HVAC licensing in Washington

Washington DOES license HVAC — never read 'no HVAC board' as no license: HVAC/refrigeration lives inside the ELECTRICAL program as specialty certificates (06A HVAC/Refrigeration System at 4,000 hours; 06B at 2,000). The transfer answer is essentially NO for these specialties: the out-of-state credit rules are written for the GENERAL journey-level electrician (8,000 supervised hours, exam-earned, or 16,000 documented hours), nothing equivalent exists for 06A/06B, and master-level credit is barred outright — 'no credit may be applied from out-of-state.' Plan on Washington's own hour-and-exam route.

Partially established: the TRAINEE certificate is the lawful work-while-qualifying lane — supervised, hours logged by affidavit. No provision covers work while a specialty certification application is pending.

Specialty certification is exam-gated after the hour thresholds — and QUALIFYING EMPLOYMENT is a rule of its own: hours only count worked for an employer with at least one properly certified journey-level or specialty electrician on staff. Uncertified-shop hours are dead hours. Your personal floor is EPA 608.

The trainee lane starts at 16 with basic trainee classes, banking hours by affidavit toward the 1,000/2,000/4,000-hour specialty thresholds under certified supervision.

The L&I program governs statewide.

The contracting business carries its own L&I electrical-contractor registration; the tech carries the specialty certificate. Two separate obligations that never substitute for each other.