Nevada Concealed Carry Reciprocity: States That Honor It

Reciprocity

Nevada recognizes concealed firearm permits issued by 28 other states. The roster is published by the Nevada Department of Public Safety through its Records, Communications and Compliance Division in Carson City, and the copy in force is marked Effective July 01, 2026, with a footer reading "Updated 07/01/2026." It carries one operative sentence: "Pursuant to Nevada Revised Statute (NRS) 202.3689, the state of Nevada will recognize concealed weapons permits from the following states."

Two consequences follow from that sentence, and they are the two things travelers get wrong.

First, the list runs inbound only. It answers which out-of-state permits Nevada will honor. It does not tell you which states will honor a Nevada permit. Those are separate questions answered by separate governments, and Nevada has no power over the second one.

Second, the list is closed. NRS 202.3688(1) authorizes carry by "a person who possesses a permit to carry a concealed firearm that was issued by a state included in the list prepared pursuant to NRS 202.3689." A permit from a state not on the list is not a lesser permit in Nevada. For purposes of carrying concealed here, it is no permit at all.

The permit also has to be a live one. NRS 202.3688(1) speaks of a person who "possesses a permit to carry a concealed firearm," and the DPS recognition page describes the scheme as allowing "holders of valid permits from these states to carry a concealed weapon while in the State of Nevada." An expired or suspended out-of-state permit sits outside the recognition, and the issuing state being on the roster does not cure it.

The 28 states Nevada recognizes

These are the states named on the DPS recognition list effective July 01, 2026, with the qualifiers as the list prints them:

Read the omissions as deliberate. Because NRS 202.3688(1) reaches only permits issued by a listed state, a state's absence is the whole answer for a holder of that state's permit. California, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and every other state not printed above are not on this roster. The list also names states and only states. It does not name the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam or the U.S. Virgin Islands, so treat a permit from any of those as unrecognized unless DPS says otherwise in writing.

Check your own permit against the list before you cross the state line, and check it against the current DPS copy rather than against this page or any other secondary write-up. NRS 202.3689(1) directs the Department to run the review "[o]n or before July 1 of each year," so the roster is a document with a version, and the version is what governs.

Four states are on the list only in one permit class

This is where a reader gets hurt. Four entries carry a parenthetical that narrows recognition to a specific class of permit issued by that state:

• Idaho (Enhanced Permit). Only the enhanced class Nevada names is recognized. Confirm with Idaho which of the permits it issues carries that name.
• Mississippi (Enhanced Permit). Same structure. Only the enhanced class Nevada names is recognized, so confirm with Mississippi which of its permits that is.
• South Dakota (Enhanced Permit). Same again. Only the enhanced class Nevada names is recognized, so confirm with South Dakota which of its permits that is.
• North Dakota (Class 1 only). The list spells out the restriction. A North Dakota Class 2 permit is not what Nevada named.

The parenthetical is part of the entry, not a footnote to it. If you hold a permit from Idaho, Mississippi or South Dakota that is not the enhanced class, or a Class 2 permit from North Dakota, the safe reading is that you are in the same position as a permit holder from an unlisted state, and the consequence in Nevada is the same. If you believe your permit class is enhanced, carry the card that says so and be able to show it. The authority in NRS 202.3688(1) runs to permits "issued by a state included in the list prepared pursuant to NRS 202.3689," and the list describes four of those states by class, so the class printed on the permit is part of what has to match.

Nevada imposes no comparable class condition on the other 24 states on the roster. Where the list prints a bare state name, the state's permit is what Nevada recognized.

The 2016 date on the RCCD web page is not the date of the list

The DPS out-of-state recognition web page is headed "Effective July 1, 2016" and explains that the recognition scheme exists "[i]n accordance with SB 175 and AB 488 of the 2015 legislative session." That date belongs to the agency page and to the 2015 legislation the page cites, SB 175 and AB 488. It is not the date of the roster, and it says nothing about which states are currently on it.

The roster's own date is the one that matters, and the roster says Effective July 01, 2026. If you are comparing sources, take the date from the recognition list itself, not from the page that links to it.

What a recognized permit authorizes, and what it does not

NRS 202.3688(1) does not hand you a separate set of visitor rules. It lets you carry "in accordance with the requirements set forth in NRS 202.3653 to 202.369, inclusive," which is the same body of law that governs a permit issued by a Nevada sheriff. Recognition puts you inside Nevada's permit scheme. It does not exempt you from it.

Three requirements deserve naming here.

Carry the permit and proper identification, and produce both on request. NRS 202.3667(1) requires a permittee to carry the permit "together with proper identification whenever the permittee is in actual possession of a concealed firearm," and provides that "[b]oth the permit and proper identification must be presented if requested by a peace officer." Subsection 2 sets a civil penalty of $25 per violation. The DPS recognition page states the same duty in plain terms: "The permit must be in the possession of the permittee at all times while carrying a firearm." See DUTY_TO_INFORM.

Nevada's place restrictions apply to you. NRS 202.3673 governs concealed carry on the premises of public buildings. A permittee generally may carry there, but not in a public building on the property of a public airport, not in a public building on the property of a public school, a child care facility or the Nevada System of Higher Education without written permission, and not in a public building with a metal detector at each public entrance or a sign at each public entrance indicating that no firearms are allowed, subject to the exceptions in subsection 4. Violating subsection 2 or 3 is a misdemeanor under NRS 202.3673(5). See PROHIBITED_PLACES.

Nevada's definition of the permit sets its scope. Under NRS 202.3653(1), a "[c]oncealed firearm" means "a loaded or unloaded handgun which is carried upon a person in such a manner as not to be discernible by ordinary observation," and NRS 202.3653(3) ties "handgun" to the federal definition at 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(30). This is a handgun scheme. A concealed firearm permit, yours or Nevada's, is not authority to carry anything else concealed. Nevada handles non-firearm concealed weapons through a separate sheriff-issued permit under NRS 202.350(3), which by its own terms does not authorize a permit for a pistol, revolver or other firearm. See RESTRICTIONS.

The 60 day cliff for new residents

NRS 202.3688(2) is short and easy to miss. A person holding a permit from a listed state "may not carry a concealed firearm in this State if the person: (a) Becomes a resident of this State; and (b) Has not been issued a permit from the sheriff of the county in which he or she resides within 60 days after becoming a resident of this State."

Read the timing carefully. The statute is written around the date of issuance of the Nevada permit, not the date you applied for it. Washoe County tells applicants to "[a]llow up to 120 days for processing your completed application," and gives the reason as the time it can take to get a records check back from the F.B.I. That is not a local quirk. NRS 202.366(3) gives every Nevada sheriff up to 120 days after a complete application is submitted to grant or deny it, so the outer statutory processing window is twice the length of the window in NRS 202.3688(2) in every county. A new resident who applies after arriving can be unable to hold a Nevada permit by day 60 no matter how promptly the paperwork went in. The practical instruction is to start the application on arrival rather than on day 55, and to check the processing time quoted by the sheriff of your own county. Note also what the subsection does not say: it does not grant a 60 day grace period as an affirmative right so much as it removes your authority once the window closes without a Nevada permit in hand. If you move here, your out-of-state permit is on a clock. See APPLICATION_PROCESS.

How a state gets on the list

NRS 202.3689(1) tells DPS what to measure. On or before July 1 of each year, the Department shall determine "whether each state requires a person to complete any training, class or program before the issuance of a permit to carry a concealed firearm in that state," determine "whether each state has an electronic database which identifies each individual who possesses a valid permit to carry a concealed firearm issued by that state and which a law enforcement officer in this State may access at all times through a national law enforcement telecommunications system," prepare a list of the states meeting both, and provide a copy of that list to each law enforcement agency in this State. Subsection 2 requires the Department, upon request, to make the list available to the public.

Two features of that scheme are worth holding onto. There is no negotiation and no signed agreement. Nevada measures other states against two criteria and publishes the result, so a state can move on or off the roster without anything happening in Carson City that looks like a deal. And the criteria are training plus a law enforcement accessible permit database, which is why a state with permissive carry rules and no verifiable permit record can be absent even though its residents carry freely at home.

The statutory criteria in this form date from the 2015 amendments. Older printed handouts that describe the test as whether another state's requirements are "substantially similar to or more stringent than" Nevada's, or that describe a required concurrence from a sheriffs' association, are quoting a superseded version of NRS 202.3689. Use the current statute.

If Nevada does not recognize your permit

The exposure is serious, not technical. NRS 202.350(1)(d)(3) prohibits carrying concealed upon your person any "[p]istol, revolver or other firearm, other dangerous or deadly weapon or pneumatic gun," except as provided in that section and in NRS 202.3653 to 202.369, inclusive. Under NRS 202.350(2)(b), a violation of subparagraph (3) is a category C felony punished as provided in NRS 193.130. Carrying concealed in Nevada on a permit Nevada does not recognize is not a citation. It is a felony charge, subject to the two carve-outs in the same statute described next.

Two carve-outs sit inside that same statute, and neither one turns on whether the officer's home state appears on the roster. NRS 202.350(4) provides that, except as otherwise provided in subsection 5, the section does not apply to a list of officers that includes at paragraph (c) "[a]ny full-time paid peace officer of an agency of the United States or another state or political subdivision thereof when carrying out official duties in the State of Nevada." NRS 202.350(7) provides that the section "shall not be construed to prohibit a qualified law enforcement officer or a qualified retired law enforcement officer from carrying a concealed weapon in this State if he or she is authorized to do so" pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 926B or 926C, and NRS 202.350(8) takes both of those terms from the federal definitions. For retired officers who live here, NRS 202.3678(1) gives a resident retired law enforcement officer a route to apply to the sheriff of his or her county for the certification required under 18 U.S.C. 926C(d). If you are not inside one of those categories, the roster is what decides the question.

You have a clean alternative, and it is unusually accessible. NRS 202.3657(1) provides that "[a]ny person who is not a resident of this State may apply to the sheriff of any county in this State for a permit." Nevada issues to non-residents through any county sheriff, on the same eligibility terms as residents: age 21 or older, or 18 to 20 with qualifying military service, under NRS 202.3657(3)(a); not prohibited from possessing a firearm under NRS 202.360, per (3)(b); and demonstrated competence with handguns through an approved course under (3)(c). NRS 202.3657(2) adds that one application yields one permit valid for all handguns you own or later obtain. If you visit Nevada often and your home state is not on the roster, or is on it only in a permit class you do not hold, a Nevada permit solves the problem outright. See APPLICATION_PROCESS and TRAINING_REQUIREMENTS.

Until then, the concealed option is gone, but the firearm need not stay home. Nevada's open carry and transport rules are separate from the permit scheme. See OPEN_CARRY and TRANSPORT.

Carrying your Nevada permit in other states

Nevada publishes an inbound roster only. Nothing in NRS 202.3688, NRS 202.3689 or the DPS recognition list states which states honor a Nevada permit, and Nevada could not make that determination binding if it tried. Recognition of a Nevada permit is decided by the law of the state you are standing in.

So do not read the 28 state roster backward. A state appearing on Nevada's list has not thereby agreed to honor your Nevada permit, and the two lists are not required to match. Before any trip, confirm with the agency that issues concealed carry permits in the destination state, and confirm it for each state you will drive through, not only the one you are driving to. Ask two questions: does this state honor a Nevada permit, and does it impose conditions such as a minimum age, a residency match, or an issue date cutoff.

Common misconceptions