Illinois to North Carolina: journeyman HVAC technician license reciprocity

North Carolina has no license called 'journeyman HVAC'. The closest state-issued, person-held credential below contractor level is the Heating Technician license from the State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors: an individual who has passed the 4-hour technical examination for Heating Group 1 (hydronic), Group 2 (forced air over 15 tons) or Group 3 (forced air 15 tons or less), Class I (any building) or Class II (single-family dwellings), but not the business and law examination. A technician license is not a contracting license and is not required to work for a living: any W-2 employee of a licensed heating contractor may perform work under the contractor's license, so the technician license mainly lets its holder be listed as a sub-licensee to help supervise work, or qualify a state, local-government or private-school maintenance department. Eligibility is 3,000 hours of hands-on installation, maintenance, service or repair experience (up to half from technical education), a $150 exam fee, a nationwide criminal background report and Social Security verification. The Board publishes no reciprocity for any state at this level; an out-of-state journeyman documents their hours on the Board's employment-history form and takes the technical exam. Refrigeration (commercial, industrial, transport and service, but not comfort cooling) is licensed separately by the State Board of Refrigeration Contractors, which licenses only contractors and has no technician-level credential. EPA Section 608 certification is required federally to handle refrigerants.

Illinois has no statewide HVAC license at any level; the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation licenses no heating, air conditioning, refrigeration or mechanical trade, and licensing exists only where a city or county has adopted its own ordinance. None of the major jurisdictions verified for this entry issues a journeyman or technician HVAC card: Chicago licenses general contractors but no mechanical trade, Springfield's Mechanical License is a master-level credential (5 or 7 years of experience plus the ICC Master Mechanical exam), and Peoria, Aurora, Elgin and Cook County license or register the contractor. HVAC technicians therefore work as employees of a locally licensed or registered contractor without a personal license. An out-of-state journeyman HVAC license carries no recognition in Illinois, and none of the jurisdictions checked publishes a reciprocity or endorsement path for it; a journeyman who wants to pull permits must qualify for the local mechanical contractor license, which in most testing cities means passing the ICC Master Mechanical exam. Federal EPA Section 608 certification is required to handle refrigerants.