Plumber licensing in Idaho

Idaho reciprocates journeyman licenses from three states — Montana, Oregon, and Washington — application-only at $51.90, no Idaho exam, and the blanket condition is that you tested for the license you hold and can show four years of schooling and on-the-job training. Each partner carries its own terms: Montana wants the license held a year and — the one that catches travelers — you must still be a Montana resident when you apply; Washington is the same on residency; Oregon carries no residency condition.

File the reciprocal application before you relocate, or the path closes behind you. From any other state, Idaho's universal-licensure law guarantees the right to apply and be assessed — but not an exam waiver, so expect to sit the IAPMO test. Veterans, service members, and their spouses get an expedited lane and a true endorsement route.

No — the certificate has to be issued before you work, the statute reaches the work itself, and hours worked unlicensed do not count toward anything. Three real ways to be on the tools anyway: sewer, water, and utility work outside the building's foundation walls needs no Idaho credential at all, so an outside-utility placement can start Monday; in-plant maintenance plumbing for the employer that owns the premises is exempt; and the $50 apprentice registration — no exam, no experience requirement, five-year term — puts you on a crew legally under a journeyman's supervision at apprentice scope while your application processes.

Whether the board will register an experienced out-of-state journeyman that way is not board-stated, so have the employer confirm with DOPL first.

Three pathways to the journeyman exam: 576 classroom hours at a board-approved program plus 8,000 supervised hours; 16,000 supervised hours straight; or reciprocity. Hours earned inside Idaho only count while you held an active Idaho apprentice registration, and pipe-fitting and appliance-specialty work do not count at all.

The order of operations is the unusual part: you register with PSI, sit the IAPMO exam, and pass it before submitting the license application to the board. Per-employer work-verification forms name your supervising journeyman and their license number.

Idaho's apprentice registration is filed by you, not your employer — a $50 form covering a five-year term. The board says it twice: hours only credit while the registration is active, so a lapse quietly stops your clock. Registrations are non-transferable.

State law bars cities and counties from charging occupational license fees to a state-certificated plumber, except where they run their own qualified plumbing inspectors — and no local worker card was found anywhere. What changes locally is who pulls and inspects the permit, the state or the city; nothing extra goes in your wallet.

The worker license is the gate — the statute reaches the work of plumbing, not just the contracting of it, so being on a contractor's payroll does not cover you. The Plumbing Contractor license ($147, three-year term) is the business credential for firms that bid and pull permits; qualifying for it requires a journeyman certificate, and an employed journeyman never needs it.