documented proof that Florida is your primary home.

Who Qualifies

The NLC uses uniform eligibility rules across every member state. For a Florida-issued multistate license, you need all of the following:¹

Florida as your primary state of residence, shown by your driver’s license, voter registration, or federal tax return.³
Graduation from a board-approved RN or LPN prelicensure program. Foreign-educated nurses must have credentials verified by a board-approved review agency, and if the program was not taught in English, pass an approved English proficiency exam.
A passing score on the NCLEX-RN, NCLEX-PN, or the recognized predecessor SBTPE.⁴
A current, unencumbered Florida nursing license (no restrictions, suspensions, or conditions).
No felony conviction and no nursing-related misdemeanor conviction. Other misdemeanors are evaluated case by case.
A valid U.S. Social Security number.
A clean fingerprint-based background check through an approved Livescan provider, with results reviewed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI.⁵

Florida layers an additional disqualifier on top of the NLC rules. Under state law, the Board of Nursing must refuse a license if you have been convicted of fraud-related felonies, drug offenses, or federal controlled substance or Medicare/Medicaid violations, or if you were terminated from Medicaid for cause or appear on the federal Office of Inspector General’s exclusion list. Waiting periods before you can reapply run 15 years for first- or second-degree felonies, 10 years for most third-degree felonies, and 5 years for third-degree drug possession felonies.⁶

One boundary worth knowing up front: the NLC covers only RNs and LPNs. If you are an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, a multistate RN license does not carry your APRN privileges into other states. A separate APRN Compact has been drafted but has not yet reached the number of member states required to take effect.⁷

What It Costs

Costs depend on whether this is your first Florida license or an upgrade of an existing one. Livescan fingerprinting is extra in every case; providers set their own prices, and the Board of Nursing does not publish a standard figure. Expect roughly $30 to $75 depending on provider and location.

Initial license by examination: $110 to the Board of Nursing, plus $200 to Pearson VUE for the NCLEX, plus the Livescan fee.⁴
Multistate upgrade for existing license holders: $100 to the Board of Nursing, of which $50 is a nonrefundable processing fee, plus the Livescan fee.⁸
Biennial renewal: $75 for active-to-active renewal.⁹
Fingerprint retention: $43.25 every five years, required for all Florida healthcare practitioners as of July 2025.¹⁰

How to Apply or Upgrade

New applicants can request multistate status as part of the initial licensure-by-examination application. There is no separate form at that stage.

If you already hold a single-state Florida license, renewing it will not convert it. You have to submit the Multistate License Upgrade Application specifically. The upgrade attaches multistate privileges to your existing license number without changing your current expiration date.² The steps:

Download and complete the Multistate License Upgrade Application from the Florida Board of Nursing website. You can sign on paper or digitally.⁸
Get fingerprinted through an approved Livescan provider using the Board’s ORI number. Prints must be dated within 90 days of your application submission.
Complete the Declaration of Primary State of Residence. If your mailing address is a P.O. Box, attach a copy of your Florida driver’s license, voter registration, or federal tax return showing a physical Florida address.¹¹
Pay the $100 fee by cashier’s check or money order to the Department of Health.
Mail or fax the completed packet to the Board of Nursing in Tallahassee.

Applicants with any criminal history to disclose also need a written explanation of each offense, final disposition records, proof that any sentence was completed, and three professional letters of recommendation written within the past year.

Florida law requires the Board to review an initial application within 30 days, but the full process from submission to license in hand typically runs two to six months. Missing documents are the usual reason for delay, and an application that stays incomplete for a year expires.¹²

What the License Lets You Do

Once your multistate license is active, you can practice in any other NLC member state without applying there separately. The privilege covers in-person work, phone-based care, and telehealth; if your patient is physically located in another compact state, your Florida multistate license is enough to treat them remotely.¹³ That same portability is what allows multistate holders to deploy quickly during hurricanes, pandemics, or other surges in demand.

What the license does not do is export Florida’s scope of practice. You are bound by the nursing practice act of the state where the patient is located at the time you provide care.¹ Before taking a shift in another compact state or opening a telehealth caseload there, review that state’s scope rules, mandatory reporting duties, and any continuing education it requires of nurses practicing within its borders. Assuming every compact state works like Florida is where nurses most often get into trouble.

Renewal and Continuing Education

Florida nursing licenses renew every two years, and multistate privileges travel on the same expiration date. Continuing education hours are reported through CEBroker.com. For RN renewal, the Board requires:⁹

16 general nursing CE hours from an accredited provider
2 hours on prevention of medical errors (board-approved)
2 hours on Florida laws and rules (board-approved)
2 hours on recognizing impairment in the workplace, every other renewal cycle (board-approved)
2 hours on human trafficking, every renewal cycle
2 hours on domestic violence, every third renewal cycle, on top of the standard 24 hours (board-approved)
1 hour on HIV/AIDS, required once before your first renewal only (board-approved)

Nurses first licensed during the current renewal period have a lighter first-renewal requirement: only the medical errors, Florida laws and rules, impairment, human trafficking, and HIV/AIDS courses.

If you hold a multistate license issued by another compact state and are practicing in Florida on that privilege, you owe Florida nothing at renewal. Your CE and fees go to your home state.

If You Move

Relocating your primary residence to another NLC member state gives you 60 days from the move date to apply for a multistate license in the new home state.¹⁴ You can keep practicing on your Florida multistate license during that window. When the new state issues your license, the Florida multistate license is deactivated automatically.

If you move but do not plan to practice nursing in the new state, you still have to notify the Florida Board of your address change. The Board will convert your license to a single-state Florida license, which authorizes practice only in Florida.

A move to a state that has not joined the NLC ends your multistate eligibility. You can only hold a multistate license in a compact state where you maintain your primary residence, so you would need to apply for a single-state license in your new state and in any other state where you want to work.³

Discipline Travels

Discipline in one compact state is visible in all of them. Member states report actions to the Coordinated Licensure Information System within 15 calendar days, and every board can see those entries. If Florida places any restriction or encumbrance on your license, your multistate privileges convert to a single-state Florida license, cutting off practice in other NLC states. Action by another compact state against your practice privilege there is shared back with Florida and can trigger review of your home license.

Employers verify license status through Nursys, the national database maintained by NCSBN, and many enroll in Nursys e-Notify to receive automatic alerts when a nurse’s status changes. If your employer uses e-Notify, assume they will see a disciplinary action before you have the chance to tell them.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 464.0095 – Nurse Licensure Compact
2
Florida Board of Nursing. Frequently Asked Questions
3
NurseCompact. Frequently Asked Questions
4
Florida Board of Nursing. Nursing (RN and LPN)
5
Florida Board of Nursing. HB 975 New Background Screening Requirement
6
Florida Senate. Florida Code 456.0635 – Health Care Fraud; Disqualification of Licensure, Certificate, or Registration
7
NCSBN. Licensure Compacts
8
Florida Board of Nursing. Multistate License Upgrade Application
9
Florida Board of Nursing. Registered Nurse (RN) Renewal
10
FL HealthSource. Screening Requirements
11
Florida Board of Nursing. Declaration of Primary State of Residence
12
Florida Board of Nursing. Licensing
13
NurseCompact. Nurses and the NLC
14
NurseCompact. Frequently Asked Questions Regarding the Amended NLC Residency Rule