Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24

You apply before you test, not after

The order is fixed by rule, there are two separate fees to two separate organizations, and a one year clock starts the day you file.

The sequence

1. Work the hours. Seven thousand under supervision opens the journeyman examination (16 TAC 73.21(b)).
2. Get the department experience verification form completed by the licensee who supervised you (16 TAC 73.26(a)).
3. File a completed application with the department, with the documentation listed at 16 TAC 73.20(a) and the fee.
4. The department reviews what you filed and determines whether you are eligible to examine (16 TAC 73.21(a)).
5. Register and pay the examination provider directly, then schedule at a Texas center.
6. Pass the examination.
7. The license issues.

The application comes before the chair, not after it, and the department decides eligibility on the paperwork (16 TAC 73.21(a)). You cannot book a seat and sort the file out later.

The seven thousand hour figure went into the rule on 1 July 2026. Before that it was department policy, which is why older guides describe eight thousand as the point you may test.

What goes in with the application

16 TAC 73.20(a) sets out the attachments, and which ones apply depends on which license you are asking for.

• Documentation of the required on-the-job training, for the master, journeyman, residential wireman and similar individual licenses (16 TAC 73.20(a)(1)).
• For a contractor application, proof of general liability insurance and of workers compensation coverage, or authorization to self-insure (16 TAC 73.20(a)(2)).
• For a contractor application, proof of ownership of the business and documentation of the sponsoring master licensee (16 TAC 73.20(a)(3)).
• For a journeyman lineman application, documentation of the training or experience the license rests on (16 TAC 73.20(a)(4)).

On top of the attachments, 16 TAC 73.20(c) points each applicant at the eligibility requirements for their own license, which sit in the statute at Tex. Occ. Code 1305.153 through Tex. Occ. Code 1305.1618. Those sections carry the hour counts and, for master, the two years holding a journeyman license.

The form, and who is allowed to sign it

Hours reach the department on its own form rather than in a letter of your own composition. 16 TAC 73.26(a) has the applicant verify completion of the on-the-job training by submitting the department experience verification form with the license application, and TDLR publishes it as ELC017 for eight license types.

The signature is the constrained part. 16 TAC 73.26(b) puts the duty on a licensee who is authorized by Chapter 1305 to verify on-the-job training, and Tex. Occ. Code 1305.153(b)(3) gives a master electrician that authority for the master, master sign, journeyman and journeyman sign licenses.

The same subsection gives that licensee 30 calendar days to respond to a request, and limits them to training within their own knowledge. Both of those shape how early you should ask. There is a page on this site about the mechanics of that, because it is where applications stall.

Two fees, two places

The application fee goes to the department and is set by rule. The examination fee goes to the examination provider, not the department, which is why it does not appear anywhere in the department fee schedule.

Both of them vary by license, which is what this page used to get wrong by printing a single number for each. Find your license in both tables and add the two.

Application fee, 16 TAC 73.80(a)

That last row is the one summaries drop, because it is not a license and a writer working down a list of licenses walks straight past it. It is in the same subsection as the other fourteen.

Examination fee, from the candidate information bulletin

So a master electrician pays forty-five dollars to the department and seventy-eight to the provider. A residential wireman pays twenty and sixty-four. A journeyman lineman pays thirty and sixty-one.

The seventy-eight dollar figure covers both portions of the journeyman and master exams, and a retake is seventy-eight dollars again. There is no discounted retake and no elevated one.

There is no issuance fee in 16 TAC 73.80. What the section does hold beyond the application fee is an annual renewal fee, a late renewal fee handled under 16 TAC 60.83, a twenty-five or twenty dollar charge for a revised or duplicate license, a ninety dollar evaluation fee that a school pays rather than a candidate, and a flat statement at 16 TAC 73.80(e) that all fees are non-refundable.

Non-refundable is worth reading twice before you file early.

The seventy dollar figure going around is wrong

Several sites publish seventy dollars as the journeyman exam fee. It appears on undated pages with no edition stamp and no retake figure.

Seventy is also the minimum passing percentage, which is an easy way for a number to end up in the wrong field when content is assembled quickly.

The current figure is in the candidate information bulletin, which is dated and is the thing to check rather than any summary, including this one.

The one year clock

From the date the department receives your application, you have one year to satisfy every requirement including passing the exam (16 TAC 73.20(b)).

That is the deadline people miss. It is not one year to test. It is one year to finish everything.

If you are applying at seven thousand hours with a thousand still to work, do the arithmetic on whether you will reach eight thousand inside that window before you file.

Two smaller clocks run inside it and neither one is yours. A verifying licensee has thirty calendar days to answer a request (16 TAC 73.26(b)), and the department has its own queue. Ask for signatures before you file rather than after, so the thirty days runs in parallel with your remaining hours instead of eating your window.

How long the department takes

The act sets one deadline and it sits at the end. Not later than the 30th day after the date the department determines an applicant has passed the examination, the executive director shall issue the license, if the applicant has complied with the application requirements and paid the fees (Tex. Occ. Code 1305.165(a)).

So the wait after a pass is bounded. The wait before it is not, because nothing in Chapter 1305 or Chapter 73 puts a deadline on the eligibility determination itself.

We are not printing a processing time. The department publishes current figures for its own queues and they move with volume, and a number copied off that page in August and left on a website in March is exactly the kind of thing this site exists to avoid. Check the department for the current queue and plan the parts you control.

How long a pass lasts

Examination results stay valid for the length of the license term plus three years (16 TAC 60.56).

Electrician licenses run one year, so a journeyman exam pass is good for four years from the exam date.

That is longer than most people assume and it takes some pressure off the hours question.

One narrow extension arrived on 1 July 2026. Under 16 TAC 73.21(c) the executive director may lengthen the validity period for a graduate of an approved accelerated journeyman program, on a showing of good cause. It reaches that group and nobody else, and it is a discretion rather than an entitlement.

When your license actually expires

One year from the date it was issued, on your own anniversary date (16 TAC 73.22(a)).

You will find sources saying Texas electrical licenses expire on December the thirty-first. That comes from reading the statute without the rule that displaced it. Tex. Occ. Code 1305.167(a) sets the December default, and Tex. Occ. Code 1305.167(b) lets the executive director adopt by rule a system under which licenses expire on various dates during the year, which is what happened.

Anniversary dating is the one in force. Diary your own date rather than a calendar year end.

What this page cites

• 16 TAC 73.20 Applicant and experience requirements. Subsection (a) lists the attachments, (b) the one year completion window, (c) the statutory eligibility sections. source
• 16 TAC 73.21 Examinations. Subsection (a) has the department determine examination eligibility on the application. Subsections (b) and (c) were added effective 1 July 2026 and carry the seven thousand hour route and the result-validity extension.
• 16 TAC 73.26 Documentation of required on-the-job training. Subsection (a) requires the department form with the application, (b) sets thirty calendar days and limits the verifier to training within the licensee’s knowledge. source
• 16 TAC 73.80 Fees. Subsection (a) is the application fee by license type and includes the ninety-five dollar apprentice training program registration. Subsection (e) makes all fees non-refundable. source
• 16 TAC 60.56 Validity and acceptance of examination results. Results are valid for the license term plus three years.
• 16 TAC 73.22(a) License term and anniversary expiration.
• Tex. Occ. Code 1305.153 Master electrician. Subsection (b)(3) is the authority to verify on-the-job training for the master, master sign, journeyman and journeyman sign licenses. source
• Tex. Occ. Code 1305.165 License issuance and nontransferability. Subsection (a) sets the thirtieth day after the determination of a pass. source
• Tex. Occ. Code 1305.167 Renewal. Subsection (a) is the December default, (b) the executive director’s authority to adopt varying expiration dates. source
• TDLR, electrician forms index The department publishes the experience verification form as ELC017, listed for the journeyman, journeyman lineman, journeyman industrial, journeyman sign, maintenance, master, master sign and residential wireman applications. Read 24 August 2026. source