Can DEA Registration Be Transferred to Another State?

Yes, you can transfer a DEA registration to another state. You have two ways to do it: modify your current registration to show the new state address at no cost, or apply for a separate new registration and surrender the old one. Either path requires that you first hold a valid professional license, and where applicable a state controlled substance license, in the state you’re moving to.¹

Get the New State License First

Every DEA registration sits on top of state authority to handle controlled substances. The DEA will not approve a new registration or a modification until you hold that authority in the destination state.¹ Some states also require a separate state-level controlled substance registration on top of the professional license, and the DEA publishes a state-by-state reference for those requirements.²

State licensure usually takes longer than the DEA step that follows it. Start early. Mid-level practitioners — nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and similar — often face additional state hurdles like collaborative practice agreements or supervising physician requirements before the DEA will act on an application.¹ Build in months, not weeks.

Option 1: Modify Your Existing Registration

Under 21 CFR 1301.51, any registrant may request a modification to change a registered address, and that address can be in a different state.³ The DEA’s own locum tenens guidance confirms that practitioners may “transfer their existing DEA registration from one state to another as needed” through this process.⁴

This is the right path if you’re leaving the original state entirely and don’t need to keep prescribing there. It’s the cheaper path too: there is no fee for a modification.³

What to Submit

Send your current name, address, and registration number exactly as they appear on your certificate, along with the new address. You can submit online through the DEA Diversion Control Division website or by mail.³

What to Expect

The DEA investigates each modification request as if it were a new application.⁴ Expect review of your new state license, background, and practice information. If approved, the DEA issues a new certificate of registration on DEA Form 223. Because the modification relocates the same registration, you don’t need to separately surrender your old one.

Option 2: Apply for a New Registration

If you want to keep prescribing in the original state while also practicing in a new one, a modification won’t work — it moves your single registration rather than adding a second. In that case you need a new, separate registration for the new state.

Federal law actually requires a separate DEA registration at each principal place of business where controlled substances are handled. A practitioner with offices in two states has, by definition, established a principal place of business in each and must hold a registration for each.¹

How to Apply

New practitioner registrations use DEA Form 224, submitted through the DEA’s secure application portal. Online submission is the only accepted method.⁵ The application requires your new state license number and the new practice address. The fee is $888, non-refundable, covering the three-year registration cycle, and must be paid by credit card at submission.⁶

Timing

Processing generally takes four to eight weeks, and delays are common. You cannot prescribe or dispense controlled substances at the new location until the new registration is approved, so don’t schedule patients on the assumption of a fast turnaround.

Closing Out the Old Practice

If you’re leaving the original state permanently and going the new-registration route, three loose ends need attention.

Surrendering the Old Registration

A registration terminates automatically when you discontinue professional practice at the registered location, but you must notify the DEA promptly. Submit DEA Form 104 or any signed writing stating your intent to surrender, and return your certificate of registration and any unused order forms to the DEA Registration Unit.⁷

Controlled Substance Inventory

You can’t just pack up your controlled substances and drive them to the new state. Inventory at the old location must go to a DEA-authorized reverse distributor for destruction, or you can contact local law enforcement or your regional DEA Diversion office for guidance.⁸ For inventory purposes, your old and new registrations are separate entities.

Record Retention

Keep all controlled substance records from the old practice — inventories, dispensing logs, prescription records — for at least two years from the date each record was created, even after you surrender the registration. Records must be readily retrievable and available to the DEA on request.⁹ State law may require longer retention, so check the old state’s rules before discarding anything.

MATE Act Training Attestation

Since June 2023, every practitioner applying for a new DEA registration or renewing one (veterinarians excepted) must attest to meeting substance use disorder training requirements under the MATE Act, codified as Section 1263 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023.¹⁰ If you’re applying for a new registration in a different state, this applies even if you already attested for your previous registration.

Three ways to satisfy the requirement: board certification in addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry; graduation within the past five years from an accredited medical or advanced practice program whose curriculum included at least eight hours of substance use disorder training; or at least eight hours of qualifying continuing education on the treatment and management of opioid and other substance use disorders.¹⁰ For most people, the eight-hour continuing education route is the practical one.

When You May Not Need a Personal Registration at All

A few situations change the calculation. If you’ll be working in the new state solely as an employee of a hospital or institutional clinic, 21 CFR 1301.22(c) allows you to prescribe, dispense, or administer controlled substances under the hospital’s registration rather than holding a personal one. You must be acting within the normal course of professional practice, the state must authorize you to handle controlled substances, and the hospital assigns you an internal code number appended to its DEA registration.¹¹ The exception covers only work within hospital employment; any private practice on the side still needs its own registration.

Uniformed service members and certain federal employees — Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, Public Health Service, and Bureau of Prisons — are exempt from DEA registration when prescribing, dispensing, or administering controlled substances in the course of official duties.¹² Exempt practitioners use their branch and service identification number where a DEA number would go. Again, private practice on the side needs its own registration.

A Note on Telehealth

Moving states doesn’t let you sidestep the registration question by prescribing remotely. Through December 31, 2026, temporary flexibilities allow DEA-registered practitioners to prescribe Schedule II through V controlled substances via telehealth without an in-person evaluation, provided the prescription is for a legitimate medical purpose and uses a qualifying interactive telecommunications system.¹³ Those flexibilities relax the in-person evaluation rule; they don’t replace the requirement that you hold state authority and an active DEA registration tied to the state where you’re prescribing.

1
Drug Enforcement Administration. Registration Q&A – Diversion Control Division
2
DEA Diversion Control Division. Practitioner’s State License Requirements
3
eCFR. 21 CFR Part 1301 – Modification in Registration
4
Drug Enforcement Administration. What is DEA’s Policy Concerning Locum Tenens?
5
Federal Register. Requiring Online Submission of Applications for and Renewals of DEA Registration
6
Federal Register. Registration and Reregistration Fees for Controlled Substance and List I Chemical Registrants
7
eCFR. 21 CFR 1301.52 – Termination of Registration; Transfer of Registration; Distribution Upon Discontinuance of Business
8
Drug Enforcement Administration. Disposal Q&A – Diversion Control Division
9
eCFR. 21 CFR 1311.305 – Recordkeeping
10
Drug Enforcement Administration. Opioid Use Disorder – MATE Act – Diversion Control Division
11
eCFR. 21 CFR 1301.22 – Exemption of Agents and Employees
12
eCFR. 21 CFR 1301.23 – Exemption of Certain Military and Other Personnel
13
Federal Register. Fourth Temporary Extension of COVID-19 Telemedicine Flexibilities for Prescription of Controlled Medications