Arizona to Delaware: master electrician license reciprocity

Delaware issues a person-held Master Electrician license through the Board of Electrical Examiners; it is the state's highest electrician credential and authorizes residential, commercial and industrial work. The Board also issues Master Electrician Special (restricted to specialties such as elevators, HVAC, signs, pools or primary distribution) and Limited Electrician licenses (residential-scale work, three years' experience), which are lesser credentials. A new master must show six years of full-time experience under a licensed master electrician, or four years plus two years of technical training, or a completed apprenticeship of 8,000 hours with 576 hours of related instruction, and pass the Prov-administered master exam with 75% using only the NEC as a reference; the application fee is $203 and proof of at least $300,000 general liability insurance is required before the license issues. Out-of-state masters are licensed by reciprocity without a Delaware exam under 24 Del. C. § 1409: the Board has published that Maryland and New Jersey standards are substantially similar (no experience proof) and that eighteen other jurisdictions are not, requiring five years of licensed practice; all other states are evaluated case by case. Licenses run two years and renew with continuing education.

Arizona does not issue a master electrician license. The state-level credential for electrical work is a contractor license from the Arizona Registrar of Contractors (ROC) in the R-11 Electrical (residential), C-11 Electrical (commercial, under 600 volts) or CR-11 Electrical (dual) classification; the license is issued to a business (sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC or corporation) and is qualified by a named qualifying party rather than to the electrician personally. A master electrician arriving from another state who only wants to work for an employer needs no Arizona license at all. To run their own electrical business they must apply for an ROC license: the qualifying party must show 4 years of practical or management trade experience (at least 2 within the last 10 years, with up to 2 years creditable from accredited technical training), pass the open-book Arizona Statutes and Rules Exam (SRE, $61 via Gmetrix) and the classification trade exam with at least 70% ($66 via PSI, or the NASCLA Electrical exam for $116, accepted for R-11, C-11 and CR-11), complete a background check, register the entity with the Arizona Corporation Commission if an LLC or corporation, post a continuous license bond sized by classification and annual volume (commercial specialty $2,500 to $50,000, residential specialty $4,250 to $7,500, dual licenses combine both), and pay application and license fees plus the residential recovery fund assessment ($720 total for R-11, $580 for C-11, $850 for CR-11, before exam fees). Arizona has no direct reciprocity agreement with any state; under A.A.C. R4-9-106(E) the Registrar may waive the trade exam and experience documentation when the qualifying party held a comparable contractor license in another state within the preceding 5 years and obtained it by trade examination (Out-of-State Waiver Request Form RC-L-200G submitted with the application), but the SRE cannot be waived.