California to Florida: master HVAC technician license reciprocity

Florida has no license called 'master HVAC'. The highest person-held HVAC credential is the certificate of competency as a Certified Class A Air-Conditioning Contractor (license prefix CAC), issued by the Construction Industry Licensing Board within DBPR to an individual who meets the experience requirement of s. 489.111 (typically four years as a worker or foreman with at least one year as a foreman, or a degree plus one year) and passes the two-part Florida exam (Business and Finance, and Class A Air Conditioning Trade Knowledge) through Professional Testing and Pearson VUE; a Class B certificate is limited to 25 tons of cooling and 500,000 Btu of heating per system, and the Certified Mechanical Contractor (CMC) covers the same systems plus piping. The certificate belongs to the person, who may then qualify a business, and is valid statewide. Alongside it, counties and municipalities examine and certify their own air-conditioning and mechanical contractors (Miami-Dade's Air Conditioning Contractor Unlimited/Limited, Broward's Class A and Class B Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractor), whose holders register with DBPR as Registered Air-Conditioning Contractors (RA) and may work only in the jurisdictions that issued the local card, which is why this level is marked Hybrid. Florida's only contractor reciprocity agreements (Louisiana, North Carolina and Mississippi, since June 1, 2021) cover General, Building and Residential licenses and not air conditioning, and the Board publishes no list of out-of-state air-conditioning exams found equivalent. Out-of-state HVAC contractors are handled by endorsement under s. 489.115(3): the Board may waive the Florida exam if the origin exam or licensing criteria are found substantially equivalent through an Examination Evaluation Questionnaire (a route the Board's own form calls 'very stringent and rarely approved'), or waives it for a contractor who has held the same or similar license for at least 10 years; everyone else takes the Florida exams. Endorsement costs $350; examination candidates pay $135 to register plus $80 per exam part, the certification application after passing is $245, and biennial renewal is $205. EPA Section 608 certification is a separate federal requirement.

California does not issue a master HVAC or master refrigeration license, and the credential that sits above the (non-existent) journeyman level is a CSLB contractor license in classification C-20 Warm-Air Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning or C-38 Refrigeration. That license is issued to a business (sole owner, partnership, corporation or LLC) and qualified by a named individual rather than held by the mechanic personally, so an out-of-state master HVAC license transfers to nothing unless the holder intends to contract; a master who only wants to work for an employer needs no California license at all. To contract, 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-20 (or C-38) 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 can waive the trade exam for a contractor who has held an active license in good standing for the previous five years in a classification on the Reciprocal Classifications List: for C-20 the mapped classifications are Arizona C-39, C-39R (as printed), K-39, K-79, L-39 and L-79 Air Conditioning and Refrigeration and Nevada C-1f Heating, Cooling and Circulating Air and C-21 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning; for C-38 they are Arizona L-49 Commercial and Industrial Refrigeration and Nevada C-21a Refrigeration. The Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina reciprocity entries cover only general building. Even where reciprocity is granted CSLB retains the right to require the trade exam, decides comparability case by case, and always requires the Law and Business exam, bond, fingerprinting and every other licensure requirement. EPA Section 608 certification is a federal prerequisite for handling refrigerants and is not part of the CSLB application.