Requirements, license levels, and the issuing authority, sourced from West Virginia's official board.
Statewide individual electrician licensing via State Fire Marshal; online portal sfm-permit-public.wvoasis.gov.
| Requirements | QUALIFICATIONS, from 103 CSR 5 section 4 (Electrician Licensing Rules, State Fire Marshal, effective 5/1/2024). West Virginia states these thresholds in YEARS, not in hours; the rule contains no hour figure for the master or journeyman license. Master license: two years of experience as a journeyman electrician in electrical work of such breadth, independence and quality as to show the applicant is competent to perform all types of electrical work and to direct and instruct journeyman and assistant/helper electricians. Journeyman license, any one of three routes: (1) at least one year of experience as an assistant/helper electrician performing electrical work under the direction or instruction of a master or journeyman electrician; (2) completion of a US Department of Labor / Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training registered electrical apprenticeship program; or (3) completion of an electrical vocational education program of at least 1,080 hours approved by the WV Board of Education, which should include an on-the-job training module, with all final written and practical testing passed and an affidavit of competency to sit the journeyman examination from the program instructor. Specialty license: at least one year of experience in the area of specialty, of which one year may be obtained through educational programs. The rule's definitions repeat the thresholds: a master electrician is a person with at least two years of electrical work experience including all phases of wiring and installation, with a comprehensive knowledge of the National Electrical Code and the ability to read plans, drawings and designs and calculate demand loads; a journeyman electrician is a person qualified by at least one year of electrical work experience, working subject to supervision by a master, and may not design any part of an electrical system. An electrician's assistant/helper may not perform electrical work unsupervised or in hazardous areas. APPLICATION AND EXAMINATION, from 103 CSR 5 section 5. An applicant must be 18 to take any examination or be licensed, though a graduate of a WV Department of Education electrical vocational program may sit the examination earlier and simply not receive the license until 18. The applicant files with the State Fire Marshal a $25.00 application review fee - non-returnable, and charged for the Master, Journeyman or Specialty examination - together with a history of experience and qualifications equal to the years required for the level sought. The application must be received no later than 10 working days before the next scheduled examination to obtain authorization; the Fire Marshal then issues a written authorization form acknowledging the review fee and setting the examination, and no applicant may sit without presenting it. An applicant who cannot support the level applied for may be moved to a lower level without an additional review fee. An applicant who fails to appear forfeits the examination fee unless at least 24 hours notice is given, and must pay a further examination fee to reapply. On passing, the license issues on receipt of the license fee. The examination fee itself depends on how the Fire Marshal runs the examination: the rule permits either contracting with a private testing agent, in which case the candidate pays that agent's fee directly, or the Fire Marshal developing and conducting the examination himself, in which case the candidate pays the examination fee to the Fire Marshal in advance. The rule sets no dollar figure for the examination fee and none was published on firemarshal.wv.gov as of 2026-09-07. EXAM CONTENT. All examinations are derived from the National Electrical Code published by the NFPA, and each class of license is examined at a subject matter, difficulty and depth appropriate to the competency required. A passing grade of at least 70% is required. The Master, Journeyman and Single Family Dwelling examinations each contain 50 multiple-choice questions worth two points each, and from January 1, 2026 all West Virginia electrical examinations are based on the 2023 edition of NFPA 70. West Virginia runs its own examination calendar rather than on-demand testing: the rule requires examinations at least four times a year in Charleston, with other locations scheduled when enough applications pre-register. The Fire Marshal's published 2026 calendar sets Charleston (Beni Kedem, 100 Quarrier Street) on Jan 13, Mar 24, Jun 2, Aug 4, Sep 22 and Nov 10; Beckley (Academy of Careers and Technology, 390 Stanaford Rd) on Feb 3, May 19, Aug 18 and Oct 27; Clarksburg (United Technical Center, 251 Marietta Street) on Feb 10, May 5, Aug 11 and Oct 27; Martinsburg (James Rumsey Technical Institute, 3274 Hedgesville Rd) on Jan 20, Mar 10, Jun 9, Jul 14, Sep 15 and Nov 17; and Wellsburg (Wellsburg VFD Banquet Hall, 1121 Yankee St) on Feb 24, May 19, Aug 25 and Nov 10. A separate one-time, non-renewable temporary license is available under section 6.1 to a graduate of an approved 1,080-hour state board of education program with the required years of experience, for a fee of $50.00. |
| Reciprocity | Yes as a discretionary mechanism, but West Virginia publishes no list of states. Under 103 CSR 5 §9 (Electrician Licensing Rules, State Fire Marshal, effective 5/1/2024), the State Fire Marshal may enter into formal reciprocal agreements with other jurisdictions whereby nonresident electricians licensed by those jurisdictions may obtain a West Virginia electrician license without written examination, conditioned on a written statement from the home jurisdiction certifying a current license, the applicant being duly qualified for that license, filing West Virginia's application requesting a license under an agreement currently in effect, meeting all other requirements of the rule except the written exam, and paying the annual license fee. §9.5 provides that exact copies of all formal reciprocal agreements are maintained in the office of the State Fire Marshal, so the roster of states currently under agreement is not published in the rule or on the Fire Marshal's website. §9.4 provides that if the agreement lapses West Virginia will not renew a license issued under it, and §9.6 makes a person who already sat and failed a West Virginia exam, or who let a West Virginia license lapse, ineligible for the reciprocal route. Separately, §103-5-6 ('License Without Examination') is West Virginia's universal occupational-license-recognition pathway: the Fire Marshal shall issue a license to a person who holds a valid out-of-state license in an occupation of similar scope with comparable education, experience and examination standards, has held it at least one year, met that state's educational and examination requirements, is in good standing there, has established West Virginia residency, has no disqualifying criminal record or revoked or surrendered license or pending complaint, and pays the fees. The residency requirement is a material condition. Licenses expire June 30 annually. |
| Renewal | Annual, on a fixed date, with a multi-year option. Under 103 CSR 5 § 7.1 (Electrician Licensing Rules, State Fire Marshal, effective 5/1/2024) all electrician licenses issued by the State Fire Marshal expire on the 30th day of June each year. Section 7.2 provides that the State Fire Marshal shall renew annually, or for up to a three-year period, the license of any licensee who applies and pays a renewal fee of $50.00 per year, a flat fee applying uniformly to Master, Journeyman and Specialty classes, with no per-class fee schedule. Section 7.3 sets late renewal at the $50 license fee plus a $50 penalty within the licensure year, and allows a lapsed (not revoked) licensee to renew without retesting within five years of last renewal by paying double the current fee. Continuing education: none. The current rule, read in full across all thirteen substantive sections, contains no continuing education section and imposes no CE requirement on Master, Journeyman or any Specialty electrician license including Specialty Low Voltage (SP-LV); the predecessor 1993 rule likewise contained none. The rule's only mention of continuing education, at § 103-5-6.3.12, concerns the separate multistate occupational-licensing recognition pathway under W. Va. Code § 29-33-8 and does not apply to standard West Virginia electrician licensure. |
| Notes | Statewide individual electrician licensing via State Fire Marshal; online portal sfm-permit-public.wvoasis.gov. |
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Sources: firemarshal.wv.gov, firemarshal.wv.gov, firemarshal.wv.gov, apps.sos.wv.gov. Always confirm current requirements with the issuing authority.
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