How to Get a New Mexico Electrical License

New Mexico has a journeyman certificate (EE-98J) and a contractor license (EE-98). Journeymen take two written exams and a hands-on practical. Contractors take three trade exams plus a business and law requirement.

Choose EE-98J or EE-98

EE-98J journeyman: you need four years (8,000 hours) of qualifying experience within the ten years before you apply. Send the journeyman application and notarized employer work-verification forms to PSI.

EE-98 contractor: the company needs a qualifying party with the experience. The EE-98 classification covers residential, commercial, and industrial wiring at 5,000 volts nominal or less.

Apply before scheduling

For the journeyman route, PSI checks your experience and emails your approval to test. Contractor qualifying parties apply through the CID qualifying-party instructions. Once approved, book your exams with PSI.

Both routes give you six months to test: journeyman and contractor. Passing scores then stay valid for one year.

EE-98J: Code and Theory written exams, plus a hands-on Practical. Journeymen don't take Business and Law.

EE-98: Commercial and Industrial, Residential, and Specialties, plus the Business and Law requirement. There's no practical.

Exams and books

The $269.06 covers the first sitting of all three EE-98 trade parts. If you fail one part, you retake only that part.

The open-book parts use the references PSI lists for EE-98J and for EE-98, including the New Mexico Electrical Code, NMAC 14.10.4. EE-98 Specialties adds NFPA 72 (2010). Ugly's and the American Electricians' Handbook are study books only. You can't bring them into the exam.

The Practical is scored on motor control (20 points), transformers (20), doorbells (10), lighting (10), simple conduit bending (10), complex conduit bending (20), and materials identification (10). Get hands-on practice for it.

Bring bound books. Highlighting, underlining, and permanent tabs are fine. Handwritten notes, added sheets, and removable tabs are not, per the journeyman and contractor book rules. Also bring photo ID and a silent, nonprinting, nonprogrammable calculator. The journeyman bulletin and contractor bulletin have the full test-day rules.

Business and Law for EE-98

The Business and Law exam uses the NASCLA Contractors Guide to Business, Law and Project Management, Basic 14th Edition, the New Mexico Construction Industries Licensing Act (NMSA Chapter 60, Article 13), and NMAC 14.6.3. An approved course can replace this exam, but not the trade parts.

Pass the trade parts and Business and Law within one year of each other. Then file the company's license package: qualifying party, bond, tax registration, entity records, workers' comp, and fees, as listed on the CID checklist.

Retakes, reciprocity, and renewal

Under the retest rules, you can take the same exam no more than twice in 30 days.

EE-98J reciprocity covers Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. You must have held that state's license for at least one year. Send a copy of it with the journeyman application. Reciprocity doesn't give you an EE-98 company license.

To renew EE-98J, complete 16 hours of approved CE every three years. At least eight must cover the New Mexico Electrical Code. See the CID education requirements.