Arizona to Maryland: master electrician license reciprocity

Maryland issues a statewide Master Electrician license through the State Board of Electricians (renamed from the State Board of Master Electricians by the 2021 Maryland Electricians Act). The master license is the credential under which electrical contracting is done: a master must carry at least $300,000 general liability and $100,000 property damage insurance with the Board as certificate holder, and local jurisdictions issue registrations to State master licensees. A new applicant needs 7 years of regular, principal employment providing electrical services under a master electrician or a similarly qualified governmental employee (the Board may credit up to 3 years for a formal course of study), must pass the PSI master exam (90 questions, 70% to pass, 240 minutes, open book on the NEC, $65), and pays a $25 original license fee. The Board reciprocates master licenses obtained by examination from Virginia, West Virginia, the District of Columbia and Delaware, and from Maryland counties and Baltimore City; each has its own years-held condition.

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.