Plumber licensing in New Hampshire

New Hampshire runs endorsement from a published list of qualifying jurisdictions, and if your state is on it, the deal is clean: no exam, no transcripts, no reference letters — one mailed packet with a copy of your active license and a verification printout, $198 journeyman or $330 master. The list is the catch: it changes — states have been added and dropped more than once in the past year — so read the live OPLC page the day you apply, not a copy of it.

Two conditions survive everything: the license you bring must be active and unencumbered, and holding an encumbered license anywhere disqualifies you from endorsement entirely. Maine is not on either list — New England does not move as a bloc. Not on the list? The traditional exam route stays open.

No — and it is an explicit prohibition, not a silence: practicing without the license runs to a fine of $10,000 per offense, each violation counted separately. OPLC's temporary-license program is health-care only; there is no temporary plumbing permit to ask for. The 'Active-Provisional' status only bridges a criminal-background check for the small set of applicants who need one — a clean-record endorsement file never enters it.

Active-duty military members and spouses have a statutory temporary-license route; confirm the plumbing category with OPLC in writing before staffing on it.

Two routes, and which one you are on decides whether you test at all. From a qualifying jurisdiction: endorsement, no exam. From anywhere else: the traditional application — and the ordering trips people up: you schedule and sit the exam first, directly with the testing organization, and only after passing do you file the license application with OPLC.

The Apprentice Plumber credential is a real OPLC license — $88, renewed at $88 — tied to an apprenticeship agreement with your employing licensed plumber. File a new agreement every time you change employers, or the hours may not count. Supervision caps at two apprentices per licensee, and there is no endorsement at apprentice level — the qualifying lists cover journeyman and master only.

No New Hampshire city or town licenses plumbers — licensing is statewide, and the only municipal role the statute grants is enforcing the state board's rules through local building officials. Towns do run their own permits and inspections, which is the employer's paperwork, not a second card for you.

New Hampshire has no separate plumbing-contractor license — the master plumber license is the business credential, defined to cover any person or company that employs plumbers or contracts plumbing work. Corporations and LLCs add a mechanical business entity registration ($275), which substitutes for nobody's individual license.

The worker rule is the load-bearing part: performing plumbing under a master's direction is the definition of a journeyman, and that person needs their own license.