HVAC licensing in District of Columbia

The District runs a full six-class refrigeration/AC ladder — apprentice, journeyman, master (plus limited and contractor classes) — and you personally need the journeyman card to work. There is NO reciprocity for these classes, and that negative is corroborated from the other side: Virginia's reciprocal-agreements document lists DC for electrical only, with no HVAC row — the same DC board that runs exam-waiving electrical reciprocity runs none for refrigeration/AC.

Plan on DC's own routes: journeyman by waiver (a completed 4-year/8,000-hour apprenticeship) or journeyman by examination with an employment-verification letter signed by a licensed master mechanic.

Not established — no pending-application provision surfaced, and the APPRENTICE LICENSE is the lawful work-while-training lane: it is itself a license, held while banking hours. Do not start anyone on DC work without the right card in hand.

Reported open-book, with the two journeyman routes above — but the DC-side primary regulation (DCMR Title 17, ch. 17-3) was unreachable during verification, so treat specific numbers as unconfirmed until DLCP states them. Your personal floor is EPA 608.

The Apprentice Mechanic is a LICENSED class — the entry tier on DLCP's own category list. A trainee holds the apprentice card and banks the 4-year/8,000-hour apprenticeship toward journeyman-by-waiver.

The District IS the jurisdiction — DLCP's ladder governs. The one statutory escape: WMATA and DC-government employees are exempt.

The six classes separate cleanly: workers license personally (apprentice → journeyman → master, with LTD variants narrowing master scope), contractor classes carry the business. There is no supervised-unlicensed lane — the apprentice class IS the supervised lane, and it is a license.