Nevada to Hawaii: journeyman plumber license reciprocity
Nevada does not issue a statewide journeyman plumber license, so there is nothing to transfer. Here is Hawaii'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.
Out-of-state journeyman: experience credited, full Hawaii exam (all states)
Your out-of-state credentials give no advantage. You meet the destination's requirements from scratch.
Hawaii has no reciprocity or endorsement for journey worker plumbers from any state. An out-of-state journeyman applies for the PJ exam like a new candidate, documenting at least 10,000 hours (five years full-time) of UPC-compliant plumbing work as a journey worker's or master plumber's helper on notarized Experience Verification forms signed by each licensed plumber who supervised the work. If the state where the experience was gained licenses only contractors, the Board accepts a form signed by the licensed contractor together with verification of that contractor's license dates, and a self-employed plumbing contractor may self-attest with a copy of the contractor license that was valid during the period claimed. The applicant must also submit a License Verification form from every jurisdiction where a license has ever been held. The $40 application goes to the Board, which meets in even-numbered months and must approve the applicant before PSI will register them; examination eligibility lasts two years. On passing, the plumber license fee is $306 in the first year of the plumber triennium, $204 in the second, and $102 in the third (calendar years listed on the 06/2026 form; 2026 is a third year, so $102 if licensed between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027). A Hawaii contractor's license under HRS ch. 444 is separately required to contract for plumbing work.
Board meetings are usually in February, April, June, August, October and December with exams the following month, so allow roughly two to four months from filing to exam. The current PSI examination fee is not printed on the 06/2026 DCCA form; the Board's July 2018 FAQ listed $90 for plumbers ($95 for electricians). The Board page left plumber renewal dollar amounts blank; do not treat the 2018 $276 renewal figure as current. HAR §16-80-3 recognizes county-adopted UPC as the minimum plumbing standard and allows other licensed contractors to run exterior piping five feet or more outside the building line without a PJ/PM. Equivalent-experience language in HAR §16-80-3 is written for master plumbers, not for the PJ exam.
At a glance
- Trade exam
- Required
- Law / code exam
- Not required
- Out-of-state hours
- Count toward eligibility
- Typical processing
- About 90 days
What you must already have
- You must document at least 10,000 hours of qualifying work experience.At least five years full-time or its equivalent, but not less than 10,000 hours, as a journey worker's or master plumber's helper (HRS §448E-5(b)(5)); the application form requires the work to be plumbing work in compliance with the UPC. Out-of-state hours count when verified by the supervising licensed plumber or, where that state licenses only contractors, the licensed contractor.
- License Verification form completed by every jurisdiction in which the applicant has ever held a license, showing any discipline
What you'll do to get licensed in Hawaii
- 1Application fee. Pay the application fee ($40). Non-refundable application fee payable to Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
- 2Other. Notarized Experience Verification form(s) - Plumber Only, signed by each licensed plumber (or licensed contractor, where the origin state licenses only contractors) under whom the hours were earned.
- 3Trade exam. Pass the destination's trade exam. Hawaii Journey Worker Plumber examination administered by PSI Services, based on the Uniform Plumbing Code; Board approval required before registering.
- 4Exam fee. Pay the exam fee. Examination fee paid directly to PSI at registration (amount set in the PSI candidate bulletin; $90 in the Board's 2018 plumber FAQ).
- 5License fee. Pay the license or certificate fee ($102). Initial plumber license fee if licensed in the third year of the plumber triennium (July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 per the 06/2026 application table: years 2017, 2020, 2023, 2026), including the compliance resolution fund fee; $306 in the first year of a triennium and $204 in the second. Do not send this fee with the initial application..
- 6Continuing education. Complete continuing education. For each triennial renewal of an Active PJ license (next June 30, 2027): proof of a University of Hawaii community college course on updates to the 2021 UPC, or a board-prescribed UPC-update exam (HRS §448E-8.5(b)). Waived for the first renewal if the license was issued within one year of the expiration date; not required while Inactive..
Published fees on this path total $142, 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
- Exam fee
Continuing education
Renewals usually need approved CE hours, often on the latest NEC. Reciprocal licensees are rarely exempt.
- Continuing education
How Hawaii licenses journeyman plumbers
Hawaii journeyman plumber · “Journey Worker Plumber (PJ)”
Statewide license
Issued by Hawaii Board of Electricians and Plumbers (DCCA Professional and Vocational Licensing Division)
Hawaii issues a statewide Journey Worker Plumber (PJ) license through the Board of Electricians and Plumbers in the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. HAR §16-80-4 requires anyone who performs, directs, or supervises plumbing work in or within five feet of buildings in the State to hold a PJ or Master Plumber (PM) license (unlicensed helpers may work only while a licensee is physically present on the project site). Eligibility under HRS §448E-5(b)(5) and the Board's application is five years full-time, and not less than 10,000 hours, of plumbing work in compliance with the Uniform Plumbing Code as a journey worker's or master plumber's helper, followed by the PSI-administered Hawaii written exam based on the UPC. The Board's application form states that Hawaii does not reciprocate with any jurisdiction: an out-of-state journeyman license is never exchanged for a Hawaii license and the exam is never waived, but out-of-state hours count in full when verified on notarized Experience Verification forms. Licenses run on a three-year cycle ending June 30 (next 2027, then 2030, 2033) and Active PJ licensees must complete a 2021 UPC update course (or a board-prescribed UPC-update exam) to renew. A Hawaii contractor's license under HRS ch. 444 is separately required to contract for plumbing work.
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 Hawaii journeyman plumber exam if I'm licensed in Nevada?
- Yes. Hawaii requires the trade exam on this path.
- What does it cost to get a Hawaii journeyman plumber license from Nevada?
- Published fees on this path total $142, not counting exam vendor fees or bonds.
- Do my Nevada work hours count in Hawaii?
- Yes. Documented out-of-state experience counts toward Hawaii's eligibility requirements.
- How long does the application take?
- The board's published or typical processing time is about 90 days.
- Does it work the other way, from Hawaii to Nevada?
- Not necessarily. Reciprocity is directed. Going from Hawaii to Nevada, the mechanism is not applicable.
Sources
- DCCA PVL - Requirements for Examination and License, Electricians and Plumbers (Forms EP-00 / EP-01, rev. 06/2026) · HRS ch. 448E; HAR ch. 16-80 · Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Professional and Vocational Licensing Division · Form · verified September 16, 2026
- DCCA PVL - Board of Electricians and Plumbers · Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Professional and Vocational Licensing Division · Agency Page · verified September 16, 2026
- DCCA PVL - Electrician and Plumber Application Deadline and Examination Dates · Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Professional and Vocational Licensing Division · Agency Page · verified September 16, 2026
- DCCA PVL - Frequently Asked Questions, Electricians and Plumbers (July 2018) · Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Professional and Vocational Licensing Division · Faq · verified September 16, 2026
- DCCA PVL - Plumber Continuing Competency Requirements · Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Professional and Vocational Licensing Division · Agency Page · verified September 16, 2026
- Hawaii Administrative Rules Title 16, Chapter 80 - Electricians and Plumbers · HAR §§16-80-3, 16-80-4, 16-80-5, 16-80-6 · Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs · Admin Rule · verified September 16, 2026
- HRS §448E-5 - Minimum requirements (electricians and plumbers) · HRS §448E-5(b)(5)-(6) · Hawaii State Legislature · Statute · verified September 16, 2026
- HRS §448E-5.5 - Examination · HRS §448E-5.5 · Hawaii State Legislature · Statute · verified September 16, 2026
- HRS §448E-8.5 - Continued competency; license renewals · HRS §448E-8.5(b)-(c) · Hawaii State Legislature · Statute · verified September 16, 2026
Verified dates are when a person last opened each source and confirmed the facts above. Cite the board, not us.