Moving to Florida as a master HVAC technician: every state's rule

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, and the initial certificate is $200 with $200 biennial renewal. EPA Section 608 certification is a separate federal requirement.