State ladder: apprentice → journeyman → master

Alaska plumber license: requirements, reciprocity & renewal

Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development — Mechanical Inspection Section runs plumbing licensing in Alaska. Below: the exact ladder, the transfer doors into Alaska from all 50 states, the renewal and lapse lines, and the master-of-record rule for opening a company — every figure from the board's own publications, checked October 22, 2026.

State ladder: apprentice → journeyman → master Primary sources Checked October 22, 2026

How you qualify in Alaska

• Earn 8,000 qualifying hours as a Trainee COF holder under journey-level supervision, submit Experience Verification Forms, and pass the state Plumber Journeyman examination at 70% or more (Mechanical Inspection FAQ; COF application citing 8 AAC 90.130 and 8 AAC 90.890)
• Restricted certificates exist below journeyman: Plumber Gas (4,000 hours, 8 AAC 90.135) and Plumber Utility (1,000 hours, 8 AAC 90.137) — these are not journeyman licenses

Registration, in the board’s terms: Work begins under a Trainee Certificate of Fitness: the worker must be sponsored by an employer in the federal Registered Apprenticeship Program and submit the RAPIDS/Davis-Bacon registration letter with the Trainee application (Mechanical Inspection FAQ). Hours count only for a credentialed contractor, under direct journey-level supervision, on code work; maintenance work does not qualify (8 AAC 90.890). From 2025, vocational/military credit is accepted but capped at half the required hours (4,000 for Plumber Journeyman). No fixed classroom-hour total is published on the primary forms, so classroomHours is null.

Run my Alaska numbers in the eligibility checker

Plumbing license reciprocity into Alaska

Alaska endorses journeyman licenses from: none. As of August 8, 2025, Mechanical Inspection accepts reciprocity applications for Plumber Journeyman COFs from other U.S. states and jurisdictions without requiring a mutual agreement (FAQ) — the route is universal rather than a named state list, so accepts is empty. A Provisional COF ($150 application and certificate fee) lets an out-of-state licensee work for up to 1 year (no fuel-gas work, no trainee supervision) while a reciprocal application is processed; the reciprocal certificate is issued for a full two years and is renewable.

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