Florida Multistate Nursing License: Upgrade, Costs, and Renewal

If Florida is your primary residence, you can obtain a Florida multistate nursing license under the Nurse Licensure Compact and practice in more than 40 participating states without applying separately in each one.¹ The license is available to Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses who hold an active, unencumbered Florida license and pass a fingerprint-based background check. If you already have a single-state Florida license, upgrading to multistate status costs $100 and can be submitted any time.²

Who Qualifies

Every compact state uses the same eligibility rules. To hold a multistate license with Florida as your home state, you need to meet all of these:

Florida is your primary state of residence, shown by your driver’s license, voter registration, or federal tax return.³
You graduated from a board-approved RN or LPN prelicensure program. Foreign-educated nurses need credentials verified by a board-approved review agency, and an English proficiency exam if the program was not taught in English.¹
You passed the NCLEX-RN, NCLEX-PN, or the recognized predecessor SBTPE.⁴
Your Florida license is current with no restrictions, suspensions, or conditions attached.¹
You have no felony conviction and no nursing-related misdemeanor conviction. Other misdemeanors are evaluated case by case.¹
You have a valid U.S. Social Security number.
You submit fingerprints electronically through an approved Livescan provider for FDLE and FBI review.⁵

Florida also enforces a separate healthcare-practitioner statute that requires the Board to deny licensure to applicants convicted of certain fraud-related felonies, drug offenses, and federal controlled-substance or Medicare/Medicaid violations, with waiting periods before reapplication depending on the offense. Termination from Medicaid for cause or presence on the federal Office of Inspector General’s exclusion list also triggers denial.⁶

Advanced Practice Nurses Are Not Covered

The NLC applies only to RNs and LPNs. Multistate privileges do not extend APRN authority to other states. A separate APRN Compact is in development but has not reached the number of member states required to take effect, so APRNs who want to practice in another state must still apply for licensure there directly.⁷

How to Apply or Upgrade

If you are a new applicant seeking initial Florida licensure by examination, you can request multistate status as part of that application. The initial fee is $110 to the Board of Nursing, plus $200 to Pearson VUE for the NCLEX, plus a Livescan fingerprint fee.⁴

If you already hold a single-state Florida license, upgrading is a separate application. Renewing your existing license does not convert it automatically; you have to file the upgrade specifically. The upgrade attaches multistate privileges to your current license number without changing your expiration date.²

Upgrade Steps

Download the Multistate License Upgrade Application from the Florida Board of Nursing website. Print and sign it, or sign digitally.⁸
Get fingerprinted at any FDLE-approved Livescan provider. Use the Board of Nursing ORI number EDOH4420Z. Results must be dated no more than 90 days before you submit the application.⁸
Complete the Declaration of Primary State of Residence form. If your mailing address is a P.O. Box, attach a copy of your Florida driver’s license, voter registration card, or federal tax return showing a physical Florida address.⁹
Pay the $100 fee by cashier’s check or money order to the Department of Health. $50 of that is a nonrefundable processing fee.⁸
Mail everything to the Board of Nursing at P.O. Box 6330, Tallahassee, FL 32314-6330, or fax to 850-617-6460.

If you have criminal history to disclose, add a written explanation of each offense, final disposition records, proof of sentence completion, and three professional letters of recommendation written within the past year.⁸

How Long It Takes

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. Complete applications move faster; missing documents are the most common cause of delay.¹⁰ An application that stays incomplete for a full year expires, and you have to start over.

What the License Lets You Do

Once your multistate license is active, you can practice nursing in any other NLC member state without applying for a new license there. The privilege covers in-person care, phone-based care, and telehealth: if your patient is located in another NLC state, your Florida multistate license authorizes you to treat them remotely without holding that state’s license separately.¹¹ This matters most in emergencies, when hurricanes or pandemics spike demand and multistate holders can deploy immediately rather than wait for an emergency license.

Follow the Rules of the State Where the Patient Is

A Florida multistate license does not carry Florida’s scope of practice into other states. You are bound by the nursing practice act of the state where the patient is located when you provide care.¹ Before working in or telehealth-treating patients in another state, check that state’s scope of practice, mandatory reporting rules, and any continuing education tied to practice there. Assuming every compact state works like Florida is where nurses most often get into trouble.

What It Costs

Budget for more than the application fee itself. The full picture:

Initial license by examination: $110 to the Board of Nursing, $200 to Pearson VUE, plus a Livescan fingerprint fee that varies by provider.⁴
Multistate upgrade for existing license holders: $100 to the Board of Nursing ($50 nonrefundable), plus the Livescan fee.⁸
Biennial renewal: $75 for active-to-active renewal.
Fingerprint retention: $43.25 every five years, required for all Florida healthcare practitioners as of July 2025.¹²

Livescan providers set their own prices and the Board does not publish a standard rate; plan on roughly $30 to $75 depending on where you go.

Continuing Education and Renewal

Florida nursing licenses renew every two years, and your multistate privileges share the same expiration date. Continuing education hours are reported through CEBroker.com. For RN renewal, the Board requires:¹³

16 hours of general nursing CE 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, in addition to the standard 24 hours (board-approved)
1 hour on HIV/AIDS, required once before your first renewal only (board-approved)

If you were first licensed during the current renewal period, your first renewal is lighter: only the medical errors, Florida laws and rules, impairment, human trafficking, and HIV/AIDS courses.¹³

One distinction worth knowing: if you hold a multistate license issued by another compact state and are practicing in Florida under that privilege, you owe Florida nothing for renewal. Your CE and fees go to the state that issued your license.¹³

What Happens When You Move

Residency is the entire basis of a multistate license, so a move changes things immediately.

Moving to Another Compact State

You have 60 days from the date you move to apply for a multistate license in your new home state.¹⁴ During that window you can keep practicing under your Florida multistate license. Once the new state issues yours, the Florida multistate license deactivates automatically.¹ Have your residency documents ready before applying in the new state.

If you move but do not plan to practice nursing in the new state anytime soon, notify the Florida Board of Nursing of your address change anyway. The Board will convert your multistate license to a single-state Florida license, which only authorizes you to practice in Florida.¹⁴

Moving to a Non-Compact State

If your new home is in a state that has not joined the NLC, you lose eligibility for a multistate license. You will need a single-state license in that state, and separate licensure in any other state where you want to practice.³ A multistate license can only be held in the state where you keep your primary residence, and that state must be a compact member.

Discipline Travels Across States

Action against your license in one compact state can affect every other compact state where you have practice privileges. The NLC uses a shared database, the Coordinated Licensure Information System, and member states are required to report disciplinary actions to it within 15 calendar days. Every other state board can see that record immediately.

If Florida places any restriction or encumbrance on your license, your multistate privileges convert to a single-state Florida license and you can no longer practice in other compact states under the NLC.¹ If another compact state takes action against your practice privilege there, that information reaches the Florida Board and can prompt review of your home-state license as well.

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. Declaration of Primary State of Residence
10
Florida Board of Nursing. Licensing
11
NurseCompact. Nurses and the NLC
12
FL HealthSource. Screening Requirements
13
Florida Board of Nursing. Registered Nurse (RN) Renewal
14
NurseCompact. Frequently Asked Questions Regarding the Amended NLC Residency Rule