California to South Carolina: master HVAC technician license reciprocity

South Carolina has no 'master HVAC' license. The highest person-held HVAC credential is the Contractor's Licensing Board's Qualifying Party certification in the Air Conditioning (AC), Heating (HT), Refrigeration (RG) or Packaged Equipment (PK, up to 25 tons and 500,000 BTU per unit) classification of the Mechanical Contractor license: the individual passes the South Carolina technical exam for each classification through PSI and the South Carolina Business Management & Law for Commercial Contractors exam, documents two years of experience within the past five (or a PHCC Academy of North Carolina heating and air-conditioning apprenticeship), and is certified as the qualifying party for a licensed entity (which may be a sole proprietorship); the certification stays with the person, who 'is not a licensed contractor' alone. The license itself is issued to the business, with a $350 licensure fee and a financial statement or surety bond sized by license group (Mechanical Group 2, jobs to $100,000: working capital $10,000 or net worth $15,000, or a $15,000 bond). A residential-only alternative is the Residential Builders Commission's Residential HVAC Installer and Repairer license ($135 application, $220 license), issued to the individual after one year of residential HVAC experience and the residential technical plus Business Management and Law exams. South Carolina has technical-exam waiver agreements, listed in the Board's Technical Exam Waiver Agreement List (revised May 2026), covering HVAC classifications for Alabama (Heating and Air Conditioning, Refrigeration), Georgia (Unrestricted Conditioned Air), Louisiana (Statewide Mechanical), North Carolina (Heating Groups 1, 2 and 3), Ohio (HVAC, packaged equipment only), Tennessee (CMC and CMC-C), Texas (Class A and Class B air conditioning and refrigeration) and Utah (HVAC, warm air heating, refrigerated air conditioning and refrigeration exams passed before May 2017), plus the MASC/CAGC HARV Master Mechanical card. Alabama, Mississippi and North Carolina licenses obtained by exam and held for a year also waive the technical exam for the residential license. Every waiver applicant must still pass the South Carolina Business Management & Law exam. Licensees from other states take the South Carolina technical exam. 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.