Tennessee to Virginia: journeyman plumber license reciprocity

Virginia issues a statewide Journeyman Plumbing tradesman license to individuals (never to companies) through the Board for Contractors' Tradesmen Program at the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR). A first-time applicant qualifies for the PSI journeyman plumbing exam under 18VAC50-30-39(B) with a combination of practical experience and vocational training (four years plus 240 hours down to seven years plus 40 hours), a related degree plus experience, or eight years of verified experience; a registered Virginia apprenticeship can exempt the exam. The application fee on the 2026 Tradesman Exam & License Application is $171.75, which includes the $7.25-per-year technology fee on top of the $150 fee in 18VAC50-30-90; the PSI journeyman exam fee published on the Tradesmen page is $100. A journeyman or master plumber license from another governing body outside Virginia is itself an accepted qualification to sit the Virginia exam without documenting hours, and a licensee who has held that out-of-state license for at least three years may instead apply through Universal License Recognition (ULR) and receive the license without the Virginia trade exam. DPOR's reciprocal-agreements list does not name any origin state for plumbing (the only plumbing-related partner is WSSC, a Maryland bi-county commission, not a state). Licenses expire three years from the last day of the month of issuance; renewal is $160 plus three hours of board-approved plumbing building-code continuing education. Anyone contracting for work over $1,000 also needs a Class A, B or C contractor license. A separate Residential Plumbing license (April 1, 2025) is a lower residential-only rung and is not this journeyman credential.

Tennessee has no statewide journeyman plumber license. The Board for Licensing Contractors licenses plumbing at two other levels only: the Limited Licensed Plumber (LLP), a personal license for projects under $25,000 in municipalities that use the Division of Fire Prevention for permits and inspections (T.C.A. § 62-6-403; photo ID, SSN, Prov LLP trade exam, $75 initial fee; general maintenance under $500 is exempt), and the contractor license with the CMC-A (plumbing) or CMC (full mechanical) classification, a business license required for plumbing work of $25,000 or more. The Board's LLP page tells applicants to check first whether the local government accepts the LLP or runs its own licensing. Journeyman plumber cards therefore exist only where a city or county examines plumbers itself. Metro Nashville's Mechanical, Plumbing, and Electrical Examiners and Appeals Board issues journeyman plumber (and apprentice plumber) certificates; Knoxville registers State Contractors, homeowners, or Unlicensed/State Limited License (LLE or LLP) holders to pull permits and does not publish a separate city journeyman plumber card on that page. An out-of-state journeyman plumber license has no state-level recognition in Tennessee: the Board's trade-exam-waiver form cannot be used for the LLP, and none of the city pages reviewed here publish a reciprocity or exam-waiver path for inbound journeymen.