Transfer Your Plumber License to New Hampshire: Reciprocity & Endorsement (2026)

New Hampshire licenses journeyman plumbers by endorsement from a published list of jurisdictions it deems equivalent — not by reciprocity. If your license comes from a listed state and is active and in good standing, the New Hampshire Office of Professional Licensure and Certification (OPLC) — Mechanical Safety and Licensing Board's endorsement route applies, usually without its plumbing exam; if it does not, you qualify on New Hampshire's standard terms. The list names whom New Hampshire accepts, which says nothing about the reverse move, and master-level rules are separate.

Plumbers are regulated by the OPLC Mechanical Safety and Licensing Board (RSA 153:27-153:38 and the Saf-Mec rules). Under HB 594 and RSA 310:17, New Hampshire grants licensure by endorsement to a journeyman plumber holding an active, good-standing, substantially-similar license from any of 33 listed qualifying jurisdictions (rule Plc 313.34), with no New Hampshire plumbing exam required and no resubmission of transcripts/exam/experience. This is NOT full reciprocity: many states are excluded, and the Master Plumber qualifying-jurisdiction list is still 'TBD', so master endorsement is not yet available. Notably Maine is NOT on the journeyman plumber list, despite common aggregator claims of NH-Maine plumbing reciprocity. The official OPLC pages were read via the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) because oplc.nh.gov blocks automated fetches; the canonical oplc.nh.gov URLs are cited. No national plumber verification database exists, so verification_system_url is New Hampshire's own OPLC license verification search.