Nevada to Colorado: journeyman plumber license reciprocity
Nevada does not issue a statewide journeyman plumber license, so there is nothing to transfer. Here is Colorado'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.
Licensure by endorsement (all other states; no reciprocal agreements)
Your out-of-state credentials give no advantage. You meet the destination's requirements from scratch.
Every out-of-state journeyman applies under the same endorsement rule, because the Colorado Plumbing Board has no reciprocal agreements (the word does not appear in 3 CCR 720-1 or on the DPO plumbing pages). Under Rule 1.4(B)(1)(a) and the DPO Licensure Requirements, the applicant must hold an active journeyman-level license issued and regulated by a state (not a city or county) for at least six months, must have obtained it by passing a comparable state plumbing exam based on the current or previous edition of the plumbing code adopted by the Board (the 2021 IPC; DPO's Licensing Guide phrases this as 'the current or previous version of the International Plumbing Code'), and must have completed a state or federally approved apprenticeship or the four years (6,800 hours) of experience Colorado requires, documented on the Board's Affidavit of Experience forms signed by employers (self-verification is not accepted). The issuing state board completes DPO's Verification of State Licensure form. An applicant who satisfies these conditions is licensed without taking the Colorado exam; anyone who does not (for example a licence gained without an exam, on a non-IPC code, or held under six months) applies by examination, where out-of-state hours still count toward the 6,800-hour requirement.
Wording differences between official sources: the DPO Applications page says the comparable exam must be 'based on the currently adopted Colorado Code', while Rule 1.4(B)(1)(a)(2) and the Licensing Guide accept the current OR previous edition of the adopted plumbing code (IPC). The six-month holding period appears on the DPO Applications page but not in the rule text. Rule 1.4(A)(1) says candidates 'must pass the required examination(s) before submitting an application', whereas the Applications page describes DPO approving the application first and then issuing PSI scheduling instructions; exam-route applicants should confirm the current order of operations with DPO. The $120 application fee is quoted as 'currently' in the DPO Licensing Guide; the PSI exam fee is set in PSI's candidate handbook and was not published on the DPO pages reviewed. C.R.S.
At a glance
- Trade exam
- Waived
- Law / code exam
- Not required
- Out-of-state hours
- Count toward eligibility
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 6 months.DPO Applications page: 'currently held state (not city or county) issued license which you have held for a minimum of six (6) months'.
- Your Nevada license must have been obtained by examination, not by reciprocity or grandfathering.
- Completion of a state or federally approved or registered apprenticeship program, or the required years and type of experience for the comparable Colorado license
- You must document at least 6,800 hours of qualifying work experience.Four years of practical experience (one full-time month = 163 hours), documented on Board Affidavit of Experience forms signed by the plumbing contractor or employer; out-of-state experience is accepted on the same forms. Not separately required if the applicant completed a state or federally approved apprenticeship.
What you'll do to get licensed in Colorado
- 1Application fee. Pay the application fee ($120). Journeyworker Plumber initial application fee (DPO Licensing Guide: 'currently $120'), paid in DPO Online Services; non-refundable, application expires after one year if incomplete.
- 2Other. Plumbing - Verification of State Licensure form completed by the issuing state board.
- 3Other. Plumbing - Affidavit of Experience form(s) from current and former plumbing contractor employers, or apprenticeship completion documentation.
- 4Other. Proof of citizenship or lawful presence, general and criminal-history screening questions, and Felony Conviction Form if applicable.
- 5Trade exam. Pass the destination's trade exam (if applicable). Colorado Journeyworker Plumber exam (PSI; 100 questions, 240 minutes, 70% to pass) - only if the origin licence does not meet the endorsement criteria.
- 6Continuing education. Complete continuing education. After the first renewal: 8 hours of CE per licence year (16 per two-year cycle), at least 4 hours code-related, no more than 2 hours safety.
Published fees on this path total $120, 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 Colorado licenses journeyman plumbers
Colorado journeyman plumber · “Journeyworker Plumber”
Statewide license
Issued by Colorado State Plumbing Board (DORA Division of Professions and Occupations)
Colorado issues a statewide Journeyworker Plumber license (its name for the journeyman level) through the State Plumbing Board in DORA's Division of Professions and Occupations; the Board also licenses Residential Plumbers (two years / 3,400 hours) and Master Plumbers, registers apprentices, and registers Plumbing Contractors, which must hold or employ a licensed master plumber. By examination a journeyworker needs four years (6,800 hours) of documented practical experience verified on Affidavit of Experience forms by plumbing contractors or employers, a $120 application fee, and a passing score of 70% on the PSI-administered Colorado journeyworker exam (100 multiple-choice questions, 240 minutes) based on the 2021 IPC/IRC as adopted in 3 CCR 720-1. Out-of-state licensees who meet Board Rule 1.4(B)(1)(a) may instead be licensed by endorsement without the Colorado exam; the Board publishes no reciprocal agreements with any state. Licenses expire on the last day of February of odd-numbered years, and renewal requires eight hours of continuing education per licence year (waived until after the first renewal for new exam licensees).
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 Colorado 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 6 months before applying.
- What does it cost to get a Colorado journeyman plumber license from Nevada?
- Published fees on this path total $120, not counting exam vendor fees or bonds.
- Do my Nevada work hours count in Colorado?
- Yes. Documented out-of-state experience counts toward Colorado's eligibility requirements.
- Does it work the other way, from Colorado to Nevada?
- Not necessarily. Reciprocity is directed. Going from Colorado to Nevada, the mechanism is not applicable.
Sources
- 3 CCR 720-1 - Plumbing Rules and Regulations (State Plumbing Board) · 3 CCR 720-1, Rule 1.4 (Applications and Licensing); Rule 1.2 (Standards) · Colorado Secretary of State (Code of Colorado Regulations) · Admin Rule · verified September 16, 2026
- Colorado SOS eDocket - Tracking Number 2025-00532 (3 CCR 720-1 permanent rule adopted 2025-12-17) · Colorado Secretary of State (Code of Colorado Regulations eDocket) · Other · verified September 16, 2026
- Colorado Revised Statutes Title 12, Article 155 - Plumbers · C.R.S. §§ 12-155-112, 12-155-116, 12-155-118 · Colorado General Assembly · Statute · verified September 16, 2026
- Colorado Plumbing Applications and Forms - Plumbing Licensure Requirements (Examination and Endorsement) · Colorado DORA, Division of Professions and Occupations · Agency Page · verified September 16, 2026
- Colorado Plumbing Continuing Education · Colorado DORA, Division of Professions and Occupations · Agency Page · verified September 16, 2026
- Colorado Plumbing Homepage - State Plumbing Board · Colorado DORA, Division of Professions and Occupations · Agency Page · verified September 16, 2026
- DPO Plumbing Licensing Guide (PDF linked from the Plumbing Applications page) · Colorado DORA, Division of Professions and Occupations · Form · verified September 16, 2026
Verified dates are when a person last opened each source and confirmed the facts above. Cite the board, not us.