Pennsylvania to Georgia: journeyman plumber license reciprocity

Georgia issues a statewide Journeyman Plumber license through the Construction Industry Licensing Board's Division of Master and Journeyman Plumbers. Rule 121-3-.02 is the only CILB licensing rule that creates both master and journeyman credentials (electrical and conditioned-air rules license contractors only). A journeyman applicant must document at least one year of Primary or Secondary plumbing experience covered by the Georgia State Plumbing Code, score at least 70 on the Division's journeyman examination, name three licensed plumbers as references, and pay the Board's published application fee. Primary experience is direct installation under a licensed Master Plumber; secondary examples include county water/public-works maintenance work and full-time municipal or county plumbing inspection. Medical-gas piping is a separate statewide certificate (Rule 121-2-.11) available only to a current Georgia master or journeyman. Rule 121-2-.03 lets the Division issue a journeyman license by reciprocity or endorsement under a formal written agreement with another state board whose exam is substantially equal and who extend a similar privilege to Georgia licensees; the rules pages name no partner states. Everyone else applies by examination, with out-of-state hours counting toward the one-year experience minimum. Application-fee amounts, the exam vendor, CE hours and the renewal cycle are published on sos.ga.gov pages that returned 403 on this date.

Pennsylvania has no statewide plumber licence at the journeyman level: none of the Department of State's 29 professional licensing boards covers plumbers or plumbing contractors (the only construction-related board is Crane Operators), and there is no Commonwealth journeyman or master plumber credential. Individual licensing exists only where a city ordinance creates it. Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections, advised by the Plumbing Advisory Board, issues a Journeyman Plumber License (Philadelphia Code Title 9-1003) that authorises plumbing work under a licensed master plumber but not running a business: four years as a Philadelphia-registered apprentice (or a similar authorisation from another state or local jurisdiction with equal or greater requirements, subject to L&I approval), the ICC Journeyman Plumber Examination referencing the current Philadelphia Code or applied within 12 months of passing, and a $126 annual fee ($25 of that is the non-refundable application fee). Allentown posts 2026 journeyman and master plumber exam applications and licenses the plumbing trade separately from a business licence. Scranton's published form is a master electrical/mechanical/plumbing/general contractor application with no journeyman plumber form on that page. There is no state-level reciprocity; Philadelphia's other-jurisdiction clause substitutes for local apprentice registration only and does not waive the ICC exam.