North Dakota · Electrical licensing · official-source guide
North Dakota licenses the individual electrician, not the electrical business. The North Dakota State Electrical Board issues master, journeyman, class B and power limited licenses, and only a master or power limited electrician may contract for electrical work. A journeyman needs 8,000 hours over at least three years plus board approved training. Contracting requires $500,000 public liability insurance.
Verified against agency sources on 2026-09-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
The North Dakota State Electrical Board issues every electrician license in the state. It sits at 1929 N. Washington Street, Suite A-1 in Bismarck. The legislature created a state board of electricians in 1917 and renamed it the state electrical board in 1949. Six members appointed by the governor for five year terms run it: a master electrician who is a contractor, a journeyman electrician, a consumer member of a rural electric cooperative, an elevator mechanic, a person associated with an investor-owned utility, and a public member not directly associated with the electrical industry. North Dakota Century Code section 43-09-09 says a person may not undertake or plan to undertake with another person to plan, lay out, supervise, install, add to, alter or repair wiring, apparatus or equipment for electric light, heat or power, or for a power limited system, unless licensed by the board. The board also has jurisdiction over the installations themselves. Section 43-09-22 puts all electrical inspection under the board, and the board divides the state into 14 inspection districts with one inspector assigned to each. A city may provide for its own inspection inside city limits and must register its inspector with the board within ten days of appointment, but a city may not require inspection of work outside the board's jurisdiction. A city may write more stringent wiring requirements by ordinance under section 43-09-21, but the ordinance applies only to people the board has licensed.
Section 43-09-10 lists four classes: master electrician, journeyman electrician, class B electrician and power limited electrician. Only a master electrician or a power limited electrician may enter a contract, agreement or undertaking with another party for the installation of electrical wiring, and a class B electrician may do so only for farmstead wiring or one and two family residential wiring in a small city. That single rule, in section 43-09-20, is why the license class you hold decides whether you can sell work or only perform it. On top of the class, a master picks one of three statuses. A contracting master answers for the laws and rules and has shown proof of liability insurance. A master of record answers for a company and is covered by that company's policy, and may not work on property other than property the organization owns or leases. A non-contracting master carries the same responsibility as a journeyman and works under the supervision of a contracting master or a master of record. The same three statuses exist for power limited electricians. A master, class B or power limited electrician may exercise those privileges for no more than one shop or business. A power limited electrician covers low voltage systems and needs 6,000 hours obtained over at least two and a half years as a registered power limited apprentice, or a board approved education or tradesman certification route.
North Dakota is the rare state that writes a population number into a license class. A class B electrician must have completed 18 months and 3,000 hours of experience in farmstead or residential wiring in one or two family dwellings, under the supervision of a master or class B electrician. Commercial wiring experience earns no credit toward a class B license. A graduate of a board approved two year electrical school gets 1,000 hours of credit. The board says a class B license can be held in contracting status only, and that the holder may perform electrical work only for farmstead wiring and residential wiring located in a city with a population of 2,500 or fewer. Section 43-09-20 puts the same ceiling in statute on the contracting side: a class B electrician may not enter a contract, undertaking or agreement for electrical installation except for farmstead wiring, or residential wiring in one or two family dwellings located in a city of 2,500 or fewer. So a class B holder who follows a customer into Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks or Minot is outside the license. Up to 3,000 class B hours may later be applied toward the journeyman experience requirement, which makes class B a usable stepping stone rather than a dead end for someone working in small towns and on farms.
A journeyman electrician must complete 8,000 hours of experience, and those hours may not be obtained in less than three years. The hours have to be earned as a registered apprentice under the supervision of a contracting master or master of record, in a jurisdiction with licensing and inspection rules similar to North Dakota. Practical experience must make up at least 4,000 of the hours. Credit in other areas is capped: 1,000 hours for repairing wiring, apparatus and equipment, 1,000 hours for fire alarm circuits, 2,000 hours for process control or power limited systems, and 2,000 hours for electrical construction experience gained in the armed forces that the board treats as equivalent. Anyone who registered as an apprentice after January 31, 2008 must also finish one of three board approved education routes. The related training route is 576 hours of board recognized classes plus the 8,000 hours. The Professional Electrician Apprenticeship Program route is 8,000 hours of on the job experience before entry, then 372 hours of PEAP instruction and another 4,000 hours of on the job training during those classroom hours. The two year college route is a board approved electrical degree of at least two years plus 6,000 hours. A master electrician needs one year as a licensed journeyman and at least 2,000 hours working as a licensed journeyman under a contracting master or master of record.
You apply first and test second. The board processes the application and the employment verification, and on approval sends an invitation listing the dates that are open. You then call the board to claim a date, and you must test within six months of receiving the invitation. A cancellation or a no-show means filing another application and another fee. The board runs sittings on two consecutive days most months; the published 2026 dates run September 21 and 22, October 19 and 20, November 16 and 17, and December 14 and 15, and the 2027 calendar lists a two day sitting every month from January through December. The exam covers fundamental electricity, the laws, rules and wiring standards of North Dakota, and the current edition of the National Electrical Code. Every class takes a closed book part and an open book part. Master, journeyman and class B candidates get one hour closed and three and a half hours open. The power limited exam is open book for four and a half hours. The board provides the code books, calculators and pencils. Passing is 70 percent. If you fail, the wait before you may reapply depends on how close you came: a score of 60 to 69 carries no waiting period, 50 to 59 carries three months, and 0 to 49 carries six months. The board stopped providing exam reviews on July 11, 2012.
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Administrative rule 24.1-03-01-01 sets both the application fee and the annual license fee, and for every class the two figures match. Application fees are $50.00 for a master license, $25.00 for a journeyman license, $40.00 for a class B license, $50.00 for a power limited license, and $10.00 for an apprentice or power limited apprentice registration. The license and annual renewal fees are the same: $50.00 master, $25.00 journeyman, $40.00 class B, $50.00 power limited, $10.00 apprentice registration. An expired license or registration requires a reinstatement fee equal to the annual fee. Reciprocal applicants pay twice: a reciprocal application fee of $25.00 for journeyman or $50.00 for master, and then the license fee itself, again $25.00 or $50.00, after the application is approved. The rule also says examination fees are paid separately to the examination testing center provider if one is required, so the sitting fee is not part of the board's schedule. Section 43-09-13 leaves examination and annual license fees to the board to set, which is why the numbers live in the rule rather than the statute. The board may charge for attendance at its own education sessions, but section 43-09-15.1 caps that charge at ten dollars per attendee per session. A lost paper wiring certificate costs $25.00 unless it is returned to the board.
An electrician's license in North Dakota may be issued for a term of only one year under section 43-09-15, and it may be renewed without examination on payment of the proper fee. The board splits the trade across two dates. Journeyman licenses expire March 31 each year. Master, class B and power limited licenses expire April 30 each year. Apprentice and power limited apprentice registrations expire January 31. Renewal opens January 1. To renew online you need your board license number, the last four digits of your Social Security number and a credit card. Let a license lapse for three consecutive years or more and you are required to appear for re-examination, which is the harshest consequence in the renewal rules. The board may also deny, suspend, revoke or refuse to renew for failing to hold to the minimum standards in the code, gross negligence, incompetency or misconduct, material misstatement or fraud in obtaining the license, failing to correct a non-compliant installation within the time given, failing to make the deposit or acquire the public liability insurance section 43-09-20 requires, failing to pay a financial obligation to the board, or failing to certify continuing education. Apprentices have their own trap: any hours worked while unregistered or not renewed are lost and do not count toward a journeyman license.
The board requires eight hours of continuing education on file before it renews a license, and a minimum of four of those hours must be code related. Rule 24.1-04-01-01 states it as a percentage rather than a count: no master, journeyman, power limited or class B license is renewed unless proof of eight continuing education hours has been submitted, of which at least fifty percent are based on the NFPA 70 2026 edition of the National Electrical Code. The remaining credits must be subjects related to the electrical industry. Two primary sources describe the cycle differently and both are published by the state. The board's own renewal and continuing education pages tie the eight hours to each annual renewal. Century Code section 43-09-15.1 says an applicant for renewal must have completed at least eight hours each biennium, and that the board may not require more than sixteen hours in each biennium. Read them together and the safe practice is eight hours before each annual renewal. Every class must be board approved in advance, whether it is classroom, webinar, online or correspondence. The provider submits the roster, not you: the board does not accept individual completion certificates, and the provider has fifteen days after the class to file. Credit is not given for the same class twice in a code cycle, and credits may be banked for up to two renewal periods. Board approval of courses and instructors expires when the board adopts a new edition of the National Electrical Code.
North Dakota does not issue an electrical contractor license as a separate credential. It attaches contracting status to a licensed individual and then checks the company behind that individual. Section 43-09-20 says that if a licensee is acting as a contractor, the licensee shall submit to the board evidence of public liability insurance with a licensed insurance carrier, with policy limits of at least five hundred thousand dollars. The board's contracting page repeats it as certificate of liability insurance with policy limits of at least $500,000. Failing to acquire that insurance is one of the grounds in section 43-09-15 for denying, suspending or revoking a license. The sequence the board publishes is specific. First, file with the Secretary of State, which includes registration of the business and licensure of the business as a contractor. Then submit to the board the Application for Electrical Contracting, the E-Cert application and the certificate of liability insurance. On receipt, contractor orientation begins, which the board describes as an administrative rule session and a telephonic information session. The contracting or of-record electrician attends, and so does the owner or the owner's representative if the applicant signed on behalf of a business. A new license issued at that point costs $50.00 for master or power limited and $40.00 for class B. A non-contracting master files a different form and pays the same $50.00 only if a new license is being issued.
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The second credential a North Dakota electrical business needs comes from the Secretary of State, who is the registrar under Century Code chapter 43-07. When the cost, value or price per job exceeds $4,000, the person doing the work must be licensed as a contractor. That catches subcontractors, general contractors, public contractors and nonresident contractors alike. Without the license you also may not maintain any claim, action, suit or proceeding in a North Dakota court related to your business as a contractor, which means an unlicensed electrical company cannot sue to collect. The license comes in four classes tied to the value of a single project: class A has no limit and costs $450, class B covers projects up to $500,000 and costs $300, class C covers up to $300,000 and costs $225, and class D covers up to $100,000 and costs $100. Renewal is due on or before March 1 each year and costs $90, $60, $45 and $30 by class. The application needs a certificate of liability insurance naming the Secretary of State as certificate holder, plus Workforce Safety and Insurance verification. Renewal requires listing every project, contract or subcontract completed in North Dakota in the prior calendar year that exceeded $50,000. The Secretary of State's own page points electrical applicants to the State Electrical Board for the trade license, since the contractor license does not include it.
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North Dakota belongs to a multi-state reciprocal licensing group, and the board publishes the list itself rather than leaving it to be guessed. Master licenses reciprocate with Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. Journeyman licenses reciprocate with a longer list: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. The conditions are the same in both directions. You must have passed a written examination in the state you are reciprocating from, hold a current, active license in good standing, and have held it continuously for the year before you ask. You must list experience under the supervision of a contracting master in a jurisdiction with licensing and inspection rules similar to North Dakota: 8,000 hours for a journeyman and 10,000 hours for a master. Two disqualifiers matter. If your apprenticeship did not include related training and most of your practical experience was gained in North Dakota with a North Dakota based contractor, you are not eligible for a reciprocal license or for examination. And if you have already failed the written examination in a state, you cannot then reciprocate into it. Coming from a state with no continuing education requirement, you must show a North Dakota approved eight hour code class. No written examination is required for a reciprocal license. Section 43-09-25 is the underlying authority and conditions it on the other state providing for similar action.
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North Dakota funds state inspection through a fee the contractor collects from the customer, so it belongs in your pricing. Rule 24.1-05-01-01 requires an electrical wiring certificate for any installation valued at $500 or more, submitted by the master, class B or power limited electrician supervising the work. A startup copy goes to the board and a copy to the power company before work begins and before anything is energized. Within fifteen days of completion, use or occupancy, whichever comes first, the final paperwork goes to the board with the fee. You keep a copy, and a copy must be left in or on the panel or given to the owner. A project with multiple addresses needs a certificate for each one. Certificates for jobs of $20,000 or less are valid twelve months from filing. Since July 1, 2024 the inspection fee is $50.00 minimum up to a job cost of $500, then $50.00 for the first $500 plus 2 percent of the balance up to $20,000, then $440.00 for the first $20,000 plus one tenth of one percent on the balance above that. Appliances, HVAC units, motors, generators and industrial machines are excluded from job cost. Start or use an installation without filing and the certificate is late: the normal inspection fee rises by $50.00. Reinspections cost a minimum of $100.00, and investigative time runs $50.00 per hour plus mileage.
North Dakota prosecutes two different things. Doing the work without a license is covered by section 43-09-23: a person who violates any provision of chapter 43-09 is guilty of a class B misdemeanor. Beyond the criminal case, the board may issue a cease and desist order against anyone making or offering to make installations in violation of section 43-09-09 or the advertising section, and may apply to the district court for a temporary or permanent injunction. The court may not require a bond from the board as a condition of that order unless it states a reason. Once a violation is found, the court may assess against the defendant the actual costs and reasonable attorney's fees of the investigation and the court proceeding. Advertising is a second offence with its own penalty ladder in section 43-09-09.2. A first conviction is a class B misdemeanor with no fine above one hundred dollars and no term of imprisonment. A second or subsequent conviction is a class A misdemeanor: for a second conviction no fine above one thousand dollars and no imprisonment, and for a third or subsequent conviction a fine up to one thousand dollars, or imprisonment up to thirty days, or both. Acting as a contractor without the Secretary of State license is a separate class A misdemeanor under section 43-07-02, plus a civil penalty of up to three times the license fee, assessed and collected before any license is issued.
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Section 43-09-09.2 is the rule that governs electrical advertising in North Dakota, and it is written about who you are, not about what your ad says. Where a license is required under section 43-09-09, a person may not advertise to contract for electrical services without being licensed as, or being associated with, a class B electrician, master electrician or power limited electrician, unless that person intends to contract the electrical services out to a licensed electrical contractor. That last clause is what lets a general contractor or a remodeler advertise electrical work honestly. The second subsection is the one to watch if you are the licensed name on someone else's marketing: if a person associates with an electrician under subsection 1 and that association ends, that person is jointly and severally liable for any contracts entered under the association. Carrying your credential is also regulated. Rule 24.1-03-01-01 says the board issues an identification card to currently licensed and registered electricians, and that card, along with a government issued picture identification card, shall be in the possession of the electrician when doing electrical work. A replacement costs a charge set to cover board costs. Section 43-07-24 adds that when applying for a building permit, a contractor shall supply the permit issuing official that contractor's license number, and the official enters it on the permit. Section 43-09-09 also directs each licensee to report licensing and renewals to the city electrical inspector where that individual operates.
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North Dakota does not adopt the National Electrical Code bare. It publishes its own Laws, Rules, Wiring and Conveyance Standards of North Dakota, and that document names the edition it works against. The current book is effective July 1, 2026 and is written against the NFPA 70 2026 edition of the National Electrical Code, first version printed in 2025, together with the NFPA 101 2024 edition Life Safety Code. The previous book, effective July 1, 2024, was written against the 2023 National Electrical Code, so the state moved one full cycle in mid 2026. Where the state standards differ from or conflict with the NFPA documents, locally adopted codes or the North Dakota State Building Code on fire detection, fire alarms, fire communications and smoke detectors, the more restrictive requirement is the minimum. Section 43-09-21 treats the National Electrical Code and the National Electrical Safety Code as prima facie evidence of approved methods of construction. Two knock-on effects matter to a working contractor. Continuing education must be half code hours based on the 2026 edition, and board approval of continuing education classes and instructors expires when the board adopts an updated edition of the code, so a course that counted last cycle may not count now. The board also publishes an administrative rule proposal form for the next cycle, with a stated deadline of February 29, 2028 for the 2029 rules.
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North Dakota's two largest cities do not add an electrical license on top of the state one. Fargo tells homeowners directly that home roofers, plumbers and heating and air conditioning contractors must be licensed through the City of Fargo, verified through the City Auditor's Office, and that electricians must be licensed by the North Dakota State Electrical Board. The city's own business and occupational licensing list bears that out: it includes excavator, sidewalk builder, house mover, re-roofing, sign hanger, journeyman heating, master heating and master plumber, and no electrical category. Bismarck is the same. Its Building Inspections division requires a permit for electrical wiring, and the licenses it issues are for mechanical and HVAC installers, sign installers and mobile home parks. Bismarck publishes its electrical inspection district map, which is the board's district structure rather than a separate city license. For verification, the board runs two public searches. Find a Licensed Contractor takes a last name, business name or city. Lookup a Licensed or Registered Electrician takes a last name, or a four or five digit license or registration number. The board mails an identification card after a reciprocal license is issued and does not email a copy, and it points applicants to the same public search to find their own number. Contractor licenses from the Secretary of State are searchable separately through the FirstStop portal.
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These are common details other guides publish about North Dakota, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes. The North Dakota State Electrical Board issues master, journeyman, class B and power limited licenses, and section 43-09-09 of the Century Code says no one may plan, lay out, supervise, install, alter or repair electrical wiring for another person unless licensed by the board. The board also has jurisdiction over the installations and runs inspection through 14 districts.
Yes, but not from the electrical board. The Secretary of State licenses contractors under chapter 43-07 once a job exceeds $4,000 in cost, value or price. The board grants contracting status to you as a licensed individual and requires your Application for Electrical Contracting, an E-Cert application and a certificate of liability insurance.
Section 43-09-20 requires a licensee acting as a contractor to submit evidence of public liability insurance from a licensed carrier with policy limits of at least five hundred thousand dollars. The board's contracting page states the same $500,000 figure. Failing to acquire it is a listed ground for denial, suspension or revocation under section 43-09-15.
Rule 24.1-03-01-01 sets a $25.00 application fee and a $25.00 annual license or renewal fee for a journeyman. Master and power limited are $50.00 each, class B is $40.00, and apprentice registration is $10.00. Examination fees are paid separately to the testing center provider if one is required.
Journeyman licenses expire March 31 every year. Master, class B and power limited licenses expire April 30 every year. Apprentice and power limited apprentice registrations expire January 31. Renewal opens January 1. A license left unrenewed for three consecutive years or more forces you back to re-examination.
The board requires eight hours on file before renewal, with at least four of them code related. Rule 24.1-04-01-01 states it as eight hours with at least fifty percent based on the 2026 National Electrical Code. Century Code section 43-09-15.1 describes eight hours each biennium and caps the board at sixteen per biennium.
For master licenses: Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. For journeyman licenses: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. You need a current license held continuously for a year, a passed written exam in that state, and 8,000 hours as a journeyman or 10,000 as a master.
The 2026 edition. The state's Laws, Rules, Wiring and Conveyance Standards effective July 1, 2026 are written against the NFPA 70 2026 National Electrical Code, first version printed in 2025, alongside the NFPA 101 2024 Life Safety Code. The prior book, effective July 1, 2024, used the 2023 edition.
Only if you intend to contract the electrical work out to a licensed electrical contractor. Section 43-09-09.2 otherwise bars advertising to contract for electrical services unless you are licensed as, or associated with, a class B, master or power limited electrician. A first conviction is a class B misdemeanor with a fine capped at one hundred dollars.
No such requirement appears in chapter 43-09 or in the board's rules. What is required is that your board identification card and a government issued photo ID be in your possession while doing electrical work, and that you supply your contractor license number to the permit issuing official when you apply for a building permit.
No. Fargo licenses roofers, plumbers and heating contractors and states that electricians must be licensed by the North Dakota State Electrical Board. Bismarck issues licenses for mechanical and HVAC installers, sign installers and mobile home parks, and requires a permit for electrical wiring but no city electrical license.
The board runs two public searches. Find a Licensed Contractor accepts a last name, business name or city. Lookup a Licensed or Registered Electrician accepts a last name, or a four or five digit license or registration number. The Secretary of State's FirstStop portal separately shows whether a contractor license is in good standing.
We can review the local market, your current search visibility, and paid-search fit before recommending any marketing work.