After you pass - step 3 and 4

Master License or Electrical Contractor License? The Qualifier Rule

Updated September 2026

Here is the part nobody explains at the testing center. An electrician holds two very different kinds of license over a career, and the NASCLA exam is the door to both - but they are applied for differently, held by different people, and only one of them needs a company.

Personal licenses: journeyman and master

A journeyman license says you are qualified to do electrical work under a master's supervision. A master (some boards say unlimited or master-level) license says you are qualified to lay out, supervise and take responsibility for electrical work. Both are issued to you, follow you from employer to employer, and are what most boards mean when they accept the NASCLA Journeyman or Master/Unlimited exam.

If you plan to work for an established contractor, this is the license you apply for and the company steps below do not apply.

The contractor license: issued to a business

An electrical contractor license is what lets a company pull permits, advertise, bid and sign contracts for electrical work. It is issued to the business - sole proprietor, LLC or corporation - and the business must name a qualifier: a licensed master (or the board's equivalent) who is an owner, officer or full-time employee and who takes responsibility for the work. Most boards require the qualifier to hold the master credential first, then the business applies for the contractor license with that person named.

A few boards fold the two together - Alabama's Electrical Contractor license is master-level and North Carolina issues the contractor license to the entity with a listed qualified individual, for example - and a few, North Carolina again, do not license journeymen at the state level at all. Your state guide says which shape your board uses.

So: sole proprietor or LLC?

If you are going out on your own, the contractor license goes to a business, and you get to choose which kind. A sole proprietorship is you under your own name or a trade name - nothing to file, and every job's liability is yours personally. An LLC is a separate legal person that holds the license, signs the contracts and carries the insurance; if a job goes wrong the claim is against the company. Filing fees run roughly $50 to $500 by state plus a small annual report in most states.

For an electrical contractor the LLC is the normal answer. Commercial customers often will not contract with an individual, bond and insurance underwriters prefer an entity, and a fire claim is not something to carry personally.

Do it in this order

• Form the entity with the Secretary of State - yourself, or through a formation service that also acts as your registered agent (the address that receives legal papers, required in every state).
• Get the EIN at irs.gov. Free, online, issued instantly during IRS hours. Never pay a third party for it.
• Open the business bank account with the formation papers and the EIN letter.
• Then apply for the contractor license in the company's exact legal name, with you as qualifier. The bond, the insurance and any financial statement are written to that same name.

Two traps

• Name mismatch. "Volt Electric LLC" on the state filing, "Volt Electric, L.L.C." on the bond and "Volt Elec." on the insurance certificate gets an application kicked back. Copy the name from the state filing every time.
• Qualifier leaves, license dies. If the qualifier ever leaves the company, most boards give a short window to name a replacement before the contractor license lapses.

Keep reading

WiremanPrep is an exam-prep company, not a law firm, insurance agency or licensing service. Figures were checked in September 2026 against the sources named; your board's current page is the final word.