All states / Montana

Moving from Alaska to Montana
Flag of Montana

Working in Montana: licences, taxes and who pays you to come

Montana in one page for someone moving in for a job. Who keeps each licence, whether yours transfers, what the state takes out of your pay, and the openings filed there this month.

CNA reciprocity in Montana

A nurse aide certificate is kept on a state registry, not a national one, so moving means getting on the Montana registry. The registry is the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Nurse Aide Registry. It accepts an active certificate from another state by reciprocity; you do not retrain or retest if your record is clean.

  1. Check your current listing. Your certificate must be active and without findings on the Alaska registry. A lapsed certificate cannot be transferred; it has to be renewed or retested first.
  2. Apply to the Montana registry. The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Nurse Aide Registry handles reciprocity (some states call it endorsement or transfer). Expect to give your home-state certificate number, a copy of your ID, and in most states a fingerprint background check.
  3. Show recent work if asked. Many states require paid nurse aide work in the last 24 months. If you have been out of the job, say so before you move: a retest is cheaper than a wasted application.
  4. Wait for the listing, then start. Most registries list you within two to six weeks. Employers in Montana check the registry, not your old card, so do not start before you appear on it.

Fees change by the year and sit between nothing and about $50 in most states; the registry's own site has the current figure and form. Do not pay a third-party site to "transfer" a CNA certificate: the registry does it, and only the registry.

RN and LPN: does your nursing licence transfer to Montana?

Montana is a member of the Nurse Licensure Compact. If your RN or LPN licence is a multistate licence from another compact state, you can work in Montana on it today. Only if you move your primary residence here do you apply for a Montana multistate licence, and the old one is then retired.

Electrician licence in Montana

Montana issues electrician licences at state level, through the Montana State Electrical Board. State journeyman and master licences; reciprocity with the western group of states for journeymen with an equivalent licence.

Whatever the state's rule, the fastest route is the same: get your hours certified by your current licensing body before you move, carry the exam result if you passed one, and apply the week you arrive. A journeyman who waits until the first job offer to apply loses the offer to the wait.

What Montana takes out of your pay

Progressive, top rate 5.9%. You are leaving a state with no income tax for one that has it. On a $60,000 salary that is roughly $2,478 a year in Montana, depending on brackets and deductions.

A state with no income tax is not a state with no tax: Texas, Florida and Tennessee take it in sales and property tax instead. For a renter on wages, the no-tax states still come out ahead on take-home pay. For a homeowner, property tax decides it.

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

Amounts are the program's own "up to" figure and change with each funding round. Every program has a residence condition, usually a year, and claws the money back if you leave early.

Openings filed in Montana

72 open positions filed with the Department of Labor by Montana employers who could not fill them locally. These are the employers already paying to bring people in.

All US openings by trade and state

Your own route to Montana

Tell us your trade, your licence and where you are now. We write the steps for your case, check the job offer for scams, and keep your resume ready for Montana employers.

Plan my move to Montana

Moving to Montana from another state

from Alabama · from Alaska · from Arizona · from Arkansas · from California · from Colorado · from Connecticut · from Delaware · from Florida · from Georgia · from Hawaii · from Idaho · from Illinois · from Indiana · from Iowa · from Kansas · from Kentucky · from Louisiana · from Maine · from Maryland · from Massachusetts · from Michigan · from Minnesota · from Mississippi · from Missouri · from Nebraska · from Nevada · from New Hampshire · from New Jersey · from New Mexico · from New York · from North Carolina · from North Dakota · from Ohio · from Oklahoma · from Oregon · from Pennsylvania · from Rhode Island · from South Carolina · from South Dakota · from Tennessee · from Texas · from Utah · from Vermont · from Virginia · from Washington · from West Virginia · from Wisconsin · from Wyoming

Next door

North Dakota (progressive, top rate 2.5%) · South Dakota (no state income tax) · Wyoming (no state income tax) · Idaho (flat 5.3% state income tax)

All 50 states

Moving for a job? Start with your state.

Licence transfer, what the state takes from your pay, and who pays you to come. Free, no account.

Pick the state