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Texas Electrician License Requirements, Explained Step by Step

From the $20 apprentice license to the day you file your license application, this guide walks the TDLR path in order and shows the rule behind every requirement. When you're ready to apply, the application readiness check lists what your own situation needs.

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The application readiness check

Answer two questions about where you're starting from, and the check counts what your application has to carry: the lines that apply to you, how many of them are traps, and one of those traps spelled out in full, all at no charge. The full checklist covers all 30 situations, 561 lines in all, with a cited rule on each one.

$19 once opens the rest. You pay one time with nothing to sign up for, and your answers stay in your browser.

Run it before you file. Under 16 TAC 73.20 you have one year from the day you file to finish every requirement, and 16 TAC 73.80 makes the fees non-refundable, so a line you miss can use up that year and the fee along with it.

Start the two questions
14electrical license types in Texas
Ch. 1305the act that governs them
$19once, for the full checklist
Citedeach requirement, to its source

Where to begin

Most people arrive with three questions: how many hours do I need, what will it cost, and when can I sit the exam. The hours page answers the first, the fees page answers the second, and the hours calculator works out the third from the hours you've logged and the hours you work in a week.

Hour counts, fees and eligibility rules often get repeated from sources that were wrong to begin with or have since gone out of date. Each requirement in this guide is cited to the rule it comes from, and when two sources disagree, the page shows both and explains which one governs.

The pages people use most

Each card below takes one question and names the rule that settles it.

The path, step by step

You start with an electrical apprentice license and work under a licensed electrician's supervision. Over the next few years you build up documented on-the-job hours, and once the rules allow it you apply and sit the journeyman exam. With more hours behind you and two years holding a journeyman license, you can go on to master.

Every one of those steps comes with a number, and the numbers are where most of the bad information sits. This guide gives each one with the rule it comes from, so you can check it yourself.

The contractor license runs on a separate track. It belongs to a business, needs a master electrician behind it, and works differently from the personal licenses.

Your license runs one year at a time

A Texas electrical license lasts one year and is renewed every year (16 TAC 73.22(a)).

Plan for that from the start, because for most license types the continuing education hours come due at every renewal. Renewal and lapse covers the late fees and the point where a lapsed license needs approval.

How to use this guide

  1. Find your dates. Put your logged hours, your weekly hours and a start date into the hours calculator. It shows the day you may sit the exam and the day you may hold the license, each tied to the rule that sets it. It's free, and nothing leaves your browser.
  2. Check the application before you file it. The application check asks two questions, then counts your own situation: the lines your application carries, how many of them are traps, and one of those traps in full, at no cost.
  3. Unlock the full checklist if you want it. $19, paid once, opens your whole checklist and the other 29 situations with it, 561 lines with a cited rule on each one.

The free tools, and the one thing for sale

Three tools here cost nothing to use. The hours calculator gives you the day you can sit the exam and the day you can hold the license, the license lookup guide explains a TDLR search result, and the application check builds the start of your checklist from two questions.

The only thing this guide sells is the full application checklist, at $19 once. Every licensing page, from the apprentice license to renewal, is free to read.

Each page cites its source, and every correction is logged in public. Sign up below for one short note whenever a licensing rule or figure changes.

Decisions only TDLR makes

Whether your own hours qualify, whether your out-of-state experience counts and where your application sits today are determinations, and the licensing authority makes them.

This guide gives you the rule each of those decisions is made under, so you know what you're being measured against before you file.

Two free steps

Find your test date, then check your paperwork

Start with the hours calculator: give it the hours you've logged and your usual week, and it shows the day you can sit the exam and the day you can hold the license, with the rule behind each one. Then the application check asks two questions and counts what your own file has to carry.

Get my exam dateCheck my application

Both start free and neither needs an account. The complete checklist for your situation is $19, paid once.

What this page cites

When this guide says NEC or National Electrical Code, it means the code published by the National Fire Protection Association, which holds both names as registered trademarks.

Trojan Digital Marketing publishes Texas Journeyman Prep independently. NFPA, TDLR, PSI Services and every licensing authority are unaffiliated with it, and none of them endorses or sponsors it.

The Texas exam is open book, so study from your own current copy of the NEC. This guide doesn't reprint the code.

Free, when it changes

Licensing rule changes, the week TDLR makes them

Hours, fees, reciprocity and continuing education all change by rule. When one of them moves, you get a single short note with the rule cited, and you can unsubscribe in one click.