Pennsylvania to Rhode Island: journeyman HVAC technician license reciprocity

Rhode Island has no license titled 'HVAC technician'; the state credential for HVAC work is the refrigeration/air conditioning license issued by the Department of Labor and Training (DLT), which writes and administers the exam itself. The journeyman-level credential is the Refrigeration Journeyperson Class I (RJ1, unlimited refrigeration and air-conditioning work as an employee); the Refrigeration Journeyperson Class II (RJ2) is limited to comfort cooling up to 20 tons, product cooling up to 3 tons or 1 hp freezing. Heating-side work is licensed separately as pipefitting (Pipefitter Journeyperson I/II) and oil burner service (P.J.F. limited journeyperson II), and sheet metal work has its own license. A new Class I applicant completes a 10,000-hour registered apprenticeship with 144 hours of schooling per year (Class II: 4,000 hours and 288 schooling hours) and passes the DLT exam with a score of 70 or better. Rhode Island has no reciprocity agreements and no statute allowing a refrigeration license without examination; instead R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-27-11 and DLT regulation 260-RICR-30-15-2 § 2.14.C provide that an out-of-state journeyperson license admits the applicant to the Rhode Island journeyperson exam, and the DLT application has a dedicated 'Out-of-State License Holders' fee line. Fees are a $75 non-refundable application fee and a $72 two-year license fee (Class II $60) invoiced after passing; licenses renew every two years on the licensee's birthday. EPA Section 608 certification is a separate federal requirement for handling refrigerants.

Pennsylvania has no statewide HVAC license at any level: none of the Department of State's 29 licensing boards covers heating, air-conditioning, refrigeration or mechanical work, and the only state-level credential touching the trade is the Attorney General's Home Improvement Contractor registration, which registers businesses doing residential work and involves no exam. Journeyman-level HVAC licensing exists only where a city ordinance creates it, and most cities do not: Philadelphia and Pittsburgh license no HVAC journeyman (Philadelphia's only person-held HVAC-related license is the Sheet Metal Technician license for ductwork, and Pittsburgh's Mechanical/HVAC Trade License is a master-level credential under which employees work unlicensed). Reading issues a Journeyman Mechanical Installer license based on a four-year apprenticeship and the ICC Journeyman Mechanical exam, and Erie's ordinance defines a mechanical journeyman by completion of the ICC Journeyman Certificate Exam. An out-of-state HVAC journeyman license has no state-level recognition in Pennsylvania; Reading will issue a reciprocal journeyman license ($150) to holders of an equivalent license from a first-, second- or third-class city with standards equal to its own, and otherwise the technician works as an employee of whatever contractor holds the local license. Federal EPA Section 608 certification is required everywhere in the state for anyone who handles refrigerants.