Which Minnesota Electrician License Are You On?

A lapsed registration can cost you the experience you already banked

The registration form says holders with a current registration, or one expired less than 12 months, may renew to prevent the loss of accrued work experience. That sentence is the whole reason the registration exists. Your months toward a Class A journeyworker license are verified through the registration and its work experience form, so a gap in the registration is a gap in the record you'll hand DLI when you apply to sit the exam.

DLI unlicensed individual registration form

Planning, laying out and supervising credit zero months here

Those three categories carry a zero maximum on the journeyworker matrix. Time spent doing the master's work is worth nothing toward this license, which is the most expensive line on the page for anybody who got moved into a lead role early. Hitting 48 months isn't enough on its own either, because at least 24 of them have to sit in wiring for and installing.

DLI experience requirements

The master matrix isn't the journeyworker matrix with a bigger total

This is the only license where planning, laying out and supervising carry minimums rather than zeros. Two months in each, on top of at least 12 in wiring for and installing. So somebody with 60 months of pure install work can miss the master matrix while clearing the total, because the state wants you to have already done the work the license is about to let you do.

DLI experience requirements

This license doesn't follow you off the employer's property

Subdivision 10(a) ties the license to working for a contractor, or to full time employment with a single employer on wiring and equipment that employer owns or leases and that sits inside property the employer owns or leases. It fits a plant, a hospital or a campus. It doesn't fit somebody who wants to move between construction jobs, and for that the target is the Class A journeyworker license instead.

Minnesota Statutes 326B.33

General wiring time doesn't fill this matrix

Every category on the power limited technician matrix is worded for technology circuits. Wiring for and installing technology circuits, maintaining and repairing technology circuits, and so on down the rows. Months of ordinary premises wiring won't land in any of them. If your record is mostly general electrical work, check the category wording before you pay the $50, because the application fee isn't refundable even when the applicant turns out not to qualify.

DLI experience requirements

This paper isn't a National Electrical Code exam

The lineman examination is the only Minnesota electrical paper that can be taken on the National Electrical Safety Code, and the guide names it as used only for that examination. Study material written to the National Electrical Code, including ours, doesn't cover the safety code. Plan your preparation around the book DLI names, and remember the department supplies it in soft cover with no tabs or other aids.

DLI Licensing Examination Guide

Three Minnesota credentials carry a B, and only this one is open

Class B master and Class B journeyworker closed to new applicants on August 1, 1985, and the fee schedule shows it: both carry NA in the exam column and Class B journeyworker carries NA in the new column as well. Installer B, code IB, carries a $50 exam fee and a $48 new total, so it's plainly the open one. Check which Class B a study guide is written for before you buy it.

CCLD licensing fee schedule

Passing the state paper on its own doesn't get you this license

Subdivision 7a asks for the examination and for certification to the department of a completed program, and it names the National Standards and Testing Program by name. How another program gets approved is set out in Minnesota Rules 3800.3604 through 3800.3613. DLI publishes no list of currently approved programs, so the statute's named program is the one certainty. Sort the certification out before you book anything.

Minnesota Statutes 326B.33

A license you got by reciprocity elsewhere doesn't qualify you here

Condition two asks that you obtained the same or greater class of license in the first state by examination at state level rather than through a reciprocal agreement. That blocks a chain of reciprocal licenses ending in Minnesota. The other one to watch is condition one: a failed Minnesota examination in the same or a greater class closes the reciprocity door for that class, so check this route before sitting a Minnesota paper on spec.

DLI electrical license reciprocity

Renewing without the hours can cost $1,000 and the license

DLI states that renewing without completing continuing education may result in license suspension and a fine of $1,000. That's the department's own wording, and it sits on top of whatever late fee your class already carries. The department's approved course directory is the only place a course is confirmed as DLI approved. We aren't a continuing education provider and nothing here earns you an hour.

DLI continuing education

DLI and the statute word the degree route differently

The statute gives graduation from a four year electrical course offered by an accredited college or university. DLI's licensing basics page words the same route as a degree in electrical engineering. Those aren't identical, and the site prints both rather than picking one. If your degree sits anywhere near that line, call DLI licensing on 651-284-5034 before you pay, because the $50 application fee isn't refundable for applicants who don't qualify.

Minnesota Statutes 326B.33

One master can't carry two contractor licenses

The responsible licensed individual may not act in that role for any other electrical contractor, which is what stops one master being rented out across several companies. Minnesota Rules 3800.3530 adds a duty that outlives the application: all of the information it requires has to be kept current, and licensees must notify the department within 30 days of any change.

DLI electrical contractor licensing basics

Reciprocity won't rebuild a Minnesota license you let go

People read the two year sentence as a rule about out of state licenses and it isn't. It's about a Minnesota license that was allowed to lapse. Past two years from expiration, a reciprocal agreement can't hand the same class back to you, whatever you hold elsewhere. The examination is the route, on whatever code edition is current when you sit it.

DLI electrical license reciprocity