Moving to Idaho as a journeyman HVAC technician: every state's rule

Idaho issues a statewide HVAC Journeyman certificate of competency through the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Board at the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses (DOPL); a journeyman works in the employ and under the direction of a licensed HVAC contractor. A new applicant pays a $35 application fee and qualifies either by completing 576 hours of instruction at a board-approved apprenticeship program plus 8,000 hours of supervised installation work while registered as an Idaho apprentice, or by documenting 16,000 hours of supervised HVAC installation work, and in both cases must pass the PSI-administered journeyman exam ($75) within a year of applying; the license costs $150 and renews for $75 every three years. DOPL also issues Specialty Journeyman and Limited Heating Specialty Journeyman certificates for hearth appliances, oil furnaces and gas piping. The HVAC board's FAQ states that Idaho has no reciprocal licensing agreement for HVAC. An out-of-state journeyman can instead use Idaho's universal licensure statute (Idaho Code 67-9409), under which the board must license a person holding a current, unrestricted license elsewhere who demonstrates competency, but may still require the Idaho exam; the HVAC application form itself offers no endorsement box, so applicants should contact DOPL before filing. EPA Section 608 certification is required nationwide to handle refrigerants.