Moving to Florida as a CNA: the checklist (2026)

Moving to Florida as a certified nursing assistant is four jobs in a fixed order: the licence, the employer, the money, then the move itself. Do them in that order and the first paycheck arrives in the first month; do them in the order most people do, truck first, and the licence wait eats the savings. This checklist is specific to Florida: no state income tax on wages, nurse aides listed by the Florida Board of Nursing (CNA certification by endorsement), and no statewide program that pays people to move in.

Step 1, before you give notice: get on the Florida registry

Your certificate lives on your current state's nurse aide registry, and Florida will not read it from there. The body that lists nurse aides in Florida is the Florida Board of Nursing (CNA certification by endorsement). Endorsement for an active CNA from another state registry; Florida runs its own background screening before it certifies you.

• Check your current listing first. It must be active, with no findings, and with an expiry date after your move. A certificate that lapses mid-application starts over.
• Apply for reciprocity with the Florida registry: your current certificate number, a government ID, and in most states a fingerprint background check run by Florida, not by your old state.
• Have proof of paid nurse aide work in the last 24 months ready. Many registries ask; an employer letter or pay stubs showing nurse aide duties is what they accept.
• Do not start before you appear on the registry. Employers in Florida check the registry, not your card. Two to six weeks is the usual wait.

Fees are nothing to about fifty dollars in most states; the registry's own site has the current figure and the form. Nobody but the registry can do this for you, so pay no third-party site to "transfer" a certificate.

Step 2: line up the job before the truck

CNAs in Florida are hired by nursing homes, assisted living, home health agencies and hospitals. The metros with the most of that work are Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Orlando and St. Petersburg. Two kinds of employer are worth your first calls:

• Employers that have filed with the Department of Labor because they could not hire locally. Those filings are proof they are already paying to bring people in, and they are listed on the Florida openings page.
• Employers that pay relocation. Ask after the offer, not in the first interview: "I can start on the 15th if the move is covered; what does your relocation package include?" Get whatever is agreed into the offer letter. Most packages are taxable income, so a $3,000 package is about $2,200 in your pocket.

Put your destination and your licence on your Workmerica profile: employers in Florida searching for CNAs who are already on their way see you before you arrive, and that is the point of being in the register.

Step 3: the money, in the order it matters

Florida has no state income tax on wages. That is the single largest pay difference a move can make, and it shows up in the first paycheck. A state with no income tax is not a state with no tax, though: sales and property tax carry more of the load, so a renter on wages comes out ahead and a homeowner has to do the sums.

For comparison, next door: Georgia has a flat 5.19% state income tax and Alabama has a progressive state income tax with a top rate of 5%.

There is no statewide program in Florida that pays people to move in. Individual towns sometimes list an offer through MakeMyMove, and employers in short-staffed trades pay relocation themselves; ask for it in writing before you accept.

Step 4: the first 30 days in Florida

• Driver's licence and plates. Most states give you 30 days to swap a driver's licence and 30 to 60 to register the car; Florida's driver licence office has the exact window. Bring proof of the new address.
• Your listing on the Florida Board of Nursing (CNA certification by endorsement). Do not start work before it exists. A good employer will not let you anyway.
• Tax withholding. Give your employer a Florida withholding form on day one (there is none to withhold, but the federal W-4 still needs the new address); the state you left will otherwise keep taking its share until you file.
• Voter registration and address changes with your bank, your licensing board and the USPS. The board matters: renewal notices go to the address on file.
• Keep the old licence alive until the new one is in hand. Letting it lapse "because I am leaving anyway" is the most common way people arrive unlicensed.

What people get wrong

• Moving before applying to the Florida registry. Nothing in the process needs you to be there, and a listing that is ready when you arrive is a paycheck three weeks earlier.
• Letting the old certificate lapse. It is the thing you are transferring.
• Paying a middleman. Reciprocity is a form and a fee paid to a state registry, and nobody can speed it up.
• Assuming an employer letter replaces the registry listing. It does not.

Everything about Florida, on one page

The Florida page has the registries and boards named above, the income tax table at three salaries, the programs that pay you to come, and the openings filed in Florida this month. If you know which state you are leaving, the move pages compare the two directly, licence by licence. Creating a free Workmerica profile with your trade and your destination puts you in front of Florida employers who hire from out of state, before you have packed a box.