Electrician License in New Mexico — Requirements, Fees & Exam

New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department (RLD) — Construction Industries Division (CID), Electrical Bureau administers electrician licensing in New Mexico. Every figure below is verified against the board’s own official pages and dated. Who must personally hold a credential — the contractor, the business, or the individual worker — is set out under Requirements.

What it’s called

New Mexico licenses individual electricians — the state electrician license is issued by the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department and held by the electrician personally (not only by the contractor, as in some states). “Electrician license,” “journeyman electrician license,” “master electrician license” and “electrician certification” are common informal names for the individual credential. The exact license tiers, fees, and any separate electrical-contractor license are set out in the license types and requirements below.

License types & fees

Who does NOT need this license — exemptions

New Mexico’s exemptions live in the Construction Industries Licensing Act’s definition of ‘contractor’ (NMSA 1978, § 60-13-3, subsection D), so they attach to the CONTRACTOR licenses (EE-98, ER-1, EL-1, and the ES specialty classifications) — a person or entity excluded from the definition needs no contractor license from CID. The exclusions most relevant to electrical work: public utilities and rural electric cooperatives constructing, operating, or maintaining their own plant ‘up to and including the meters’ (D(3)); utility departments of municipalities and local public bodies, likewise up to and including the meters (D(4)); railroad companies (D(5)); telephone or telegraph companies and rural electric cooperatives doing signal/communication-system electrical work integral to their own systems (D(6)); pipeline companies’ own signal and communication-system work not for hire (D(7)); mining, gas, and oil companies installing, altering, or repairing their own facilities where the work is integral to their own systems (D(8)); radio and television broadcasters working on their own broadcast equipment (D(9)); and cable television companies constructing or repairing their own television-service facilities (D(16)). The homeowner exclusions are D(10) — an individual who, alone or with helpers who are paid wages only, builds or makes installations, alterations, or repairs in or to a single-family dwelling owned and occupied (or to be occupied) by him — and D(11) — a person acting on his own account building or improving a single-family residence for personal use (including a free-standing storage building), provided he does not engage in commercial construction; both remain subject to the codes and permit/inspection requirements of the Act. The farm/ranch exclusion, D(12), covers a person who (alone or with wage-only helpers) builds or repairs buildings on a farm or ranch he owns, occupies, or operates, and installations of electrical wiring NOT to be connected to electrical energy supplied from a power source outside the farm or ranch premises — no permits or inspections may be required for such farm construction EXCEPT for electrical wiring that will be connected to an outside power source. An individual who works only for wages is not a ‘contractor’ (D(13)) — but note that a wage-earning individual performing electrical wiring still needs the journeyman electrician certificate of competence or must work as a supervised apprentice. Critically, New Mexico’s casual/minor work (‘handyman’) exclusion, D(14) — one undertaking at a time not exceeding $7,200 compensation a year — expressly does NOT apply to electrical wiring: ’this exemption shall not apply to any undertaking or project pertaining to the installation, connection or repair of electrical wiring, plumbing or gas fitting as defined in Section 60-13-32 NMSA 1978.’ Other listed exclusions (materials suppliers D(1), well drillers D(2) except when doing electricians’ work, LP-gas fuel-container installers D(15), approved weatherization projects under $2,000 D(17), and short-term non-code commercial repairs under $5,000 D(18)) round out the list. For the journeyman electrician CERTIFICATE OF COMPETENCE, the Act contains no separate exemption list; its one express carve-out is the apprentice provision — ‘Employment of an apprentice working under the direct supervision of a certified journeyman is not prohibited by the Construction Industries Licensing Act’ (NMSA § 60-13-38(H)) — and the certificate requirement itself reaches only a person who engages ‘in the occupation or trade of journeyman’ (§ 60-13-38(A)).

Fees

QP application / exam eligibility: $36 (submitted with notarized work-experience affidavit). Journeyman certificate fee: $75.00 (all journeyman certificate fees). Company license application: $36 application fee plus applicable license fees (exact classification license-fee dollar amounts and PSI exam fees are set on PSI’s schedule / Candidate Information Bulletin and were not published on the official CID pages verified at the last check). License bond: $10,000.

Exam

All Construction Industries exams are administered by PSI (public.psiexams.com / nmcon), CID’s designee. Journeyman certificate: trade classification exam, passing score 75% or higher, not eligible until work-experience documentation is accepted; many exams are open-book with candidate-supplied bound references. Contractor Qualifying Party: applicable trade classification exam(s) plus a Contractor’s Business & Law exam (a Business & Law course from an approved vendor may be taken in lieu of the Business & Law exam); pre-approval required before scheduling. Passing exam score is valid for one year (CID’s Apply for a Construction Industries License page).

Renewal & continuing education

License term: NMSA 1978 Section 60-13-18(B)-(C) provides that contractor licenses expire two years after issuance ‘or as determined by the division,’ and never less than one year. CID currently issues licenses on a three-year cycle. No CID rule codifies the general term: across 14.6 NMAC the only three-year validity clauses sit in the military-expedited provisions (14.6.3.8-H for contractor licenses; 14.6.4.8-D(5) for journeyman certificates) – the general three-year cycle is the division’s determination under the statute’s ‘as determined by the division’ delegation. CID’s continuing-education rule and page put journeyman renewal on 16 hours ‘in every 3-year period between respective electrical code updates’ (14.6.4.8-H; CID CE page). Confirm your exact expiration date on your license or with CID. Journeyman electrician continuing-education cycle is likewise every 3 years. Journeyman electrician (and journeyman lineman) certificate of competence: at least 16 hours of continuing education in every 3-year period between electrical code updates — 8 hours of code-change instruction and 8 hours of other industry-related instruction. Proof must accompany the renewal application. (General Building contractors have no CE requirement per CID.)

How to apply

Applications are handled by New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department (RLD) — Construction Industries Division (CID), Electrical Bureau. Start at the official application page .