Washington Concealed Carry Reciprocity: States That Honor It

Washington Concealed Carry Reciprocity

Washington recognizes only a short list of other states' concealed pistol licenses, and the test turns on the issuing state's law rather than on your own record. Under RCW 9.41.073, an out-of-state license lets you carry concealed in Washington only if the state that issued it recognizes Washington licenses in return, does not license anyone under 21, and requires fingerprint-based background checks of criminal and mental health history for every applicant. Miss one condition and the license does nothing here.

The attorney general keeps the roster. On the version of that roster last updated on July 10, 2026, ten states qualified. Check the current version at atg.wa.gov before you travel.

The recognition test in RCW 9.41.073

RCW 9.41.073(1)(a) authorizes "a person licensed to carry a pistol in a state the laws of which recognize and give effect in that state to a concealed pistol license issued under the laws of the state of Washington" to carry a concealed pistol in Washington if two further conditions hold:

• The licensing state "does not issue concealed pistol licenses to persons under twenty-one years of age."
• The licensing state "requires mandatory fingerprint-based background checks of criminal and mental health history for all persons who apply for a concealed pistol license."

Those two conditions and the mutual recognition in the quoted text are all about the other state. The statute asks what the issuing state requires of everyone, not whether you personally were fingerprinted or how old you are.

Two limits sit in RCW 9.41.073(1)(b). Recognition "applies to a license holder from another state only while the license holder is not a resident of this state," and the holder "must carry the handgun in compliance with the laws of this state." Once you become a Washington resident, the out-of-state license stops working and you need a Washington concealed pistol license.

RCW 9.41.073(2) gives the attorney general the job of publishing the roster: the attorney general "shall periodically publish a list of states" that recognize a Washington license and "meet the requirements of subsection (1)(a)(i) and (ii) of this section." The attorney general's office says the statute "confers no discretion on the Attorney General or any other Washington entity to ignore or waive any of its requirements."

Recognition can attach to one license class and not another

RCW 9.41.073(1)(a)(i) states its age condition about the licensing state as a whole. The attorney general's July 10, 2026 list does not recognize every permit a listed state issues. It names permit types rather than states alone, and for Montana, South Dakota and Utah it names a class it will not recognize because of the age of the people that class is issued to.

Carrying the wrong class of permit from a listed state leaves you exactly where a holder from an unlisted state stands.

Why the rest of the country is not on the list

The same document carries a second table covering the other 49 states and the District of Columbia, with a stated reason for each. Forty of those 50 entries are marked as having no reciprocity with Washington. Grouping the reasons the attorney general gave on July 10, 2026:

• Licenses issued to people under 21 (21 entries): Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, Wyoming.
• No mandatory mental health background check, or one that does not meet Washington's standard (21 entries): Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
• No mandatory fingerprint-based background check (12 entries): Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin.
• The state does not recognize Washington's license (12 entries): California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island.
• Washington does not require the training that state demands in return (5 entries): Delaware, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Carolina.

Several entries appear in more than one group. Vermont is the one remaining entry, and the reason given there is that Vermont does not have a concealed weapons law and does not issue licenses.

What recognition does and does not change in Washington

Recognition under RCW 9.41.073 answers one question: whether you may carry concealed at all. It does not import your home state's carry rules, and it does not reach every Washington exemption.

• You carry under Washington law. RCW 9.41.073(1)(b) says so in terms. Location rules, vehicle rules, and possession rules are Washington's.
• Library, zoo, and transit premises stay closed to you. RCW 9.41.300(1) makes it unlawful to enter certain places while knowingly possessing, or knowingly having under your control, a weapon, including the premises of a library under chapter 27.12 RCW, an accredited zoo or aquarium, and a transit station or transit facility. RCW 9.41.300(14) exempts "a person licensed to carry a concealed firearm pursuant to RCW 9.41.070" from those three, and RCW 9.41.070 is the Washington license. A violation of RCW 9.41.300(1) is a gross misdemeanor under RCW 9.41.300(16).
• The same limit runs through other Washington exemptions. RCW 9.41.280(3)(e) (school facilities, while picking up or dropping off a student), RCW 9.41.282(3)(b) (child care centers, on the same errand), RCW 9.41.284(4) (voting centers, student engagement hubs, and county elections offices) and the RCW 9.41.300(9) route into the restricted access areas of a jail or law enforcement facility all run to a person licensed under RCW 9.41.070, the school and child care provisions adding a person exempt from licensing under RCW 9.41.060. A license recognized under RCW 9.41.073 is not a license issued under RCW 9.41.070, and RCW 9.41.060 does not list an out-of-state license holder among the people it exempts. A school or voting facility violation is a misdemeanor on a first offense and a gross misdemeanor on a second under RCW 9.41.280(2)(a) and (b) and RCW 9.41.284(2)(a) and (b), and a child care center violation is a gross misdemeanor under RCW 9.41.282(2).
• Keep the license on you. RCW 9.41.050(1)(b) requires every licensee to have the concealed pistol license "in his or her immediate possession at all times" that the section requires one, and to display it on demand to a police officer. A violation is a class 1 civil infraction under chapter 7.80 RCW. The subsection speaks of licensees generally and does not separately address out-of-state holders, so treat carrying the physical license as required.
• Loaded pistol in a vehicle. RCW 9.41.050(2)(a) bars carrying or placing a loaded pistol in a vehicle unless the person "has a license to carry a concealed pistol" and the pistol is on the licensee's person, or the licensee is in the vehicle the whole time, or, while the licensee is away from the vehicle, the pistol is locked within the vehicle and concealed from view from outside the vehicle. A violation is a misdemeanor. That wording is not limited to Washington licenses the way RCW 9.41.300(14) is.

If your license is not recognized

Carrying a concealed pistol without a license Washington accepts is a misdemeanor. RCW 9.41.050(1)(a) prohibits it outside your place of abode or fixed place of business, and RCW 9.41.810 makes any violation of chapter 9.41 RCW a misdemeanor unless the chapter says otherwise. Your realistic options:

1. Transport instead of carry. RCW 9.41.060(9) exempts from RCW 9.41.050 "any person while carrying a pistol unloaded and in a closed opaque case or secure wrapper." That is transport, not carry.
2. Apply for a Washington nonresident license. RCW 9.41.070(13)(c) lets a nonresident apply anywhere in the state. The license runs five years, the applicant must be at least 21, and the nonrefundable fee for an original five-year license is thirty-six dollars plus the FBI charges passed through to the applicant. The issuing chief of police or sheriff has thirty days to issue, extended to up to sixty days if the applicant lacks a valid permanent Washington driver's license or state identification card or has not been a resident for the previous ninety consecutive days. An original license requires a complete set of fingerprints forwarded to the Washington State Patrol, and the attorney general's office says applications must be made in person at a local law enforcement office.
3. Do not carry concealed. Open carry is outside this section. RCW 9.41.300(1) lists places a person may not enter while knowingly possessing a weapon, whether it is carried openly or concealed.

No training course is a condition of a Washington concealed pistol license today. RCW 9.41.070(1) provides that the applicant's constitutional right to bear arms "shall not be denied" unless one of seven listed grounds applies, and every one of them is a disqualifier rather than a training or testing condition. A live-fire training condition is scheduled to join that list on May 1, 2027 under an amended RCW 9.41.070 and RCW 43.43.575. It is not in effect now.

Traveling out of Washington on a Washington license

Washington law does not govern what happens to your license once you leave. RCW 9.41.073 speaks only to carrying in Washington. Where you are going decides, so read that state's rules on recognition, locations, and any duty to inform before you cross the line.

The attorney general's page adds that "some states may recognize a Washington concealed pistol license, even though Washington doesn't recognize theirs." Recognition is not always symmetrical even among the ten, as the Michigan row above shows.

Washington's own training gap shows up in the reasons other states give. Five of the entries on that same list say Washington does not mandate the training the other state requires for reciprocity. Whether the live-fire requirement scheduled for May 1, 2027 changes any of those positions is not something the current list addresses.

Law enforcement officers carry under federal law, not under RCW 9.41.073

The Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act runs independently of state reciprocity. 18 U.S.C. 926B lets a qualified law enforcement officer carrying the photographic identification issued by the employing agency carry a concealed firearm notwithstanding state law, and 18 U.S.C. 926C does the same for a qualified retired officer carrying the identification described in its subsection (d). Both sections expressly leave in place state laws that let private property owners restrict concealed firearms and state laws restricting firearms on state or local government property, installations, buildings, bases, and parks.

Washington's implementation for retirees is RCW 36.28A.090, which exists "to establish a process for issuing firearms certificates to residents of Washington who are otherwise qualified retired law enforcement officers" under the federal act. The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs develops the model certificate. A law enforcement agency or a certified firearms training provider must acknowledge that the bearer met the criminal justice training commission's firearms qualification standard for the basic law enforcement training academy, and the certificate is valid for one year from the date of that determination. RCW 36.28A.090(6) adds that nothing in the section requires a local agency to complete the certificate. A certificate alone is not the whole package, because 18 U.S.C. 926C(d) also requires photographic identification from the agency the officer separated from.

Separately, RCW 9.41.060(1)(a) lists law enforcement officers of this state or another state among the people RCW 9.41.050 does not apply to, and RCW 9.41.060(10) covers officers retired for service or physical disability, but not those retired because of mental or stress-related disabilities, and only where the officer holds documentation signed by the chief law enforcement officer of the Washington agency he or she retired from and has no conviction or insanity acquittal that would make him or her ineligible for a concealed pistol license.

Interstate transport is a separate federal rule

18 U.S.C. 926A protects transporting a firearm for a lawful purpose between two places where you may lawfully possess and carry it, provided the firearm is unloaded and neither it nor the ammunition is readily or directly accessible from the passenger compartment. In a vehicle without a separate compartment, they must be in a locked container other than the glove compartment or console. That covers passage through a state, not carrying there.

Key statutes

Before you rely on this page

Every state-by-state entry above comes from the attorney general's reciprocity list as it read on July 10, 2026, the update date that page prints. It is revised as other states answer the annual survey the attorney general's office sends out, so confirm your state and your permit class at atg.wa.gov before carrying in Washington. This guide is informational and is not legal advice.