Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24
Texas has agreements with ten states for journeyman and six for master
The roster below came off TDLR's own page on 24 August 2026. The department has announced four new agreements since December, so read it again on the day you apply.
On this page
The roster, read 24 August 2026
Ten states for the journeyman electrician license. Six for the master electrician license. Nothing for any other Texas electrical license type.
Journeyman electrician
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arkansas
- Idaho
- Iowa
- Nebraska
- New Mexico
- Oklahoma
- South Dakota
- Wyoming
Master electrician
The master list is shorter, and each entry names a particular license in the other state rather than the word master by itself.
| State | The license TDLR recognizes | Journeyman license held first |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Master electrician | One year |
| Arkansas | Master electrician | Two years |
| Iowa | Class A master electrician | One year |
| Louisiana | State contractor's license | Two years, and Louisiana residency |
| Nebraska | Master electrician | One year |
| North Carolina | Master electrician or unlimited electrical contractor | Two years |
Currently there are no reciprocal licensing agreements for any other license types.
TDLR, transfer your out-of-state electrician license, read 24 August 2026
Two errors travel together in the summaries. Montana gets listed and is not on TDLR's page at all. Alabama gets left off and has been on it since March. If a list you find has one of those two wrong, assume it has the other wrong as well.
Reciprocity waives the examination and nothing else
That is the whole of what it does. 16 TAC 73.24(a) lets an applicant licensed in a state that has an agreement with Texas obtain the equivalent Texas license without passing the examination, provided that all other licensure requirements are met, as defined by Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 1305.
So the hours come with you. TDLR's published requirement for the journeyman route is at least 8,000 hours of on-the-job training under the supervision of a master electrician, and for the master route at least 12,000 hours.
Those are not reciprocity figures invented for out-of-state applicants. They are the ordinary Texas license requirements, sitting in Tex. Occ. Code 1305.155 for the journeyman and Tex. Occ. Code 1305.153 for the master, which also asks for two years holding a journeyman license.
TDLR adds one condition of its own on top: you held the reciprocal license for at least one year. For the master routes that sits alongside the per-state journeyman duration in the table, so Arkansas asks for both.
The rule reaches further than the agreements do. 16 TAC 73.24(a) is written to cover electricians, sign electricians, journeyman linemen, journeyman industrial electricians and residential appliance installers. TDLR has agreements for two of those categories. The rule is the door and the agreements are the key.
The letter of good standing has to say statewide
TDLR asks the state that licensed you for a letter of good standing, and the letter has to show that you passed that state's statewide examination for electrical work.
Read that twice if you were licensed by a city rather than by a state. Plenty of electricians hold a municipal license from a jurisdiction in a state that appears on the roster, and a city examination is not the thing the letter is asked to certify.
One agreement announced and not on the roster
TDLR announced a master level agreement with Ohio on 5 June 2026. Ohio was still absent from the roster page on 24 August 2026.
The department's own electrician news index carries the sequence: Arkansas 30 December 2025, Iowa 6 February 2026, Alabama 20 March 2026, Ohio 5 June 2026. Three of the four reached the roster page. The fourth had not, eleven weeks later.
Both things are published by the same agency and this page is not going to pick between them. If you hold an Ohio master license, that gap is worth a phone call rather than an application.
A different route that is not reciprocity
If you hold a municipal or regional Texas license and that municipality stops issuing or renewing licenses, Tex. Occ. Code 1305.202(b) lets you apply for the equivalent state license without the examination, if you held the local license for the preceding year and apply within ninety days of the date the program stopped.
That is a Texas to Texas path and it has nothing to do with other states. It gets confused with reciprocity because both end in a license issued without a Texas examination.
And one for military households
There is a separate route for military service members and spouses that can allow practice without a Texas license at all, on conditions. It has its own page here, and it is not built on an agreement with any state.
What this page cites
- TDLR, transfer your out-of-state electrician license The roster of states, the per-state conditions, the hour figures and the letter of good standing. Read 24 August 2026. source
- Tex. Occ. Code 1305.164 Nonresident license applicants, and the agreement requirement that sits behind the roster. source
- Tex. Occ. Code 1305.101 Authority at subsection (b)(1) to establish agreements with states whose licensing requirements are substantially equivalent.
- 16 TAC 73.24 Waiver of examination requirements. Subsection (a) carries the condition that all other licensure requirements are met. source
- Tex. Occ. Code 1305.155 Journeyman electrician: 8,000 hours of on-the-job training under a master electrician, and the examination.
- Tex. Occ. Code 1305.153 Master electrician: 12,000 hours, two years holding a journeyman license, and the examination.
- Tex. Occ. Code 1305.202 The ninety day route when a municipality stops licensing.