Nevada to Washington: journeyman electrician license reciprocity
Nevada does not issue a statewide journeyman electrician license, so there is nothing to transfer. Here is Washington's standard path for out-of-state applicants.
Your origin state does not issue a statewide license at this level, so there is no license to transfer. The destination's standard out-of-state path is shown; expect to meet it in full.
Reference only, not legal advice. Rules change; confirm with the licensing board before you apply. Full disclaimer.
Examination with credit for out-of-state certificate or experience (all states except Oregon)
Your out-of-state credentials give no advantage. You meet the destination's requirements from scratch.
An electrician from any state other than Oregon applies to take the Washington journey level (01) exam using the Out-of-State Application for Electrical Examination. Eligibility is met with an out-of-state journey level certificate obtained through examination by a jurisdiction requiring at least 8,000 hours of supervised experience (with at least 4,000 hours in new commercial or industrial work), or with at least 16,000 hours of out-of-state electrical construction experience (4,000 in new commercial or industrial installations). Experience is documented with notarized letters from licensed electrical contractors, apprenticeship training directors or employers. After L&I approves the application the applicant schedules the open-book exam with PSI; the minimum passing score is 70 percent on each section.
The Washington journey level exam is a single open-book exam that permits use of RCW 19.28 and WAC 296-46B; no separate law exam is published. The $80.30 exam fee applies when the department administers the exam; exams scheduled through PSI are paid to PSI at PSI's rate, which is not published in the WAC.
At a glance
- Trade exam
- Required
- Law / code exam
- Not required
- Out-of-state hours
- Count toward eligibility
What you must already have
- Out-of-state journey level electrician certificate obtained through examination by a state licensing jurisdiction requiring at least 8,000 hours of supervised experience (at least 4,000 hours in new commercial or industrial installations), OR at least 16,000 hours of out-of-state experience in the electrical construction trade (at least 4,000 hours in new commercial or industrial installations)
What you'll do to get licensed in Washington
- 1Application fee. Pay the application fee ($114.60). Journey level electrician application fee (includes original certificate and application processing).
- 2Trade exam. Pass the destination's trade exam. Washington General Journey Level Electrician (01) exam, open book, minimum score 70 percent; scheduled with PSI after L&I approval.
- 3Exam fee. Pay the exam fee ($80.30). Journey level examination fee when administered by the department (first test or retest); PSI-administered exams are paid to PSI.
Published fees on this path total $194.90, excluding exam-vendor fees, bonds, and insurance.
What you'll need to buy or arrange
Exam preparation
Most boards contract PSI, Prov, or ICC for exams. Check which code edition the exam is written to before buying a prep course.
- Trade exam
- Exam fee · $80.30
How Washington licenses journeyman electricians
Washington journeyman electrician · “General Journey Level Electrician (01)”
Statewide license
Issued by Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, Electrical Program
Washington issues a statewide General Journey Level Electrician (01) certificate of competency through the Department of Labor & Industries. An out-of-state electrician can qualify to sit the Washington journey level exam with an out-of-state journey level certificate obtained by examination in a jurisdiction requiring at least 8,000 supervised hours, or with 16,000 hours of documented out-of-state experience; the exam is open book and requires a 70 percent score. Washington's only electrician reciprocity agreement is with Oregon: holders of an Oregon General Journeyman (J) or General Supervising (S) license obtained by Oregon examination can receive the 01 certificate without taking the Washington exam. Certificates renew every three years on the holder's birthdate and require 24 hours of continuing education.
Why Nevada has nothing to transfer
Nevada journeyman electrician
Licensed by cities and counties
Nevada has no statewide journeyman electrician license. The Nevada State Contractors Board (NSCB) licenses electrical contractors under classification C-2 (NRS/NAC 624) and states that it does not issue licenses to individual journeymen, so an out-of-state journeyman license has nothing to transfer to at the state level and is not required for employment by a licensed C-2 contractor in most of the state. Journeyman cards are instead required by local building codes in the urban jurisdictions: Clark County, the City of Las Vegas, the City of Henderson and the City of Reno all require a master electrician, electrical qualified individual or journeyman electrician to be on site for permitted electrical work, and their journeyman credential is a Nevada Electrical Qualifications Card obtained by passing the ICC national G17 Journeyman Electrician (or G18 Residential Electrician) exam at 70% and applying to Electrical Safety Professionals (ESP), the third-party card administrator, with 2,000 documented hours of electrical work or apprenticeship (a requirement added January 1, 2024). No jurisdiction publishes a waiver of the ICC exam for an out-of-state license; Clark County recognizes only certificates from its accepted testing agency or from other Nevada political subdivisions within the county, and Reno lets holders of a reciprocal license from another city, county, state or country work for 12 months inside the city before obtaining the Reno certification. Cards are valid three years and renewed with ESP continuing education.
How local licensing works in Nevada
How local licensing works. NRS Chapter 624 licenses only contractors; a C-2 Electrical Contracting license is issued to a business and qualified by an individual with four years of journeyman-or-higher experience, and the NSCB's own FAQ says Nevada does not license individual journeymen. Whether a working electrician needs a personal credential is decided by each county's or city's building administrative code. The southern Nevada jurisdictions and Reno run a common program: exams are the ICC National Electrician exams (G17 Journeyman Electrician, G18 Residential Electrician, G16 Master Electrician) taken through Pearson VUE, and photo ID cards are issued by Electrical Safety Professionals (ESP), the Nevada non-profit that took over the Clark County ID card program on September 1, 2019.
Clark County (unincorporated Las Vegas valley, Laughlin, Mesquite area). Clark County Code §22.02.250 requires the contractor to have a master electrician or electrical qualified individual, or a journeyman electrician, present in a supervisory capacity whenever permitted electrical work is under way. §22.02.255 defines a journeyman as someone who has passed the journeyman examination accepted by the Building Official; §22.02.260 lists Journeyman Electrician (all electrical work), Journeyman Residential Electrician (one- and two-family dwellings), Journeyman Sign Electrician and Technician (low voltage) categories and requires certificates to be kept current with the county's accepted third-party testing agency. The only equivalency in the code is for a current certificate from an accepted independent testing agency or from a political subdivision of Nevada within Clark County; there is no provision for other states' licenses. Since 2019 the accepted exam is the ICC G17/G18 and the card comes from ESP.
City of Las Vegas. The City of Las Vegas Administrative Code (2019 edition) §306 carries the same on-site supervision rule (master electrician or electrical qualified individual, or a journeyman electrician). The city uses the same ESP card as Clark County.
City of Henderson. ESP's program notice lists Henderson among the municipalities that require at least a journeyman electrical card for installing electrical systems; Henderson's own building pages could not be opened for this record, so its ordinance text is unverified.
City of Reno (Washoe County). Reno Municipal Code Title 14 prohibits electrical installations, alterations or additions unless done by a person holding a valid journeyman certificate, with exceptions for homeowners, licensed contractors under direct supervision arrangements, and contractors with reciprocal licenses from another city, county, state or country, who must obtain the Reno certification after 12 months of work in the city. The ICC G17 or G18 exam needs no pre-approval; the applicant then sends the score report to ESP for a card valid three years.
ESP card requirements (all of the above). Pass the ICC exam (70% journeyman, 75% master); since January 1, 2024 a new card also needs 2,000 documented hours of electrical work or apprenticeship; renewal every three years with 15 CEU hours for journeymen (30 for masters) including an 8-hour NEC update class; a card expired more than one year requires re-examination. ESP's card and exam fees are not published on the official jurisdiction pages and were not verified.
Out-of-state holders. None of these jurisdictions publish a reciprocity or endorsement path for a journeyman license from another state. Reno's 12-month grace period for reciprocal licenses is the only accommodation found. In practice an arriving journeyman takes the ICC G17 exam once and obtains the ESP card, which is honored by Clark County, Las Vegas, Henderson and Reno. Rural counties and Carson City were not surveyed.
- Clark County (Department of Building and Fire Prevention)
- City of Las Vegas (Department of Building and Safety)
- City of Henderson (per ESP program notice; ordinance not verified)
- City of Reno (Development Services)
Common questions
- Do I have to take the Washington journeyman electrician exam if I'm licensed in Nevada?
- Yes. Washington requires the trade exam on this path.
- What does it cost to get a Washington journeyman electrician license from Nevada?
- Published fees on this path total $194.90, not counting exam vendor fees or bonds.
- Do my Nevada work hours count in Washington?
- Yes. Documented out-of-state experience counts toward Washington's eligibility requirements.
- Does it work the other way, from Washington to Nevada?
- Not necessarily. Reciprocity is directed. Going from Washington to Nevada, the mechanism is not applicable.
Sources
- L&I - Electrician certification (journey level and specialty) · Washington State Department of Labor & Industries · Agency Page · verified September 14, 20268,000 hours (no more than 4,000 in 4,000-hour specialties) and 96 hours basic classroom instruction; out-of-state and military experience accepted via the Out-of-State Application for Electrical Examination (F626-009-000); exams scheduled with PSI after L&I approval; renewal every three years with 24 CE hours. Contains the 'Reciprocal agreement with Oregon' section.
- Application for a Reciprocal (01) General Journey Level Electrician Certificate (F500-148-000) · Washington State Department of Labor & Industries · Form · verified September 14, 2026States that Washington is party to a reciprocal agreement with Oregon and no other states, that a license not obtained through Oregon examination cannot be reciprocated, and that Washington master certificates cannot be obtained through reciprocity. PDF text was read through the search index; the file itself did not extract in this session.
- RCW 19.28.191 - Application for certificate of competency - Qualifications - Examination · RCW 19.28.191 · Washington State Legislature · Statute · verified September 14, 2026(1)(a): to take the master journey level exam the applicant must have possessed a valid journey level electrician certificate of competency for four years. (1)(c): journey level exam eligibility via 8,000-hour apprenticeship, an out-of-state journey level certificate obtained through examination in a jurisdiction requiring at least 8,000 supervised hours, 16,000 hours of out-of-state experience, or 8,000 hours in armed forces construction battalions.
- WAC 296-46B-909 - Electrical/telecommunications fees · WAC 296-46B-909 · Washington State Legislature · Admin Rule · verified September 14, 2026Fee table filed 5/5/26, effective 7/1/26. Journey level, specialty, or reciprocal electrician application (includes original certificate and processing) $114.60; journey level exam fee when administered by the department $80.30; master electrician exam application $204.60; master first-time exam fee $106.70, retest $125.00.
- WAC 296-46B-945 - Qualifying for master, journey level, specialty electrician examinations · WAC 296-46B-945 · Washington State Legislature · Admin Rule · verified September 14, 2026Journey level exam pathways include an out-of-state journey level certificate obtained by examination in a jurisdiction requiring 8,000 supervised hours (4,000 in new commercial/industrial), or 16,000 hours of out-of-state experience; documentation by notarized letters from licensed contractors, apprenticeship directors or employers. States: 'No credit may be applied from out-of-state toward qualifying for a master electrician certificate of competency examination.'
- WAC 296-46B-960 - Administrator and electrician certificate of competency examinations · WAC 296-46B-960 · Washington State Legislature · Admin Rule · verified September 14, 2026Open-book exam; minimum passing score 70 percent on any exam or section; two-week wait after a failure, three-month wait after three failures in a year; exam must be completed within one year of approval.
Verified dates are when a person last opened each source and confirmed the facts above. Cite the board, not us.