Transfer Your Engineering License to Rhode Island: Reciprocity & Endorsement (2026)

Comity is Rhode Island's normal route for an already-licensed engineer, and the word describes what the Rhode Island Board of Registration for Professional Engineers actually does: it extends professional courtesy to your existing PE license after confirming your record meets Rhode Island's practice act, rather than re-examining you. The lever that makes this smooth is your NCEES Record — NCEES compiles your transcripts, experience, references, and FE/PE results and transmits them straight to Rhode Island, and a Model Law Engineer designation speeds many boards further. One prerequisite is absolute: your current license must be active and unencumbered, so clear any open disciplinary matter before you file.

Read the exam line on this page closely before you assume the move is exam-free. Most boards add nothing to the FE and PE, but a few require a state-specific examination — seismic, surveying, or a statutes-and-rules review — that comity does not waive, and where Rhode Island requires one it is listed above rather than folded silently into the process.

Rhode Island grants a new PE registration by comity to an out-of-state PE without re-testing, provided a complete NCEES Record is submitted. Comity application fee is $150; a separate $300 initial certificate-of-registration fee is due on issuance (biennial renewal is also $300). The board sits within the RI Department of Business Regulation, Division of Design Professionals. Aggregator sites listing a '$25' fee are citing the Engineer-in-Training (EIT) fee, not PE comity.