Oregon trade license reciprocity

Oregon issues a statewide General Journeyman Electrician (J) license through the Building Codes Division. An applicant without a reciprocal license must document either an approved apprenticeship, or 576 classroom hours plus 8,000 hours of on-the-job experience earned outside Oregon, or 16,000 out-of-state on-the-job hours, and then pass the Oregon journeyman exam. Under ORS 479.630 an Oregon Limited Residential Electrician may also qualify after two years under that license plus two more years of apprenticeship-level commercial and industrial work. Oregon has signed journeyman reciprocity agreements with Arkansas, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Utah, Washington and Wyoming; qualifying holders of those licenses are licensed without taking the Oregon exam. Licenses renew every three years on October 1 and require 24 hours of continuing education.

Oregon does not use the title "master electrician"; its closest equivalent is the General Supervising Electrician (S) license, which authorizes the holder to design, plan and lay out electrical work, sign permits, and direct, supervise or control the installation or alteration of an electrical service. It is treated here as the master level. An applicant must hold or qualify for the Oregon General Journeyman license, document an additional 8,000 hours of journeyman-level experience, and pass the Oregon supervising exam. Oregon has signed supervising-level reciprocity agreements with Arkansas and Utah only; master electricians from other states go through the standard application and exam. Licenses renew every three years on October 1 with 24 hours of continuing education.

Oregon does not license HVAC technicians or journeymen. The Building Codes Division licenses individuals only in the electrical, plumbing, boiler, elevator and manufactured dwelling trades, and no state HVAC, mechanical or refrigeration certificate exists, so an out-of-state HVAC journeyman license has nothing to transfer to and is not needed to work as an employee of a licensed contractor. The credential most HVAC/R technicians in Oregon hold is the Limited Maintenance Electrician (LME), an electrical license that lets its holder repair and maintain existing electrical installations in operable plants, commercial buildings and institutions (no new installations or service work); it requires an approved Oregon apprenticeship or, for training earned outside Oregon, 288 classroom hours plus 4,000 on-the-job hours or 8,000 on-the-job hours, a 2-hour 28-question open-book exam and a $100 fee, and it renews every three years with 8 hours of continuing education. The LME has no reciprocity (Oregon's electrical reciprocity covers only the general journeyman and supervising licenses), so an arriving technician documents out-of-state hours and sits the LME exam. Employers doing HVAC/R maintenance also hold the division's Limited Maintenance Specialty Contractor HVAC/R (LHR) business license, and anyone handling refrigerants needs federal EPA Section 608 certification. Gas piping and boiler work fall under separate plumbing and boiler licenses.

Oregon has no master HVAC or mechanical contractor license and no HVAC trade exam. Anyone who contracts for heating or air conditioning work must hold a Construction Contractors Board (CCB) license, a business registration issued in residential or commercial endorsements after the firm's Responsible Managing Individual completes 16 hours of pre-license training and passes the PSI business-practices exam ($60, 70% to pass); the business registers with the Secretary of State, posts the surety bond and general liability insurance set for its endorsement, and pays $400 for a two-year license. A contractor that maintains, services, repairs or replaces commercial and industrial fuel- or energy-using heating, refrigeration or air conditioning products also obtains the Building Codes Division's Limited Maintenance Specialty Contractor HVAC/R (LHR) license ($75, three years, no exam), which requires an active CCB license and a full-time signing supervisor who holds an appropriate electrical license such as the LME. Neither the CCB nor the LHR license evaluates or credits an out-of-state master HVAC license, and the CCB publishes no reciprocity; a master HVAC licensee from another state who only wants to work for an employer needs no Oregon license, while one who wants to contract independently completes the CCB process from scratch. EPA Section 608 certification applies to anyone handling refrigerants.

Oregon issues a statewide Journeyman Plumber (JP) license through the Building Codes Division on behalf of the State Plumbing Board; under ORS 693.030 nobody may work in the trade of journeyman plumber without it, and commercial or industrial plumbing must be installed by a licensed journeyman or a registered apprentice working under one. A new applicant qualifies for the exam by completing a four-year Oregon plumbing apprenticeship, or by documenting 576 hours of classroom training plus 7,700 hours of on-the-job experience split 3,850 residential and 3,850 commercial across set work categories, or by documenting twice those hours (7,700 residential and 7,700 commercial) earned while holding a license with a journeyman-plumber scope. The application and license fee is $100 (non-refundable), and the applicant must pass the division's four-hour, 64-question open-book journeyman exam at an Oregon testing location with a score of 75 percent or better; there is no separate law exam and no national exam vendor. Oregon has signed journeyman plumber reciprocity agreements with Idaho and Montana only; qualifying holders of those licenses are licensed without examination for the same $100 fee. Every other out-of-state plumber applies on the standard form, receives credit for lawful out-of-state apprenticeship, classroom and on-the-job hours, and must pass the Oregon exam. Licenses run on a three-year cycle (all JP licenses next expire April 1, 2029) and renewal requires 24 hours of continuing education including 4 hours of code change and a 4-hour Oregon rule and law course.

Oregon has no master plumber license and no other person-held plumbing credential above journeyman. ORS 693.095 permits the State Plumbing Board to adopt rules for a 'supervising plumber' license, but no such rule exists in OAR chapter 918, division 695, and the Building Codes Division's license table lists only the Journeyman Plumber (JP) and three limited specialty licenses (residential water-heater, water-treatment and solar heating and cooling installer) as individual plumbing licenses; the Journeyman Plumber is therefore the highest license an individual can hold. The business-side credential is the Plumbing Business (PB) license under ORS 447.040, issued by the Building Codes Division to a firm that already holds a Construction Contractors Board (CCB) license: the owner or corporate officer files the Contractor/Business License Application (form 440-2888) with a $150 non-refundable fee and the CCB number, no signing supervisor or qualifying-person experience is designated for a plumbing business, no exam is taken, and the license renews on a three-year cycle (all PB licenses next expire July 1, 2029). A plumbing business license 'does not authorize the contractor to work as a journeyman plumber,' and the business may not let anyone perform journeyman work without an individual JP license. An out-of-state master plumber therefore has nothing to transfer to at this level: to work with the tools they obtain the Journeyman Plumber license through the journeyman path (Idaho or Montana reciprocity, or experience credit plus the Oregon exam), and to contract they register a business with the Secretary of State, license it with the CCB, and add the $150 BCD Plumbing Business license.

Oregon licenses contractors statewide through the Construction Contractors Board, and under ORS 701.021 anyone who undertakes, offers to undertake or bids work as a contractor must hold a current CCB license and the endorsement that matches the work. The unusual part of Oregon's structure is that there is only one construction contractor license: what the applicant chooses is an endorsement, and the endorsement sets the bond and the insurance. The homes tier is the Residential General Contractor (RGC) endorsement, which allows an unlimited number of unrelated building trades on residential or small commercial structures and carries a $25,000 residential bond and general liability insurance of at least $500,000 per occurrence. Its narrower siblings are Residential Specialty ($20,000 bond, $300,000 insurance, one or two trades), Residential Limited ($15,000 and $100,000, for a business under $40,000 of gross sales a year and $5,000 a contract) and Residential Developer, and a license may carry one residential endorsement, one commercial endorsement, or one of each, in which case the contractor posts two bonds and carries one liability policy at the higher amount. The license is held by the business rather than by the person: a sole proprietor, partnership, LLC, corporation or trust applies, and it must at all times have at least one Responsible Managing Individual (RMI), an owner or employee who exercises management or supervisory authority over the construction activities and who has completed 16 hours of CCB-approved pre-license training and passed the Oregon contractor test. Oregon sets no net worth, working capital or financial statement test and no minimum trade experience for a residential endorsement, so a builder moving to Oregon applies as or for the business that will sign the contracts and names themselves as its RMI.

Oregon's unlimited tier is the Commercial General Contractor endorsement, carried on the same single construction contractor license the Construction Contractors Board issues to everyone: ORS 701.021 requires a current CCB license plus the endorsement that matches the work, and the endorsement is what sets the bond and the insurance. A Commercial General Contractor may bid or perform work involving an unlimited number of unrelated building trades on small or large commercial structures, and it comes in two levels that are allowed to do exactly the same work and differ only in what stands behind them. Level 1 requires one or more key employees with a combined total of at least eight years of construction experience, an $80,000 commercial bond and general liability insurance of at least $2 million aggregate; Level 2 requires four combined years, a $25,000 commercial bond and at least $1 million aggregate. A key employee is an owner or employee who is a corporate officer, manager, superintendent, foreperson or lead person, the qualifying years are time as a licensed contractor, journeyman, foreperson or supervisor or as another employee doing construction work for a licensed contractor, and an apprenticeship or a construction-related bachelor's degree substitutes for up to three years, a bachelor's or master's in business, finance or economics for up to two, and an associate's degree in construction or building management for one. Alongside it sit Commercial Specialty Contractor Level 1 and Level 2 for one or two unrelated trades and Commercial Developer; a license may carry one commercial endorsement, one residential endorsement, or one of each, and a contractor holding both posts two bonds and carries one liability policy at the higher amount. As at every level the license belongs to the business and must at all times have at least one Responsible Managing Individual, an owner or employee with management or supervisory authority over its construction activities, who has completed 16 hours of CCB-approved pre-license training and passed the Oregon contractor test. Oregon imposes no net worth, working capital or financial statement test; the key-employee experience certification, the bond and the insurance are the only financial gates.

Oregon certifies home inspectors statewide through the Construction Contractors Board, the same agency that licenses contractors, and the credential is called the Oregon Certified Home Inspector or OCHI. Anyone who advertises, bids or performs a residential inspection covering two or more of the listed systems must hold it. The certification comes in two halves and both are needed before you can work. The first is personal: 20 qualifying points of experience and education, a passing score on the National Home Inspector Examination and a $150 application. The second is the part that surprises inbound inspectors: under ORS 701.445 a certified inspector must also be an owner or an employee of a business that holds a CCB contractor license, and the certificate does nothing until the license holder files an OCHI Change form linking it to an active license. If you join an existing inspection firm that license is already in place; if you intend to work for yourself you must obtain a CCB license of your own, most often the Home Inspector Services Contractor endorsement, which is limited to home inspection work and carries a $15,000 surety bond and general liability insurance of at least $100,000 per occurrence. Oregon publishes no reciprocity and no endorsement route for an out-of-state home inspector license, so an experienced inspector moving here files the ordinary application; what does travel is the national examination and the years of inspection work behind it.