Checking a licence in the United States: state boards, compacts and national databases

Why the state board comes first

The US Department of Education says regulated professions in the United States are licensed at the state level ¹⁰. The Medical Board of California, for example, offers its own licence verification and a License Alert service that notifies users when a doctor is suspended, revoked or placed on probation ⁶. The State Bar of California publishes definitions of its licensee status terms, such as active, inactive and not eligible to practise ⁸. National tools help, but the issuing board's record is the one to rely on.

National tools compared

Nurses: Nursys and the compact

NCSBN says Nursys is the only national database for verification of nurse licensure, discipline and practice privileges for RNs, LPN/VNs and APRNs licensed in participating jurisdictions, including all Nurse Licensure Compact states ¹. The compact website says 43 jurisdictions are part of it and that nurses living in a compact state can apply for a multistate licence ².

Doctors: state boards and the IMLC

The Interstate Medical Licensure Compact offers a voluntary, expedited pathway to licensure for physicians who want to practise in several states ³. Its map in November 2026 showed 39 states, DC and Guam acting as a state of principal licence, Hawaii and Vermont issuing licences only, Alaska, New Mexico and Rhode Island with implementation in process, and New York with legislation introduced ³. Each licence issued through the compact is still a state licence, checked with that state's board.

California physician certificates expire at midnight on the last day of the month of issue in the second year of a two-year term, a rule that applies from 1 July 2018 ⁷. After a hearing, the board may revoke a licence, suspend it for up to one year, order probation or issue a public reprimand ⁹.

Why the NPDB is not a public check

The National Practitioner Data Bank is a web-based store of reports on medical malpractice payments and certain adverse actions about health care practitioners, providers and suppliers ⁴. Congress set it up in 1986 under Title IV of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act, Public Law 99-660 ⁴. Eligible entities report and query, and subjects may see their own records, but the reports are confidential and not available to the public ⁴. Members of the public use state board records instead.

Accountants and lawyers

CPAverify is the public CPA search on the NASBA site, which lists accountancy boards too ⁵. Lawyers are licensed by state, and each state bar or court publishes its own status terms. In California only active licensees may practise law ⁸.