Oregon 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.

Oregon has no master HVAC or mechanical contractor license and no HVAC trade exam. Anyone who contracts for heating or air conditioning work must hold a Construction Contractors Board (CCB) license, a business registration issued in residential or commercial endorsements after the firm's Responsible Managing Individual completes 16 hours of pre-license training and passes the PSI business-practices exam ($60, 70% to pass); the business registers with the Secretary of State, posts the surety bond and general liability insurance set for its endorsement, and pays $400 for a two-year license. A contractor that maintains, services, repairs or replaces commercial and industrial fuel- or energy-using heating, refrigeration or air conditioning products also obtains the Building Codes Division's Limited Maintenance Specialty Contractor HVAC/R (LHR) license ($75, three years, no exam), which requires an active CCB license and a full-time signing supervisor who holds an appropriate electrical license such as the LME. Neither the CCB nor the LHR license evaluates or credits an out-of-state master HVAC license, and the CCB publishes no reciprocity; a master HVAC licensee from another state who only wants to work for an employer needs no Oregon license, while one who wants to contract independently completes the CCB process from scratch. EPA Section 608 certification applies to anyone handling refrigerants.