Nevada to Wisconsin: journeyman electrician license reciprocity
Nevada does not issue a statewide journeyman electrician license, so there is nothing to transfer. Here is Wisconsin'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.
Out-of-state journeyman without a reciprocity agreement
Your out-of-state credentials give no advantage. You meet the destination's requirements from scratch.
A journeyman licensed in any state other than Iowa or New Hampshire gets no exam waiver in Wisconsin and applies under Category A of Form 3106 like a first-time candidate. The license itself carries no credit, but the experience behind it does: Form 3106 and Wis. Stat. 101.87 count experience in installing, repairing and maintaining electrical wiring wherever it was earned, so the applicant documents 48 months with at least 8,000 hours (or 1,000 hours per year for five years) on the Experience Table (Form 3106T) signed by witnesses, or submits a certificate of completion from a U.S. DOL- or state-recognized electrical construction apprenticeship. The application and fees are submitted in LicensE ($35 application, $30 examination and $150 license fee under Table 305.02), DSPS then makes the applicant eligible to test, and the applicant must pass the Wisconsin journeyman exam. Wisconsin has no separate law or business exam for individual electricians.
DSPS publishes no endorsement route for non-reciprocal states. Form 3106 does not say out-of-state experience is excluded; the credit for out-of-state hours is inferred from the experience definition, which has no geographic limit, and was not confirmed by an explicit DSPS statement. Fee amounts are from Table 305.02 of the administrative code; the forms say fees are calculated in LicensE, and Pearson test-center exams cost marginally more than DSPS-site exams.
At a glance
- Trade exam
- Required
- Law / code exam
- Not required
- Out-of-state hours
- Count toward eligibility
What you must already have
- You must document at least 8,000 hours of qualifying work experience.At least 8,000 hours over at least 48 months installing, repairing and maintaining electrical wiring (or 1,000 hours per year for five years); up to 2,000 hours and two years may come from full-time electrical schooling at 500 hours per semester. A recognized three-year construction electrician apprenticeship is an alternative.
What you'll do to get licensed in Wisconsin
- 1Application fee. Pay the application fee ($35). Journeyman Electrician license application fee (Table 305.02 line 26e), paid in LicensE.
- 2Exam fee. Pay the exam fee ($30). Journeyman Electrician examination fee (Table 305.02 line 26e); paid again for each retake.
- 3Trade exam. Pass the destination's trade exam. Wisconsin Journeyman Electrician examination (open book on SPS 305, SPS 316 and the NEC; 70% to pass).
- 4License fee. Pay the license or certificate fee ($150). Journeyman Electrician initial license fee (Table 305.02 line 26e); four-year credential.
- 5Other. Experience Table (Form 3106T) with witness signatures, or apprenticeship completion certificate, uploaded to LicensE.
Published fees on this path total $215, 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.
- Exam fee · $30
- Trade exam
How Wisconsin licenses journeyman electricians
Wisconsin journeyman electrician · “Journeyman Electrician”
Statewide license
Issued by Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS)
Wisconsin issues a statewide Journeyman Electrician license through the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS); under Wis. Stat. 101.862 no one may install, repair or maintain electrical wiring without a DSPS license or registration, and there is no municipal electrician licensing. A new applicant under Wis. Stat. 101.87 either completes a recognized construction electrician apprenticeship or documents 48 months with at least 8,000 hours of experience, applies in the LicensE portal, and passes the DSPS journeyman exam (open book, 70% to pass; based on the 2017 NEC until October 1, 2026, then the 2023 NEC). Under Wis. Stat. 101.874 DSPS may enter into reciprocal agreements, and Form 3106 currently waives the exam only for journeymen licensed by examination in Iowa or New Hampshire. The license is renewed every four years for $100.
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 Wisconsin journeyman electrician exam if I'm licensed in Nevada?
- Yes. Wisconsin requires the trade exam on this path.
- What does it cost to get a Wisconsin journeyman electrician license from Nevada?
- Published fees on this path total $215, not counting exam vendor fees or bonds.
- Do my Nevada work hours count in Wisconsin?
- Yes. Documented out-of-state experience counts toward Wisconsin's eligibility requirements.
- Does it work the other way, from Wisconsin to Nevada?
- Not necessarily. Reciprocity is directed. Going from Wisconsin to Nevada, the mechanism is not applicable.
Sources
- Wisconsin DSPS Form 3106 - Journeyman Electrician License Application Information (Rev. 12/04/2025) · Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services · Form · verified September 15, 2026Category A (apprenticeship/experience and examination): completed recognized electrical construction apprenticeship, or 48 months with at least 8,000 hours of experience installing, repairing and maintaining electrical wiring, or 1,000 hours per year for five years; up to 2,000 hours / two years of credit for full-time electrical schooling at 500 hours per semester. Category B (reciprocity): a valid, unexpired journeyman license acquired through a state examination in Iowa (Journeyman A) or New Hampshire, held continuously for at least one year immediately before applying, licenses without the Wisconsin exam; Iowa applicants must have completed an apprenticeship or the experience hours, New Hampshire applicants a 600-hour apprenticeship-schooling program. Fees are calculated in LicensE.
- Wisconsin DSPS - Journeyman Electrician Exam Information · Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services · Agency Page · verified September 15, 2026Exam is open book with a 70% passing score; allowed references are SPS 305 and SPS 316, the NEC, and up to two bound reference books. Exams are based on the 2017 NEC until October 1, 2026, when the 2023 NEC takes effect.
- Wisconsin DSPS - Journeyman Electrician · Wis. Stat. 101.862; Wis. Admin. Code SPS 305.40 · Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services · Agency Page · verified September 15, 2026Program page: licensing is required to install, repair or maintain electrical wiring; journeymen work under the general supervision of a master electrician; applications (Form 3106) are filed in the LicensE portal at license.wi.gov. Does not itself list reciprocity states or fees.
- DSPS - Trades Renewal Dates and Fees · Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services · Other · verified September 15, 2026HVAC Qualifier: 4-year credential renewing from date of issuance, renewal fee $100, no CE, reinstatement $200. HVAC Contractor: 4-year registration from date of issuance, renewal $40, reinstatement $200. (SPS 305 Table 305.07 still lists a 2-year term for these credentials; DSPS's current schedule is used here.) Read with pdftotext after download.
- Wisconsin DSPS - Trades Credentialing Examination Information · Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services · Agency Page · verified September 15, 2026Trades exams are given at DSPS locations or, at a marginally higher fee, at Pearson test centers selected in the LicensE application; exam reviews are $15.
- Wis. Admin. Code ch. SPS 305 - Licenses, Certifications and Registrations (Register August 2025) · SPS 305.02 Table 305.02; SPS 305.70; SPS 305.71 · Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau · Admin Rule · verified September 15, 2026Table 305.02: HVAC Contractor registration $15 application fee and $160 registration fee; HVAC Qualifier certification $15 application fee, $25 examination fee, $60 certification fee. SPS 305.70: HVAC contractor registration is mandatory for any person, entity or business installing or servicing HVAC equipment and is applied for by the owner, partner or chief executive; a note reminds that federal Section 608 technician certification is required for refrigerant work. SPS 305.71: an individual may obtain an HVAC qualifier certification by meeting the 4-year experience/education standard, passing the exam under SPS 305.09 and paying the certification fee; a business that uses a qualifier is a 'certified HVAC business' that cannot be required to obtain local approval. The chapter contains no reciprocity or credential-by-endorsement provision for HVAC. Read with pdftotext after download.
- Wis. Stat. 101.87 - Journeyman electrician license · Wis. Stat. 101.87 · Wisconsin Legislature · Statute · verified September 15, 2026Journeyman electrician qualifications: completion of a construction electrician apprenticeship of at least three years approved by the U.S. DOL or Wisconsin DWD, or 48 months with at least 8,000 hours of experience; each followed by passage of the department's examination. A two-year electrical degree or diploma counts as 12 months and 2,000 hours.
- Wis. Stat. 101.874 - Reciprocal agreements (electrical credentials) · Wis. Stat. 101.874 · Wisconsin Legislature · Statute · verified September 15, 2026DSPS may enter into a reciprocal agreement with another state recognizing electrician credentials as comparable only if the other state's education, experience and examination requirements are at least equivalent to Wisconsin's; under an agreement DSPS issues a credential to an applicant who submits an application, pays the fee under s. 101.82(4), and holds a valid comparable credential from the other state.
Verified dates are when a person last opened each source and confirmed the facts above. Cite the board, not us.