Alabama trade license reciprocity

Alabama issues a statewide Journeyman Electrician license through the Alabama Board of Electrical Contractors. A new applicant must document at least 8,000 hours of experience installing electrical wiring, apparatus or equipment (up to 2,000 hours may be substituted with approved education or apprenticeship) and pass the journeyman exam administered by Prov, either the Alabama exam or the NASCLA Portable Journeyman exam ($115 either way); the license fee is $35 and it renews annually for $35. Exams currently reference the 2023 NEC and will move to the 2026 NEC on January 1, 2027. Alabama law also lets counties and municipalities license and examine journeymen for work inside their boundaries, but a statewide Board license is deemed qualifying in every county and municipality, and journeymen employed by a Board licensee are exempt from local licensing. The Board's only journeyman reciprocity partner is Texas; every other out-of-state journeyman must qualify by documented experience and take the Alabama exam.

Alabama's highest person-held electrical credential is the statewide Electrical Contractor license, which the Board's own page says 'may also be interchanged with Master Electrician'. Under Ala. Code §34-36-7(c) it is issued only to a person (never to a firm), and the licensee then qualifies a business through the EC-2 business information form, so it is treated here as the master level. A new applicant must document 8,000 hours (four years) of experience designing, planning, laying out and directly supervising electrical construction, or 8,000 hours as a journeyman in charge of jobs, and pass the Alabama Electrical Contractor exam or the NASCLA Electrical Contractors exam through Prov ($165); the license fee is $150, renewal is $150 per year, the license is unlimited in voltage and bid amount, and 14 hours of continuing education are required every two years. The Board has electrical contractor reciprocity with Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Louisiana and Texas, accepts the NASCLA Electrical Contractors exam as a basis for reciprocal licensing, and ended reciprocity with Georgia. Counties and municipalities may also license electrical contractors for work within their boundaries, but a statewide license is deemed qualifying everywhere in the state.

Alabama does not issue a journeyman, technician or mechanic license for heating, air conditioning or refrigeration work. The only state credentials under Ala. Code §34-31-18 et seq. are the Certified Heating and Air Conditioning Contractor and Certified Refrigeration Contractor certifications, and §34-31-24 requires only that the person in responsible charge of a business be certified; installers and service technicians work as employees of a certified contractor with no personal state license. The Board's exam application still quotes an older version of §34-31-28 that let an applicant qualify for the exam through two years of a Board-issued apprentice registration, but the 2024 statute keeps only the 3,000-hour or approved-curriculum routes and the Board publishes no apprentice or technician registration form. An out-of-state journeyman HVAC license therefore has nothing to transfer to in Alabama and is neither required nor recognized for employment; §34-31-28(d) also bars counties and municipalities from imposing further testing on certified contractors, and no Alabama city journeyman card for HVAC work was verified from an official page. A journeyman who wants to contract independently must qualify for the contractor certification described at the master level. Federal EPA Section 608 certification is still required of anyone who handles refrigerants.

Alabama's HVAC credential is the Certified Heating and Air Conditioning Contractor certification (with a parallel Certified Refrigeration Contractor certification for commercial refrigeration) issued by the Board of Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Contractors. It is treated here as the master level because it is earned personally by examination: under rule 440-X-3-.04 an individual must satisfy every requirement, and when a partnership, corporation or LLC is certified the certificate is issued in the name of the person in responsible charge together with the business name. A new applicant must show 3,000 hours of work experience (the exam application asks for notarized employer affidavits covering at least two years within the past five years, with W-2 forms) or graduation from an approved HVAC or refrigeration curriculum, then pass the open-book Prov exam ($175; 115 questions, 70% to pass). Active certification costs $220 per year and requires a business name and a $20,000 performance bond; inactive status is $110 with no bond; four hours of continuing education are required each year after the first, and renewal is due by December 31. The Board accepts licenses by reciprocity from Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, South Carolina (Residential Building Commission or Contractor's Board), Texas, West Virginia and Louisiana when the applicant passed an equivalent exam with at least 70%; there is no business and law exam, and §34-31-28(d) prohibits counties and municipalities from requiring further local testing of certified contractors.