One of the issues military spouses that hold professional licenses face is that when their
family is PCS’d to a new location, they have to go through the process each time to get licensed in their new state. In many cases, this happens about every three years.
IMPACT OF LAW CHANGE FOR MILITARY SPOUSES
President Biden signed this groundbreaking, and much needed, legislation late Thursday (January 5) that will change the existing rules. Under the Military Spouse Licensing Relief Act, license application reciprocity among all 50 states would apply to all the licensed professions, except the practice of law. This could be a boon for the 132,000 active duty spouses in fields who require licensing.
Not only is it expensive every time a spouse has to change licenses, but it is time-consuming. It means they can’t start a new job until they are licensed in the state where they currently reside.
Representative Mike Garcia (R-CA) introduced the bill in the House that will be a first step to correct this injustice, but unfortunately, not a binding step. In the end, states still have to be willing to accept the license from another state. Realistically, some will and some will not. But for the ones that do honor reciprocity, it will ease the burden for those military spouses. The ultimate solution would be to have a federally issued license that states would have to honor, but that step is still light years away – if it ever happens. But in the interim, for some licensed professions, interstate compacts have been established whereby states that join a specific compact have agreed to accept the professional license for a specific occupation of another state in that compact.
Read more here:
White House Makes Military Spouse License Portability Rule Change - ClearanceJobs
