How to transfer your LPN licence to Kansas (2026)

LPN work in Kansas is licensed at state level, by the Kansas Board of Nursing. Kansas is a member of the Nurse Licensure Compact, so a multistate licence from another compact state works here from the day you arrive. This page says what a LPN licensed or working in another state has to do to work in Kansas, in the order to do it, and what goes wrong when the order is reversed.

How the transfer works

The Nurse Licensure Compact covers LPN and LVN licences exactly as it covers RN licences: between compact states a multistate licence works on arrival, and into or out of a non-compact state you apply to the Kansas board for licensure by endorsement with Nursys verification, fingerprints and the fee.

Exam: NCLEX-PN, passed once.

How long: day one between compact states; four to twelve weeks for endorsement. Fee: $50 to $250 plus fingerprinting; the current figure is on the licensing body's own site.

What to have ready before you move

• Nursys verification
• Fingerprints for the new state
• Proof of continuing education for the last renewal

Start the paperwork before you give notice. Every week the licence is not done is a week you are not paid, and nothing in the process needs you to be in Kansas already.

What people get wrong

• Confusing LVN (California and Texas) with LPN; they are the same licence under two names and transfer the same way
• Assuming the compact applies in California, New York or Illinois; it does not
• Letting the old licence lapse before the new one is issued

Who hires LPNs in Kansas

LPNs in Kansas are hired by nursing homes, clinics, home health, correctional health and hospitals. The metros with the most of that work are Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City and Topeka. Employers who could not hire locally and have filed with the Department of Labor are on the Kansas openings page.

For the money side: the median LPN in Kansas earned $59,920 a year ($29 an hour) in May 2024 across 6,940 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Kansas has a progressive state income tax with a top rate of 5.58%. What that leaves you after tax is its own page.

Kansas also has programs that pay people to move in: Choose Topeka (up to $15,000, for people who take a job in Shawnee County or move there as remote workers; the employer matches part of it) and Rural Opportunity Zones (student loan repayment up to $15,000 over five years, plus an income tax waiver in some counties, for graduates moving to one of the designated rural counties). Each has a residence condition and a funding round.

Everything about Kansas, on one page

The Kansas page has the registries and boards, the income tax table, the programs that pay you to come and the openings filed this month. If you know which state you are leaving, the move pages compare the two directly. Creating a free Workmerica profile with your trade and your destination puts you in front of Kansas employers hiring from out of state.