Arizona Electrician License Reciprocity Explained

Key Takeaways

• Arizona has no electrician license reciprocity with any state. The Registrar of Contractors (ROC) licenses electrical contracting businesses, not individual electricians.
• An out-of-state journeyman who works for wages under a licensed contractor doesn't need an Arizona license to start work.
• Contractors can ask the ROC to waive the trade exam when their qualifying party held a comparable license, earned by exam, within the past 5 years.
• The $61 Arizona Statutes and Rules Exam can't be waived with an out-of-state license.
• A new C-11 Electrical license costs $580 in ROC fees, compared with $720 for the R-11 and $850 for the CR-11.

No, Arizona doesn't have electrician license reciprocity with any state, and most electricians moving here don't need it. Arizona has no state journeyman or master license, so a journeyman from another state can go to work for wages under a licensed contractor without an Arizona license. Contractors are a different story. The Arizona Registrar of Contractors says it has no direct reciprocity with any state, but it will consider waiving the trade exam for a qualifying party who held a comparable license elsewhere in the past 5 years.

What Is License Reciprocity?

License reciprocity is an agreement between two states to accept each other's licenses, so a licensed electrician can get a license in the new state without retaking the exam. States that license individual electricians often sign these agreements, and Texas has journeyman electrician reciprocity with states like Alaska, Idaho and New Mexico. Arizona works differently, since it licenses the business and not the person holding the tools. A contractor license belongs to the business and not to the qualifying party, the person whose experience and exams back it.

States with Reciprocity Agreements

Arizona has no reciprocity agreements for electrical licenses. The ROC says Arizona "does not have direct reciprocity with any state." What it offers instead are three routes that work for contractors from any state.

• Trade exam waiver. The ROC can waive the trade exam, and in some cases the experience requirement, when the qualifying party held a comparable license in another state within the past 5 years and earned it by passing a trade exam.
• Universal license recognition. Arizona law requires its boards to license a person who moves here and has held a license in the same discipline and practice level in another state for at least 1 year in good standing, among other conditions. Boards can still require their exam on Arizona law.
• NASCLA electrical exam. C-11, R-11 and CR-11 applicants can take the NASCLA Electrical Examination in place of the ROC trade exam, for $116. It's built for contractors who need licenses in more than one state.

What Out-of-State Journeymen Need to Work in Arizona

Nothing from the state, as long as you work for wages. Arizona law exempts anyone who does contracting work "as an employee with wages as the person's sole compensation," so your employer's ROC license covers the work you do on its payroll. That holds for a journeyman with a card from Texas, Colorado or anywhere else, and for an apprentice with no card at all.

A few things still matter when you move here.

• City cards. The City of Phoenix doesn't issue an electrical license for a journeyman or apprentice, and it says the electrician pulling a permit has to be a registered contractor. Other cities run their own permit offices, so ask your employer what applies where you'll work.
• Your hours. Experience on an Arizona contractor's payroll counts toward a license of your own later, so get your Arizona electrician hours signed off as you go.
• Training. If you're early in your career, one of the electrician apprenticeship programs in Arizona can pick up where your old program left off.
• Side jobs. The exemption covers workers paid wages. Contracting a job yourself takes an ROC license once the job needs a permit or reaches $1,000 in labor and materials.

Eligibility Requirements

The ROC's Out-of-State Waiver Request Form lists three conditions for waiving the trade exam.

• The qualifying party passed a trade exam to get the license in the other state.
• The qualifying party was named on the active license within the last 5 years.
• The scope of work in the other state is comparable to the Arizona license you're applying for.

The qualifying party still has to meet Arizona's baseline of at least 4 years of practical or management trade experience, with at least 2 of those years inside the last 10. The ROC sets 4 years for the C-11, R-11 and CR-11. The waiver never covers the Arizona Statutes and Rules Exam (SRE). The ROC waives the SRE only for someone who was the qualifying party on an Arizona contractor license within the past 5 years.

Required Documents for Reciprocity

Out-of-state applicants use the same license application as everyone else, plus the waiver form. Expect to gather these documents.

• The license application for your business type (sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC or corporation)
• Form RC-L-200G, completed and sealed by the state that issued your license, in place of trade exam results
• SRE results for the qualifying party
• A background check for every person named on the application, run through the ROC's vendor (checks expire 90 days after completion)
• Proof of a license bond for your classification
• A government-issued photo ID for every person named on the application
• Registration with the Arizona Corporation Commission for an LLC or corporation, or with the Secretary of State for a partnership
• The application fee, license fee and, for R-11 and CR-11, the Residential Recovery Fund assessment

Application Steps

1. Pick your classification (C-11 commercial, R-11 residential or CR-11 dual) and your qualifying party.
2. Send Form RC-L-200G to the state that issued your license. That state fills in its part, stamps it with the state seal and mails it back to you, and you can't alter it.
3. Have the qualifying party complete the open-book SRE online through GMetrix for $61.
4. Order background checks, get your bond and register your business entity.
5. Submit the application with the waiver form through the ROC's online portal, by mail or in person in Phoenix.
6. Wait for the ROC to review the waiver with your full application, since it doesn't pre-approve waivers. If it won't waive the trade exam, the qualifying party takes it through PSI for $66 or takes the NASCLA electrical exam.

The ROC fee schedule sets these totals for a two-year electrical license, not counting exam fees.

Do Other States Accept an Arizona License?

A couple of western states will waive their own trade exam for an Arizona electrical contractor.

• Nevada. The Nevada State Contractors Board lists Arizona's CR-11 Electrical as the match for its C-2 Electrical license. You need an active license with the same qualified individual for the past 4 years, and that person still passes Nevada's Business and Law exam.
• California. The Contractors State License Board matches Arizona's C-11, K-11 and L-11 Electrical to California's C-10. It may waive the trade exam, and you still take its business law exam.

Those are contractor licenses, so they don't help an individual journeyman. If you're heading to another state, check its board for journeyman rules and plan the move the way traveling electricians do.

Where Buildforce Fits In

We are Buildforce, a labor marketplace that connects electricians with electrical contractors in Arizona metros like Phoenix and Tucson, among other markets. Electricians on Buildforce work as W-2 employees, so you're paid wages and Buildforce handles payroll taxes and workers' comp. Build a profile in the Buildforce app, show contractors the experience you bring from out of state, and pick up the hours that move your career forward. When you're ready for a license of your own, the steps to become a licensed electrician in Arizona start with those same hours.