New Mexico requires a Server Permit (Required within 30 days of employment; the ABC director issues the server permit after an approved server course.). Every figure below is verified against the official source and dated.

What it’s called

New Mexico issues a server permit, not a license. NMSA 1978 § 60-6E-7 is titled “Server permits; issuance; ownership; fees,” and nothing in Article 6E calls the individual credential a license. “Alcohol server license,” “servers license,” “serving license” and “bartender license” are common informal names for this same permit. In New Mexico the word license belongs to the business: a “licensee” is “a person issued a license pursuant to the provisions of the Liquor Control Act to sell, serve or dispense alcoholic beverages for consumption and not for resale,” and the place it operates is the “licensed premises.” A “liquor license” in New Mexico therefore names the establishment’s credential, not the server’s.

Quick facts

  • Requirement level: State-mandated — Required within 30 days of employment; the ABC director issues the server permit after an approved server course.
  • Valid for: 3 years
  • Cost: $30–$35 for the required ABC-approved server-training course (per the RLD approved-provider list: NM Restaurant Association / ServSafe $30 online and in person; Certus / SellerServerOnline $34 online; Way to Serve $34.99 plus tax online; Alcohol Server’s Training Services $35 in person). There is no fixed statutory state permit fee — NMSA 1978 § 60-6E-7(D) authorizes but does not require the ABC director to charge a separate issuance fee, and the permit card is mailed by ABC with no additional charge listed.
  • Who needs it & when: Anyone employed as a server on a licensed premises must obtain alcohol server training within 30 days of employment (NMSA 1978 § 60-6E-4). A “server” is any individual who sells, serves or dispenses alcoholic beverages for on- or off-premises consumption, including those who manage, direct or control the sale or service of alcohol and, where applicable, those who deliver it — bartenders, bouncers, waiters and waitresses, convenience- and grocery-store clerks, resident agents, and license owners and lease holders. Corporate officers who do not manage, direct or control the sale, delivery or service of alcohol are excluded. Servers must be 21 or older, except that 18-to-20-year-olds may hold a permit to sell or serve alcohol with meals in a full-service restaurant (but may not work as a bartender).
  • Who issues it: Alcoholic Beverage Control Division (ABC) of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department. Under NMSA 1978 § 60-6E-7, the ABC director issues the server permit to each applicant who completes an ABC-approved provider’s alcohol server education course and exam. The permit is the property of the server and is mailed to the applicant. Temporary server permits ARE time-limited: § 60-6E-7(A) lets the director issue them at the director’s discretion and sets no duration itself, but the governing rule does – under 15.11.31 NMAC, temporary server permits are valid for 120 days from the date the exam is successfully completed (photocopies of the designated application copy or a computer print-out are not valid temporary permits), and the RLD provider-list page states the same: temporary permits are only valid for 120 days from the date the class was taken. A server past that 120-day window whose permanent card has not arrived is no longer covered by the temporary permit. For the missing-card scenario the two official RLD pages give different contacts – the FAQs-for-Servers page says to call the ABC office at 505-476-4875, while the provider-list page directs the same inquiry to (505) 476-4547 or [email protected] (the server-permit desk); both are official RLD contacts.

Who does NOT need this — exemptions

The only exclusion from New Mexico’s server-permit mandate is built into the statutory definition of ‘server’: under NMSA 1978 § 60-6E-3(F), ‘server’ does not include officers of a corporate licensee or lessee who do not manage, direct or control the sale, delivery or service of alcohol – a corporate officer with no hands-on or supervisory role in alcohol service needs no permit. Everyone else who sells, serves or dispenses alcoholic beverages on a licensed premises is covered, including license owners and lease holders, bartenders, bouncers, waiters and waitresses, convenience- and grocery-store clerks, and resident agents. No other exemptions found; tiers searched: the Liquor Control Act compilation effective 7/1/2025 (full Article 6E plus § 60-7A-12), the ABC Rules (Title 15 NMAC, including 15.11.31), and the RLD ABC FAQs-for-Servers and Course Schedule/Provider List pages. (The age rules – 21+ generally, 18-to-20 only in full-service restaurants with meals and never as bartender – are restrictions on who may serve, not exemptions from the permit.)

Approved training providers

Training may be delivered only by providers the ABC director certifies; each authorized provider is assigned an “ASE-” number, must use a director-approved curriculum, and must post a $5,000 surety bond – or, at the director’s discretion, submit other evidence of financial responsibility satisfactory to the director in lieu of the bond (NMSA 1978 §§ 60-6E-3, 60-6E-5; the in-lieu alternative is § 60-6E-5(C)). Applicants take the New Mexico course (not the national version) from an authorized provider — online (Way to Serve, Certus/SellerServerOnline, ServSafe/NM Restaurant Association) or in person in Albuquerque — and on passing the course the ABC director issues the server permit, which is mailed to the server. Lost permits and duplicate copies are requested through the NM-PLUS online portal.

County exceptions

None. The server-permit requirement is statewide and uniform under the Alcohol Server Education Article of the Liquor Control Act. New Mexico counties and municipalities regulate liquor licensing through local option districts, but they do not issue or require a separate local alcohol-server card.