Illinois to District of Columbia: journeyman plumber license reciprocity

The District of Columbia issues a person-held Journeyman Plumber license (the Board also licenses journeyman gasfitters as a related specialty) through the Board of Industrial Trades in the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection (DLCP), the same board that licenses electricians and refrigeration mechanics. Under D.C. Code § 47-2853.122 a journeyman plumber must have worked as an apprentice plumber or gasfitter at least 8,000 hours over at least 4 years (a mechanical-engineering degree plus 2 years of practical experience verified by a licensed master, or comparable experience the Board accepts, also qualifies) and then pass the PSI-administered exam, unless the applicant presents a national certifying organization's journeyman plumber certificate that waives both the exam and the subsection (b) experience path. Fees are a $65 application fee and a $110 license fee for a term of up to 2 years; plumber and gasfitter licenses expire March 31 of even-numbered years. The Board publishes a Maryland plumbing reciprocity bulletin; the Reciprocity section of the board page still describes only Maryland and Virginia electricians. No District-law exam applies to journeyman plumbers (§ 47-2853.12(c)(3)).

Illinois has no journeyman plumber licence. Under the Illinois Plumbing License Law (225 ILCS 320) the Department of Public Health issues a single Plumber licence plus an Apprentice Plumber licence; there is no intermediate journeyman card and no master tier, and the City of Chicago's parallel programme under Section 16 follows the same two-tier structure. Every person who performs plumbing must hold one of those two licences (Section 3(1)). An out-of-state journeyman therefore has nothing to transfer to: the choices are (1) register as an Illinois Apprentice Plumber (age 16 or older, sponsored by an Illinois licensed plumber or an approved apprenticeship programme, maximum six years as an apprentice) and work under supervision, or (2) qualify for the full Illinois Plumber licence, where Section 17(b) lets a plumber licensed by another state with substantially equal requirements sit the Illinois examination without first serving the four-year Illinois apprenticeship. Whether a journeyman-level origin licence counts as 'substantially equal' to the Illinois Plumber licence is decided by the State Board of Plumbing Examiners case by case and is not addressed on the IDPH page reviewed; see the master level for the licence route.