Verified against official state boards & compacts
Moving states? Check if your license moves with you.
12 professions, 51 jurisdictions, 612 verified transfer answers — compact, reciprocity, endorsement, or start over. Every answer cites the official board and shows the date it was last verified.
Does your license transfer?
Pick your profession and both states — get the pathway, requirements, fees, and official board links.
Your personalized pathway appears here. Four possible verdicts:
- Compact — automatic multistate
- Reciprocity agreement
- Endorsement (conditions)
- Full re-application
The portability atlas
How hard it is to bring a license into each state, by profession — ranked from most to least portable. The pattern most people expect (some states are easy, some are hard) is not what the data shows: portability depends far more on your profession than on your destination.
CPA / Accounting
49 straightforward · 2 conditional
49 states recognize a license from any other state.
Psychology
41 straightforward · 10 conditional
41 states honor one multistate PSYPACT license.
Nursing
40 straightforward · 11 conditional
40 states honor one multistate NLC license.
Physical Therapy
38 straightforward · 13 conditional
38 states honor one multistate PT Compact license.
Real Estate
7 straightforward · 38 conditional · 6 start over
21 states transfer by endorsement — no automatic reciprocity.
Teaching
6 straightforward · 45 conditional
45 states transfer by endorsement — no automatic reciprocity.
Pharmacy
4 straightforward · 46 conditional · 1 start over
46 states transfer by endorsement — no automatic reciprocity.
Electrician
3 straightforward · 30 conditional · 18 start over
25 states honor a named list of partner states.
Cosmetology / Barber
2 straightforward · 48 conditional · 1 start over
35 states transfer by endorsement — no automatic reciprocity.
Engineering
51 conditional
51 states transfer by endorsement — no automatic reciprocity.
Contractor
41 conditional · 10 start over
41 states transfer by endorsement — no automatic reciprocity.
Plumber
36 conditional · 15 start over
19 states transfer by endorsement — no automatic reciprocity.
Each tile is one state, positioned roughly geographically. Colours describe the route in for an out-of-state licensee — a specific move can differ when a state's agreement names only some origin states. See who is in each compact on the compact membership map.
The four routes, in seven outcomes
Every transfer resolves to one of these, and the checker picks between them in this order. This is also the legend for the atlas above.
1. Multistate compact license
119 · 19%
One license, many states. Hold a multistate license in your home state and you can practice in every other member state without a new application.
2. Full reciprocity
71 · 12%
The destination board recognizes a license from any other state. You apply, you verify, you do not repeat the exam or the education.
3. Named reciprocity agreement
62 · 10%
The destination honors a named list of partner states. If your state is on that list you skip most requirements — if it is not, you fall back to endorsement.
4. Compact enacted — not yet issuing
17 · 3%
The state has passed compact legislation but is not issuing multistate licenses yet. Until it activates, you use the ordinary endorsement route.
5. Licensure by endorsement
292 · 48%
The most common route. No automatic recognition, but you do not start over: the board verifies your existing license and you meet the state-specific gaps.
6. Full re-application
25 · 4%
No reciprocity and no endorsement track for your credential. You apply as a new candidate and sit the state's exams.
7. No reciprocity offered
26 · 4%
The state offers no reciprocity with anyone for this credential. Expect a full application including its own exams.
Shares of 612 verified combinations —12 professions × 51 jurisdictions (50 states + DC), verified as of 2026-07-21. Each figure describes the route into a state for an out-of-state licensee; a specific move can land on a different rung when a state's agreement names only some origin states — that is what the checker resolves.
The tools
Reciprocity Checker
Any profession, any two states — your exact transfer pathway with fees, steps, and board links.
Compact Membership Map
Which states are in each licensure compact right now — member, pending, and non-member.
Endorsement Finder
One target state's full out-of-state requirements: exams, hours, fees, processing time.
Why trust these answers?
Every fact on this site traces to an official state licensing board or interstate compact commission — never to blogs or license-prep schools, which routinely publish inflated reciprocity lists. Each page shows when its data was last verified and links the primary source so you can confirm the current rule yourself.
That same verified dataset is published in aggregate on the license reciprocity statistics page: how often a transfer is genuinely automatic, what boards charge, which states are hardest to enter, and how far the compacts actually reach. Every figure there is recomputed from the source data and free to republish with a link.