Nevada to Alaska: journeyman plumber license reciprocity
Nevada does not issue a statewide journeyman plumber license, so there is nothing to transfer. Here is Alaska's standard path for out-of-state applicants.
Your origin state does not issue a statewide license at this level, so there is no license to transfer. The destination's standard out-of-state path is shown; expect to meet it in full.
Reference only, not legal advice. Rules change; confirm with the licensing board before you apply. Full disclaimer.
Reciprocal or provisional Plumber Journeyman certificate for any US jurisdiction with substantially similar requirements
Your out-of-state credentials give no advantage. You meet the destination's requirements from scratch.
Under 8 AAC 90.111 (effective August 8, 2025) Mechanical Inspection may reciprocate a plumbing certificate of fitness with any jurisdiction whose requirements are substantially similar to Alaska's, without a mutual agreement; it weighs the hours required, whether the jurisdiction tests, whether it requires registered-apprenticeship membership, and other factors, and 8 AAC 90.125 defines 'jurisdiction' to include a local government that licenses journeyman plumbers. The applicant must hold a current journeyman plumber licence held for a full year, files the Reciprocal/Provisional Application with a copy of the licence, and pays $50 plus $200 for a two-year Reciprocal Plumber Journeyman COF that renews as an ordinary journeyman certificate and allows trainee supervision; no Alaska exam is taken if the origin jurisdiction is found substantially similar. If the department decides the origin jurisdiction is not substantially similar it requests proof of hours and the applicant must pass the Alaska plumber journeyman exam (open book, 2018 UPC, 70%) before a certificate is issued (8 AAC 90.112(h)); legally performed out-of-state hours count toward the 8,000 under 8 AAC 90.890, and the applicant must supply the origin licence or a state letter confirming no licence was required. Alternatively a Provisional Plumber Journeyman COF ($50 plus $100, valid up to one year or until the origin licence expires, not renewable, no trainee supervision) lets an out-of-state plumber start work within about 7-10 business days and is upgraded to a reciprocal certificate unless the applicant opts out. Neither the reciprocal nor the provisional route covers fuel gas work: a provisional holder may not perform gas work (8 AAC 90.112(g)) because many states exclude gas from their plumber licence, and gas piping otherwise requires the Plumber Gas certificate or a full journeyman COF.
Mechanical Inspection publishes no list of which states' plumber licences it has found substantially similar; each application is decided case by case, so the exam waiver is not guaranteed. Whether a reciprocal (as opposed to provisional) Plumber Journeyman COF authorises fuel gas work is not stated; the regulation bars gas work only for provisional holders, and the full journeyman scope in 8 AAC 90.900(14) includes fuel gas piping. The exam path has no published exam fee; the department administers the exam itself and third-party proctoring is at the applicant's expense. AS 18.62.050(c) also lets an Alaska-based union verify a member's qualifications in lieu of the exam.
At a glance
- Trade exam
- Waived
- Law / code exam
- Not required
- Out-of-state hours
- Count toward eligibility
- Typical processing
- About 10 days
What you must already have
- Your Nevada license must be active and in good standing.
- You must have held your Nevada license for at least 1 year.Must have held the origin licence for a full year before the application date (8 AAC 90.112(a)); attach a prior licence if the current card lacks the issue date
- Origin jurisdiction's requirements (hours, testing, registered apprenticeship, other factors) must be substantially similar to Alaska's as determined by Mechanical Inspection; otherwise proof of 8,000 legally obtained hours and the Alaska plumber journeyman exam are required (8 AAC 90.111, 8 AAC 90.112(h))
What you'll do to get licensed in Alaska
- 1Application fee. Pay the application fee ($50). Nonrefundable certificate of fitness application fee (AS 18.62.030).
- 2License fee. Pay the license or certificate fee ($200). Two-year Reciprocal Plumber Journeyman certificate fee; a Provisional Plumber Journeyman certificate costs $100 instead, lasts up to one year and does not permit gas work.
- 3Other. Copy of the current out-of-state licence (and a prior licence if the issue date is missing) attached to the Reciprocal/Provisional Application for Electrical and Plumbing Certificates of Fitness, emailed to [email protected] or mailed to the Anchorage office.
- 4Trade exam. Pass the destination's trade exam (if applicable). Alaska Plumber Journeyman exam (open book, 2018 Uniform Plumbing Code, four hours, 70% to pass, 30-day wait to retake) - required only if Mechanical Inspection finds the origin jurisdiction not substantially similar; no department exam fee is published.
- 5Continuing education. Complete continuing education. For renewal of the two-year certificate: 16 hours of approved continuing education in the preceding 24 months, at least eight on significant changes to the Uniform Plumbing Code and no more than eight industry related (8 AAC 90.192(c)); renewal fee $200.
Published fees on this path total $250, excluding exam-vendor fees, bonds, and insurance.
What you'll need to buy or arrange
Exam preparation
Most boards contract PSI, Prov, or ICC for exams. Check which code edition the exam is written to before buying a prep course.
- Trade exam · if applicable
Continuing education
Renewals usually need approved CE hours, often on the latest NEC. Reciprocal licensees are rarely exempt.
- Continuing education
How Alaska licenses journeyman plumbers
Alaska journeyman plumber · “Plumber Journeyman Certificate of Fitness”
Statewide license
Alaska issues a statewide Plumber Journeyman Certificate of Fitness (COF) through the Department of Labor and Workforce Development's Mechanical Inspection Section; under AS 18.62.070 anyone doing plumbing subject to the Uniform Plumbing Code (the 2018 UPC, adopted by 8 AAC 63.101) must hold the appropriate certificate, and the section enforces plumbing in communities of 2,500 or more people (Anchorage inspects under a memorandum of agreement). A new applicant must hold a Plumber Trainee COF (which requires indenture in a US DOL registered apprenticeship) while accumulating 8,000 hours of legally obtained plumbing installation work (up to 4,000 military/vocational, 1,000 classroom, 2,000 gas and 500 utility hours may count; maintenance hours do not), then pass the department's open-book exam on the 2018 UPC with at least 70% within a four-hour limit. The COF costs $50 to apply for plus $200 on issue, is valid two years and renews for $200 with 16 hours of continuing education (at least eight on UPC changes). Separate restricted certificates exist for Plumber Gas (fuel gas piping, 4,000 hours) and Plumber Restricted Utility (water, sewer and storm service lines, 1,000 hours). Since August 8, 2025 the department reciprocates plumber journeyman certificates with any US state or local jurisdiction whose requirements are substantially similar (8 AAC 90.111) and offers a one-year provisional certificate to any out-of-state journeyman plumber; unlike the electrical programme, it publishes no list of plumbing reciprocity partner states.
Why Nevada has nothing to transfer
Nevada journeyman plumber · “Journeyman Plumber (county/city card)”
Licensed by cities and counties
Nevada has no statewide journeyman plumber license. The Nevada State Contractors Board (NSCB) licenses plumbing and heating contractors under classification C-1 (NRS/NAC 624), issues licenses only to businesses with a qualifying individual, and its FAQ says it does not license individual journeymen, so an out-of-state journeyman plumber license has nothing to transfer to at the state level and is not needed to work for a licensed C-1 contractor in most of the state. A personal credential exists only under local building codes: Clark County Code Chapter 22.02 requires a plumbing qualified individual or a journeyman plumber on site for permitted plumbing work and issues a renewable county journeyman plumber certificate to people who pass the journeyman exam accepted by the Building Official (plumbing is the one trade for which the county code publishes an experience prerequisite for the exam), and the City of Reno requires anyone installing, altering or adding to a plumbing system to hold a valid journeyman certificate under Reno Municipal Code Title 14. Neither jurisdiction publishes a waiver of its exam for an out-of-state license: Clark County's only equivalency is for a certificate from its accepted testing agency or another Nevada political subdivision within the county, while Reno lets contractors with a reciprocal license from another city, county, state or country work inside the city for 12 months before they must obtain the Reno certification. The City of Las Vegas, Henderson and the rural counties were not surveyed for plumbing cards.
How local licensing works in Nevada
How local licensing works. NRS Chapter 624 licenses only contractors. A C-1 Plumbing and Heating license is issued to a business and qualified by an individual with four years of journeyman-or-higher experience within the past 15 years (NRS 624.260); the NSCB FAQ states that Nevada does not license individual journeymen. Whether a working plumber needs a personal card is decided by each county's or city's building administrative code, and only Clark County and Reno were confirmed to require one for plumbing.
Clark County (unincorporated Las Vegas valley, Laughlin and other unincorporated areas). Clark County Code §22.02.245 issues plumbing permits only to contractors holding an active Nevada C-1 license. §22.02.250(B) requires the permit-holding contractor to employ at least one plumbing qualified individual and to have a qualified individual or a journeyman plumber present in a supervisory capacity while permitted plumbing work is under way. §22.02.255 defines a journeyman as someone who has passed the appropriate journeyman examination accepted by the Building Official and makes the county photo certificate renewable; the plumbing category is the only one in §§22.02.255-.260 for which the code publishes an experience prerequisite before the applicant may sit the exam (the exact number of years could not be re-extracted from the county PDF on 2026-09-16 and should be confirmed with the Department of Building and Fire Prevention). The only equivalency in the code (§22.02.255) is for a current certificate from an accepted independent testing agency or from a political subdivision of Nevada within Clark County, on obtaining the county photo certificate at the holder's expense; there is no provision for other states' journeyman licenses, so an arriving plumber must sit the county-accepted exam. The county's current exam vendor and card administrator for plumbing were not confirmed from an official page.
City of Reno. Reno's Development Services page states that no person may perform installations, alterations or additions to a plumbing system in the city unless done by a holder of a valid journeyman certificate, that apprentice plumbers must carry a card from an approved apprenticeship program, and that the requirement does not apply to homeowners, to contractors who keep an on-site written agreement naming the certified supervisors of their subordinate employees, or to 'contractors with reciprocal licenses from another city/county/state/country' for their first 12 months of work inside the city limits, after which the Reno plumbing certification must be obtained. Out-of-state experience is useful only as evidence toward Clark County's experience prerequisite and, for those who want to contract, toward the NSCB's four-year qualifying-individual requirement.
- Clark County (Department of Building and Fire Prevention)
- City of Reno (Development Services)
- City of Las Vegas (Department of Building and Safety; plumbing card requirement not verified)
- City of Henderson (plumbing card requirement not verified)
Common questions
- Do I have to take the Alaska journeyman plumber exam if I'm licensed in Nevada?
- No. The trade exam is waived on this path.
- How long do I need to have held my Nevada license?
- At least 1 year before applying.
- What does it cost to get a Alaska journeyman plumber license from Nevada?
- Published fees on this path total $250, not counting exam vendor fees or bonds.
- Do my Nevada work hours count in Alaska?
- Yes. Documented out-of-state experience counts toward Alaska's eligibility requirements.
- How long does the application take?
- The board's published or typical processing time is about 10 days.
- Does it work the other way, from Alaska to Nevada?
- Not necessarily. Reciprocity is directed. Going from Alaska to Nevada, the mechanism is not applicable.
Sources
- Alaska Certificate of Fitness Information Packet - AS 18.62 and 8 AAC 90 with FAQ (Version 20250715) · AS 18.62.010, AS 18.62.020, AS 18.62.030, AS 18.62.050(c), AS 18.62.070; 8 AAC 90.111, 8 AAC 90.112, 8 AAC 90.115, 8 AAC 90.125, 8 AAC 90.130, 8 AAC 90.192, 8 AAC 90.890, 8 AAC 90.900(14) · Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Mechanical Inspection · Admin Rule · verified September 16, 2026
- Alaska DOLWD Mechanical Inspection - Frequently Asked Questions · Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Mechanical Inspection · Faq · verified September 16, 2026
- Alaska DOLWD Mechanical Inspection - License Types and Requirements (Plumber certificates of fitness) · 8 AAC 90.111, 8 AAC 90.112, 8 AAC 90.130, 8 AAC 90.135, 8 AAC 90.137, 8 AAC 90.140 · Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Mechanical Inspection · Agency Page · verified September 16, 2026
- Alaska DOLWD Mechanical Inspection - Home (jurisdiction, adopted codes, August 8, 2025 regulation change) · 8 AAC 63.101; AS 18.60.705 · Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Mechanical Inspection · Agency Page · verified September 16, 2026
- Reciprocal/Provisional Application for Electrical and Plumbing Certificates of Fitness (v.20250828) · Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Mechanical Inspection · Form · verified September 16, 2026
- Alaska DOLWD Mechanical Inspection - Testing Information · 8 AAC 90.115 · Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Mechanical Inspection · Agency Page · verified September 16, 2026
Verified dates are when a person last opened each source and confirmed the facts above. Cite the board, not us.