Florida to Virginia: journeyman plumber license reciprocity

Virginia issues a statewide Journeyman Plumbing tradesman license to individuals (never to companies) through the Board for Contractors' Tradesmen Program at the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR). A first-time applicant qualifies for the PSI journeyman plumbing exam under 18VAC50-30-39(B) with a combination of practical experience and vocational training (four years plus 240 hours down to seven years plus 40 hours), a related degree plus experience, or eight years of verified experience; a registered Virginia apprenticeship can exempt the exam. The application fee on the 2026 Tradesman Exam & License Application is $171.75, which includes the $7.25-per-year technology fee on top of the $150 fee in 18VAC50-30-90; the PSI journeyman exam fee published on the Tradesmen page is $100. A journeyman or master plumber license from another governing body outside Virginia is itself an accepted qualification to sit the Virginia exam without documenting hours, and a licensee who has held that out-of-state license for at least three years may instead apply through Universal License Recognition (ULR) and receive the license without the Virginia trade exam. DPOR's reciprocal-agreements list does not name any origin state for plumbing (the only plumbing-related partner is WSSC, a Maryland bi-county commission, not a state). Licenses expire three years from the last day of the month of issuance; renewal is $160 plus three hours of board-approved plumbing building-code continuing education. Anyone contracting for work over $1,000 also needs a Class A, B or C contractor license. A separate Residential Plumbing license (April 1, 2025) is a lower residential-only rung and is not this journeyman credential.

Florida has no state journeyman plumber license. The Construction Industry Licensing Board within DBPR certifies and registers plumbing contractors only (occupation codes CF/RF); s. 489.105 never defines 'journeyman', and the Board's plumbing application list has no journeyman credential. Hillsborough County states there is 'no State of Florida requirement for anyone to hold a Journeyman Certificate of Competency.' Section 489.1455, F.S., instead authorizes counties and municipalities to issue journeyman licenses in the plumbing (and pipe fitting, mechanical, or HVAC) trades to a person who scores at least 75 percent on a proctored journeyman exam, has completed a registered apprenticeship or 12,000 hours of on-the-job training, and completes Florida Building Commission coursework, and it requires every county and municipality to recognize a journeyman licensed by any other Florida county or municipality. Large urban counties run such programs (Hillsborough's Journeyman Plumber Certificate of Competency; Miami-Dade's Construction Trades Qualifying Board plumbing journeyman card). An out-of-state journeyman plumber license carries no state-level recognition, so an arriving plumber should expect to document experience and take the county exam in the first county that requires a card, after which that Florida county card is portable statewide under s. 489.1455(2).