Nevada to Ohio: master plumber license reciprocity

Ohio has no license called 'master plumber'; its top person-held plumbing credential is the statewide Plumbing Contractor license issued by the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board (OCILB) to an individual who qualified by examination (R.C. 4740.01(A)), who then assigns it to a contracting company. Other states' reciprocity forms pair this license with their master plumber licenses (West Virginia's form, for example, matches its Master Plumber to Ohio's Plumbing Contractor), so it is treated here as the master level. A new applicant must be 18, a citizen or legal alien, have five years as a tradesperson in the plumbing trade immediately before applying (or be an Ohio registered engineer with three years of construction business experience), pass BCI and FBI background checks, pass both sections of the PSI-administered examination (Plumbing trade and Business & Law), carry $500,000 of contractor liability insurance in one company name, and pay a $25 application fee and $25 license fee; licenses expire annually and renew with continuing education (online CE limited to 4 hours per one-year renewal). OCILB's published reciprocity list covers plumbing licenses from Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, with the Ohio Business and Law exam still required for Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee licensees.

Nevada does not issue a master plumber license to individuals, and no county or city was found to issue a master-level plumbing card; Clark County recognizes a 'plumbing qualified individual', which is simply the person who qualifies a contractor's C-1 license with the State Board. The state-level credential is a classification C-1 Plumbing and Heating Contracting license from the Nevada State Contractors Board (NSCB), issued to a sole proprietor, partnership, corporation or LLC and qualified by a named individual rather than held by the plumber personally. An out-of-state master plumber who only wants to work for an employer needs no Nevada license at all (apart from the local journeyman card in Clark County and Reno). To contract, the qualifying individual must show four years of experience as a journeyman, foreman, supervising employee or contractor within the past 15 years (NRS 624.260), pass the PSI-administered Nevada Business and Law exam and the C-1 trade exam within six months of filing (three attempts each), and the business must pay the $300 application fee and $600 biennial license fee, submit a financial statement, fingerprints and background check, and post a bond of $1,000 to $500,000 set by the Board, plus the Residential Recovery Fund assessment ($200 to $1,000) if it does residential work. Under licensure by endorsement (NAC 624.600 and 624.615) the C-1 trade exam and the experience certification are waived for a qualified individual who has held an active license, as the same qualified individual, with no discipline or pending action for the past four years in Arizona (CR-77 Plumbing Including Solar), California (C-36 Plumbing together with C-4 Boiler, Hot Water Heating and Steam Fitting) or Tennessee (CMC Full Mechanical Contractor); a Florida CF Plumbing Contractor gets experience credit but must pass the Nevada C-1 trade exam; the Business and Law exam is never waived. The NSCB equivalency charts contain no Utah chart and no C-1 row for Connecticut, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Mexico, Hawaii, Alabama or West Virginia.