California to Montana: master electrician license reciprocity

Montana issues a statewide Master Electrician license through the State Electrical Board. Under MCA 37-68-304 an applicant needs either an electrical engineering degree from an accredited college plus 2,000 hours of practical experience, or at least 8,000 hours of legally obtained journeyman-level experience in planning, laying out or supervising electrical installations (no more than 50% residential), and must pass the PSI open-book exam on the 2020 NEC (at least 80 questions) with 75%. The $190 application fee includes the original license; renewal is $140 every two years with 16 CE hours. Out-of-state masters are reviewed for substantial equivalency: the board's published determinations mark only Alabama, Idaho, Nebraska, Utah and Wyoming as 'Yes', and their licensees are licensed by endorsement without the exam; masters from all other states must take the Montana exam. The board does not sign formal master-level reciprocity agreements (ARM 24.141.504(1) limits those to residential and journeyman licenses).

California does not issue a master electrician license or any personal electrician credential above the DIR General Electrician certification. The state-level credential above that is a C-10 Electrical Contractor license from the Contractors State License Board (CSLB), which is issued to a business (sole owner, partnership, corporation or LLC) and qualified by a named individual rather than held by the electrician personally, so an out-of-state master electrician has nothing to transfer to unless they intend to contract. A master electrician who only wants to work for an employer needs the DIR electrician certification described at the journeyman level. To contract independently the qualifying individual must document at least four years of journeyman-level or higher experience within the past 10 years, pay the $450 application fee, pass both the CSLB Law and Business exam and the C-10 trade exam through PSI within 18 months, be fingerprinted, post a $25,000 contractor's bond (plus a $25,000 bond of qualifying individual where applicable), carry workers' compensation or file an exemption, and pay the initial license fee of $200 (sole owner) or $350 (non-sole owner) for a two-year license. CSLB's reciprocity program covers contractors licensed for the previous five years in good standing in Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada or North Carolina, but only classifications on the Reciprocal Classifications List: for electrical work the only mapped classifications are Arizona C-11, K-11 and L-11 Electrical, which map to California C-10; Nevada's C-2 Electrical is not mapped (only Nevada C-2d Low Voltage maps to C-7), and the Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina entries cover only general building. Where reciprocity is granted CSLB may waive the C-10 trade exam but retains the right to require it, staff determine comparability case by case, and the Law and Business exam, bond, fingerprinting and all other licensure requirements still apply. A DIR electrician certification is not required for a licensed contractor's own work, only for electricians employed by C-10 contractors.