Plumber licensing in Alabama

Alabama's one reciprocal agreement — Mississippi — is master-level and business-qualifying at both ends: a traveling journeyman gets nothing from it, and there is no Ohio lane despite what circulates. What every out-of-state journeyman or master does get is the exam-eligibility route: your home state verifies your license at the corresponding level and good standing, and Alabama waives its own experience-and-waiting requirements — but not the exam.

You sit the Alabama test and pass at 70. The license you bring must itself have been exam-earned at 70 or better, active, and clean, and applications expire 90 days after submission. First-year continuing education is waived for reciprocity-based licensees.

Alabama repealed its temporary certificate a decade ago — that is an affirmative finding, not a gap — so there is no work-while-pending permit. The fastest lawful start in the state is the apprentice registration: filed by you (not your employer), no exam, no experience requirement, $35, with online registration now offered — and because the statute is satisfied by having registered, a registered apprentice works lawfully from day one, at apprentice scope, under supervision ratios of one licensee to five apprentices on residential sites and one to three elsewhere.

The exemption route also does real work here: plumbing by an industrial plant's own maintenance employees on its own premises, and railroad or industry employee work, sit outside the certificate requirement — gas work excluded, and get the employment structure in writing. Declared-disaster permits (60 days, named counties) and the military-family 180-day permit round out the edges.

Prov administers Alabama's exams — twenty testing centers in the state, sittings weekly, virtual and out-of-state options, computerized and open book, with same-day results. Schedule by phone or online once the board approves your eligibility. For out-of-state applicants the eligibility route through license verification replaces the experience ladder; the exam itself is never waived.

Registration is individual — you file it yourself with photo ID, the citizenship declaration, and $35, renewed annually at $35, and the board now offers online registration. No employer sponsorship is required to register, and registration is what makes day-one work lawful; supervision ratios cap crews at five apprentices per licensee on residential work, three otherwise.

Statutory preemption with unusual force: the board's certificate must be accepted by every city, town, and county, contrary local ordinances are repealed by the statute itself, and no local government may require any other competency certification or examination. Local permits, inspections, and business licenses continue — none of them touch your card.

Alabama licenses the person doing the work: the statute reaches anyone who performs, directs, or superintends plumbing, the carry rule puts the current certificate in your pocket on every job, and the board says it plainly — journeyman and apprentice employees of a registered company must themselves be certified or registered. The company's registration is the company's; your certificate is yours.