Wisconsin trade license reciprocity

Wisconsin issues a statewide Journeyman Electrician license through the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS); under Wis. Stat. 101.862 no one may install, repair or maintain electrical wiring without a DSPS license or registration, and there is no municipal electrician licensing. A new applicant under Wis. Stat. 101.87 either completes a recognized construction electrician apprenticeship or documents 48 months with at least 8,000 hours of experience, applies in the LicensE portal, and passes the DSPS journeyman exam (open book on SPS 305, SPS 316 and the 2023 NEC; 70% to pass). Under Wis. Stat. 101.874 DSPS may enter into reciprocal agreements, and DSPS currently waives the exam only for journeymen licensed by examination in Iowa or New Hampshire. The license is renewed every four years for $100.

Wisconsin issues a statewide, person-held Master Electrician license through DSPS; the separate Electrical Contractor license is a business credential that must designate a master electrician and is not covered here. A new applicant under Wis. Stat. 101.868 qualifies with 12 months of experience as a licensed journeyman electrician, or 60 months with at least 10,000 hours of experience, or a bachelor's or master's degree in electrical engineering, applies in the LicensE portal, and passes the DSPS master electrician exam. Under Wis. Stat. 101.874 DSPS may enter into reciprocal agreements; DSPS currently waives the exam only for master electricians licensed by examination in Iowa. The license is renewed every four years for $200, with 24 hours of continuing education.

Wisconsin does not license HVAC technicians, journeymen or refrigeration mechanics as individuals. Under Wis. Stat. 101.178 and SPS 305.70 the business that installs or services heating, ventilating or air conditioning equipment must hold a DSPS HVAC Contractor registration ($15 application fee plus $160 registration fee, renewed every four years for $160), which has no exam, no experience requirement and is issued to the business owner, partner or chief executive; employees who do the work need no state credential. The only person-held state HVAC credential is the voluntary HVAC Qualifier certification (treated as the master level in this file), which requires four years of experience or education and an exam. Because there is nothing to transfer to, an out-of-state journeyman HVAC license is neither required nor recognized for employment in Wisconsin, and the statute bars cities, villages, towns and counties from requiring their own approval of a state-certified HVAC business, and of any HVAC business unless the local requirement predates November 1, 1993. Technicians who handle refrigerants must hold federal EPA Section 608 certification, which SPS 305.70 notes but which is not a state license. Wisconsin separately licenses journeyman electricians and plumbers for the electrical and plumbing portions of HVAC installations; those licenses are not covered here.

Wisconsin's highest person-held HVAC credential is the HVAC Qualifier certification issued by DSPS under Wis. Stat. 101.178(3) and SPS 305.71, which this file treats as the master level. It is issued to an individual who documents at least 1,000 hours per year for four years of experience supervising or performing the design, installation, servicing or maintenance of HVAC systems (or four years of HVAC-related schooling, or a combination) and passes the open-book DSPS exam (70% to pass, 4 hours, $95 at Pearson VUE); the credential is renewed every four years for $60 with no continuing education. Certification is voluntary: the mandatory credential is the business-level HVAC Contractor registration, but a business that employs a qualifier is a 'certified HVAC business' that no city or village may require to obtain a local certification, license or other approval. DSPS publishes no reciprocity agreements and no licensure-by-endorsement route for HVAC qualifiers; the experience requirement is not restricted to Wisconsin, so out-of-state work counts toward eligibility, but every applicant takes the Wisconsin exam. Federal EPA Section 608 certification is separately required to handle refrigerants.

Wisconsin issues a statewide Journeyman Plumber license through the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS); under Wis. Stat. 145.06 no person may engage in or work at plumbing in the state unless licensed by DSPS, and there is no municipal plumber licensing. Under SPS 305.93 a journeyman works under the general supervision of a Master Plumber, Master Plumber Restricted or Utility Contractor licensee, qualifies by completing a plumbing apprenticeship under Wis. Stat. ch. 106, and must complete 24 hours of approved continuing education to renew. A new applicant applies in the LicensE portal at license.wi.gov with proof of the completed apprenticeship, is made eligible to test, and must pass the DSPS journeyman plumber examination, which is a two-part, open-book exam with a 70% passing score covering Wis. Stat. ch. 145, SPS 305, the SPS 381-387 plumbing code, NFPA 13D/24 and the POWTS component manuals. DSPS's plumber pages name no reciprocity states, and the electrical reciprocity statute (Wis. Stat. 101.874) does not extend to plumbers; the plumbing comity statute (Wis. Stat. 145.09) counts out-of-state apprenticeships and licenses toward eligibility for the exam but does not waive it.

Wisconsin issues a statewide, person-held Master Plumber license through DSPS under Wis. Stat. ch. 145; no person may work at plumbing without a DSPS license (Wis. Stat. 145.06), and under SPS 305.91 a master plumber responsible for an installation must use appropriately credentialed persons to do the work. A new applicant applies in the LicensE portal with the Trades Experience Form (Form 8168) or an engineering degree, is made eligible to test, and must pass the DSPS master plumber examination, a two-part, open-book exam (70% on each part to pass) on Wis. Stat. ch. 145, SPS 305 and the SPS 381-387 plumbing code. DSPS's plumber pages name no reciprocity states.

Wisconsin licenses housebuilding statewide through the Department of Safety and Professional Services, and it takes two separate credentials rather than one. Under Wis. Admin. Code SPS 305.31 no person may obtain a building permit for a one- or two-family dwelling unless that person holds a Dwelling Contractor certification (or a Dwelling Contractor Restricted certification) and holds, or employs, someone who holds a Dwelling Contractor Qualifier certification. The Dwelling Contractor certification is the business-side credential: it is applied for by the owner of the contracting business, a partner on behalf of a partnership, or the chairman of the board or chief executive officer on behalf of a corporation, and it is granted on attestations of worker's compensation and unemployment compensation compliance plus proof of financial responsibility, which is either a surety bond or a general liability policy of at least $250,000 per occurrence. The Dwelling Contractor Qualifier certification is the personal credential and the one that carries the coursework and the testing: the applicant must have completed at least 12 hours in a DSPS-approved initial qualifier course in dwelling construction within the year before applying, and that course must include one or more tests on construction laws, construction codes and construction business practices. A contractor moving to Wisconsin to build or remodel houses normally needs both, files both in the LicensE portal at license.wi.gov, and should note that these credentials reach one- and two-family dwellings only. Wisconsin issues no state license for general or commercial building work, and a homeowner who lives or will live in the dwelling is exempt from the Dwelling Contractor requirement for work on their own home.

Wisconsin issues no state license or certification for a general, commercial or unlimited building contractor, so there is nothing at this level for an out-of-state general contractor's license to transfer into and no state examination to sit. The Department of Safety and Professional Services publishes a complete A-Z list of the credentials it grants, and the contractor-style entries on it are all specialty ones: Electrical Contractor, Master and Journeyman Electrician, HVAC Contractor and HVAC Qualifier, Master and Journeyman Plumber, Utility Contractor, Pipelayer, Elevator Contractor and Elevator Mechanic, Automatic Fire Sprinkler Contractor and Fitter, Liquefied Gas Supplier, Blaster, Welder and Soil Tester, alongside the Dwelling Contractor, Dwelling Contractor Restricted and Dwelling Contractor Qualifier certifications, which reach one- and two-family dwellings only. Commercial construction is controlled through the code rather than through licensing the builder: DSPS's Division of Industry Services performs commercial building, plumbing and fire suppression plan review and inspects commercial buildings, and the Wisconsin Commercial Building Code now follows the 2021 ICC family of codes. DSPS does not issue commercial building permits itself; the local permit is conditional on an approved plan review. Wisconsin is not one of the state agencies that accepts the NASCLA Accredited Examination for Commercial General Building Contractors, which follows from having no examination of its own at this level. A general contractor arriving in Wisconsin therefore has no state credential to apply for and no reciprocity to claim: the real work is getting plans reviewed, pulling the permit from the city, village, town or county where the project sits, complying with whatever registration that permit office requires, and making sure the electrical, plumbing, HVAC, fire sprinkler and elevator scope is performed by holders of the matching DSPS trade credentials. Even Wisconsin's largest city follows that pattern - Milwaukee's permit counter asks contractors for a city Home Improvement Contractor license and the state dwelling credentials, and has no general building contractor credential at all.

Wisconsin licenses home inspectors statewide through the Department of Safety and Professional Services, which calls the credential a home inspector registration. It is a genuine examined credential rather than a filing: subchapter XI of chapter 440 of the Wisconsin Statutes and chapter SPS 131 of the administrative code require 40 hours of approved pre-registration instruction, of which at least 20 hours are hands-on, and a two-part examination before the department will register anyone. Nobody may act as a home inspector, use that title or imply it without being registered, and no business may sell home inspection services unless every inspector it employs is registered. There is one grade of registration and no apprentice or associate tier. Wisconsin requires no insurance, bond or net worth of a home inspector, but it does forbid any contract term that disclaims your liability or caps your damages for failing to meet the statutory standards of practice, and it gives a client two years from the inspection to sue. Registrations all expire on December 14 of even-numbered years and renew on 40 hours of continuing education per biennium.