Contractor License Reciprocity by State and Trade (2026)
Contractor reciprocity is organized by trade and class, not by state alone. Of the 51 jurisdictions, 13 license general contractors and have at least one trade-specific agreement; 7 license general contractors but rely on licensure by endorsement or the NASCLA/NERA exam networks; 1 licenses general contractors with no reciprocity or endorsement path for them, only a new application (Michigan); 1 licensing state offers no contractor reciprocity of any kind (Hawaii); and 29 issue no state general contractor license at all (licensing is local, or a registration), though 15 of them have trade agreements for the trades they do license. The tables below break it down by trade — because a state that recognizes your electrical license may not touch your general-building one.
Check your exact transfer pathway
Pathway, requirements, fees, and board links for your specific state pair.
The pathways, applied to contractor
Trade-specific reciprocity agreements
The Southeast runs the densest web of these: Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas, and Florida trade exam waivers among themselves, often with different partner lists for commercial versus residential work. An agreement waives the destination's trade exam for your specific trade — it does not touch the business/law exam, bond, or registration.
The NASCLA exam (commercial general building)
A group of states accepts the NASCLA Accredited Commercial General Building Contractor Examination in place of its own trade exam (each state page says whether that state does). Pass it once and you carry a credential recognized across all of them. For a commercial GC planning to work in several states, NASCLA is usually the highest-leverage move — take it before you need it.
NERA (electrical)
The National Electrical Reciprocal Alliance links a group of member states whose electrical boards waive each other's exams for licensees who earned their license by examination and have held it at least a year. It is the closest thing electricians have to portability — but grandfathered (non-exam) licenses are excluded, and it does not cover general or mechanical trades.
Endorsement and full application
Where no agreement or network covers your trade, states fall back to endorsement (case-by-case credit for your experience and exams) or, in the no-reciprocity states, full application as a new licensee. Utah, notably, uses endorsement rather than reciprocity — despite aggregator claims of a large "reciprocity" list.
A recurring honesty note: agreements die. The Alaska-Utah general-contractor arrangement ended; Louisiana logged changes in 2024. Treat every count on this site as dated — the verification date on each page is the date we last confirmed it against the board.
The master matrix: every state by pathway
| Pathway (as destination) | States |
|---|---|
| Licensure by endorsement(15) | Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia |
| No state license — registration only(15) | Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin |
| Full re-application required(6) | Arkansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon |
| No statewide license(14) | Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wyoming |
| No reciprocity offered(1) | Hawaii |
Fees & timelines: the spread
Lowest fees on file (any trade, license or registration)
- Maryland$25–$150
- Ohio$25
- Indiana$30
- Texas$30–$115
- New Mexico$36
Highest fees on file (any trade, license or registration)
- Nevada$900
- California$650–$800
- Nebraska$127.50–$555
- North Dakota$100–$450
- Kentucky$200–$400
These are the figures each row records, which in many states are a trade license's fee (electrician, plumber, HVAC) rather than a general contractor application fee; each state page says what its figure covers. Processing times on file range from 2–3 weeks (Pennsylvania) to 4–6 weeks (Oregon) — where a board publishes no timeframe, the state page says so honestly instead of guessing.
Frequently asked questions
How does contractor license reciprocity work in 2026?
Contractor reciprocity is organized by trade and class, not by state alone. Of the 51 jurisdictions, 13 license general contractors and have at least one trade-specific agreement; 7 license general contractors but rely on licensure by endorsement or the NASCLA/NERA exam networks; 1 licenses general contractors with no reciprocity or endorsement path for them, only a new application (Michigan); 1 licensing state offers no contractor reciprocity of any kind (Hawaii); and 29 issue no state general contractor license at all (licensing is local, or a registration), though 15 of them have trade agreements for the trades they do license. The tables below break it down by trade — because a state that recognizes your electrical license may not touch your general-building one.
Which states have no contractor reciprocity?
Hawaii offers no contractor reciprocity of any kind as of 2026-07-21 — out-of-state contractors apply as new applicants. Separately, 29 states issue no state general contractor license at all (licensing is local, or a registration), so there is no GC license there to transfer.
What does contractor reciprocity actually waive?
Usually just the trade or technical exam. You almost always still complete the destination's business and law exam, financial statement, bond, and insurance — reciprocity shortens the process, it does not skip it.
What is NASCLA and how does it help contractors move?
NASCLA accredited exams (commercial general building, and electrical) are accepted by 12 states + DC in place of their own trade exam, as of 2026-07-21. Passing one once lets you apply in an accepting state without re-sitting that state's trade exam — the business and law exam, bond and application still apply.
What is NERA for electricians?
The National Electrical Reciprocal Alliance is a group of member states whose electrical boards waive each other's licensing exams. Each member keeps its own partner list, so check that the destination's electrical board lists your state. Eligibility typically requires holding your license at least a year and having earned it by examination (grandfathered licenses are excluded).
Why do reciprocity lists online disagree so much?
Because contractor licensing is split by trade and class, aggregators combine unrelated per-trade waivers into one inflated 'reciprocity' count. Widely copied errors include overstating Nevada and Utah. This site lists each trade separately and cites the state board.
Reviewed by the License Reciprocity Editorial Team · verified against primary sources 2026-09-01
How we verify · All sources · spot an error? [email protected]