Under the Counseling Compact, your home state is the state where you primarily reside. You must hold an unencumbered, independent-level license from that state, and the state must be a live member. A license from any other state cannot anchor your privileges, however long you have held it or wherever your clients are.
Most compact eligibility problems trace back to one word. For the Counseling Compact, your home state is the state where you primarily reside. The Commission's FAQ says so in those words, and adds that your home state may differ from where you currently practice or hold a license.
Everything else follows from that. To use the compact you need a license in your home state, your home state must be a member, and it must be live. A license from any other state does not count, no matter how long you have held it or how many clients you see under it.
Common situations, sorted
"I live in Kansas City, Missouri, and my only license is from Kansas."
Your home state is Missouri. Your Kansas license cannot be your compact license, because the Commission's FAQ says a license from a state other than your home state does not qualify. You would need a Missouri license, and Missouri would need to be issuing privileges. As of October 2026 neither Missouri nor Kansas was live, though both had enacted the compact.
"I'm licensed in Ohio and Arizona and live in Arizona."
Arizona is your home state, and your Arizona LPC is the license that drives your privileges. You could request privileges in any other live state except Ohio, where you already hold a full license. Your Ohio license keeps working as an ordinary single-state license.
"I live in California but have an active Oregon license."
Neither state is a member. California is your home state and it is not in the compact, so you cannot participate. The Commission's FAQ is blunt about this: if your home state is not a member, your only route is single-state licenses through each board.
"I live in Florida and hold a Florida LMHC."
Florida has enacted the compact, so you are in a member state, but it was not issuing privileges in October 2026. You will become eligible when Florida goes live, provided your license meets the uniform standards. Until then, the compact does nothing for you. See enacted but not live.
"I split the year between Minnesota and Arizona."
The compact asks where you primarily reside, a single state. The usual indicators of primary residence are things like where you vote, file state income taxes, hold a driver's license and claim a homestead. Pick the one that is genuinely your primary residence and hold an independent-level license there. If those indicators point different ways, ask the board before you apply, because an attestation about residence is a legal statement.
What exactly does the home license have to be?
An unencumbered license that lets you independently diagnose, assess, treat and practice at the highest level in your home state. Provisional, associate and student licenses are excluded. In practice this means the top clinical tier of each state:
- Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Wyoming: LPC
- Indiana: LMHC
- Minnesota and Ohio: LPCC (an Ohio LPC or Minnesota LPC does not qualify)
- Tennessee: LPC with the Mental Health Service Provider designation (LPC-MHSP)
Georgia licensees also have to confirm compact eligibility with the Georgia board before they can apply through CompactConnect. Oklahoma lists an FBI background check on file as part of eligibility for its licensees.
What happens when you move?
Your home state changes the day your primary residence changes. Three outcomes are possible.
- Member state to member state. If you already hold a privilege in the state you are moving to, the compact provides for converting it into a license there, under rules set by the Commission, rather than starting a full application. You then hold a license where you live, and your other privileges hang from that license.
- Member state to non-member state. You no longer have a member home state. Privileges that rested on your old home license stop being something you can use or renew, because the eligibility condition they depend on is gone. Any client you want to keep in another state now needs a full license there.
- Non-member to member state. Get licensed in your new state (usually by endorsement), and once that state is live you can apply for privileges on that license.
The compact leaves the mechanics of that conversion to Commission rules, so read the Commission's current rules before you move and notify CompactConnect and both boards in the order they require. If you have an open complaint when you move, the compact says your former home state completes the investigation and reports to the data system, which notifies your new home state.
Military families
The compact lets an active-duty service member, or the service member's spouse, designate as home state any state where the person holds a current license in good standing, for as long as the service member is on active duty. If you are a military spouse who has moved three times on orders, you can keep the license you already maintain as your compact anchor.
Why the rule exists
The compact gives remote states a single place to look for your primary regulator. Tying it to residence stops counselors from shopping for the easiest license and using it everywhere. It is strict, and it occasionally produces odd results for people who live near a border, but it is not going to change for any individual case.
If you are unsure which state counts as home, or whether your license sits at the right tier, a Readiness Review answers that before you spend anything on fees. State-specific details are in our state guides, and the compact overview has the current live list.
Common questions
- Can I use my license from a state I don't live in for the counseling compact?
- No. The Commission's FAQ says a license from a state other than your home state does not qualify. Your home state is where you primarily reside, and you must be licensed there.
- My state joined the compact. Can I use it now?
- Only once your state is issuing privileges. In October 2026 ten states were live; about thirty more member jurisdictions had enacted the compact but were not yet issuing.
- Does an Ohio LPC qualify for the compact or only the LPCC?
- Only the LPCC. The compact requires a license to practice independently at the highest level, and the Commission lists the LPCC as Ohio's qualifying license. Minnesota is the same.
- Can a military spouse pick their compact home state?
- Yes. The compact lets an active-duty service member or spouse designate a home state where they hold a current license in good standing, for as long as the service member remains on active duty.
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