Wyoming · Electrical licensing · official-source guide
Wyoming licenses electricians at the state level through the Department of Fire Prevention and Electrical Safety and its Electrical Board. Individuals need a Journeyman or Master Electrician license to do unsupervised wiring, and firms need a separate Electrical Contractor license naming a licensed Master Electrician of record. A Journeyman needs 8,000 hours of supervised experience plus apprenticeship classroom hours before sitting the state exam.
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Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-09-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Wyoming licenses electricians through the Department of Fire Prevention and Electrical Safety, created by W.S. 35-9-101 and run under the State Fire Marshal. Two bodies sit inside the department and do different jobs. The Electrical Board writes the licensing rules: W.S. 35-9-103(c) sets it at five members appointed by the governor for six year terms, with at least one and no more than two journeyman electricians, at least one and no more than two master electricians, and at least one and no more than two electrical contractors, no two employed by the same company, meeting at least twice a year with a quorum of three. The Council on Fire Prevention and Electrical Safety in Buildings is a separate five member body under W.S. 35-9-103(b) that sets minimum fire, building and mechanical code standards and hears code appeals; it does not issue electrician licenses. The statute that creates the whole scheme, W.S. 35-9-101 through 35-9-130, is titled Fire Prevention and Electrical Safety and covers plan review, fire investigation and electrical licensing in one chapter, so the same office that inspects for fire code also licenses your trade. The department's Chief Electrical Inspector runs day to day licensing, permitting and inspection, and the office answers at 307-777-7288 out of 320 West 25th Street, 3rd Floor, Cheyenne, WY 82002. Every fee, hour requirement and renewal date on this page comes from that statute, the department's own rules, or the department's current website, cited section by section below.
Sourceswsfm.wyo.gov 1wsfm.wyo.gov 2wyoleg.gov 3wsfm.wyo.gov 4
Wyoming issues six license classes. Three license an individual by grade: journeyman electrician, master electrician, and apprentice electrician, the last one a registration rather than a tested license. Two more license individuals in a narrower lane: low voltage technician and limited technician, each broken into subclasses covering specific systems rather than full building wiring, plus their own apprentice technician registration. Three separate licenses apply to the business rather than the person: electrical contractor, low voltage electrical contractor and limited electrical contractor. W.S. 35-9-102(vi) defines an electrical contractor as a person licensed to contract with another to plan, lay out and supervise the installation of electric equipment, and it excludes anyone who only plans or designs installations. Holding a master electrician license does not let you sign a contract to do electrical work as a business; you or your employer needs the separate contractor license. Holding the contractor license does not let you personally pick up tools at master electrician scope unless you also hold that individual license. Every electrical contractor must employ, full time, a Wyoming licensed master electrician as master of record, and every low voltage or limited contractor must employ a technician of record holding the matching individual license, under W.S. 35-9-125. A master of record can serve only one company at a time, and the same rule applies to a technician of record. Any electrician performing work in Wyoming, other than the exempt categories in W.S. 35-9-123, must be employed by a currently licensed electrical contractor while doing that work.
Sourceswyoleg.gov 1wsfm.wyo.gov 2
Low voltage and limited technician licenses split the trade into narrow categories rather than one broad license, and the department's licensing page lists seven low voltage classes and five limited classes, each with its own hour requirement. Low voltage covers systems under 90 volts: LV-G for all low voltage categories, 4,000 hours; LV-A for alarm systems, 3,000 hours; LV-C for communication systems, 500 hours; LV-S for sound systems, 500 hours; LV-T for television and satellite systems, 500 hours; LV-X for control systems, 1,000 hours; and LV-LS for lawn sprinkler systems, 80 hours. Limited technician licenses cover work on the load side of an equipment disconnect: LM-E for elevator systems, 4,000 hours; LM-S for electric signs, 4,000 hours; LM-W for water well and irrigation systems, 4,000 hours; LM-H for heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems, 4,000 hours; and LM-L for maintaining light fixtures, 1,000 hours. W.S. 35-9-123(a)(vii) and (viii) let the chief electrical inspector issue these narrower licenses to contractors who are not qualified for a full electrical contractor's license but who qualify in their specific area of work. A low voltage or limited technician must be employed at all times by a low voltage or limited contractor holding the matching current license; a technician cannot hold the license and work independently outside that employment. Because each subclass carries its own hour requirement and its own scope, a contractor bidding sign work, irrigation, or fire alarm installation needs to check which specific letter code covers that job rather than assume a single low voltage license covers all of it.
Sourceswsfm.wyo.gov 1wyoleg.gov 2
An apprentice electrician is a registration, not an examined license, and W.S. 35-9-102(i) defines the class as someone with insufficient qualifications to be a journeyman who is hired by a licensed electrical contractor to assist a licensed journeyman or master. Anyone who has never held a Wyoming apprentice license must begin the licensing process within 10 days of starting employment, per the department's licensing page. The registration fee is $20.00, matching the cap at W.S. 35-9-129(a)(x); renewal is also $20.00, and reinstatement after more than one year of lapse runs $40.00. Apprentices must be enrolled in a bona fide United States Department of Labor approved training program, or an equivalent the department accepts, and out-of-state on the job hours can be credited at initial application with notarized employer letters. W.S. 35-9-127(a) sets the supervision ratio for the trade side: a licensed journeyman or master electrician must supervise each apprentice electrician and may not supervise more than two apprentice electricians at the same time. The department's own published supervision schedule steps down as an apprentice logs hours and classroom time, starting at full direct supervision in the first two years and easing as on the job hours and approved classroom hours accumulate toward the 8,000 hour, 576 hour benchmark a journeyman application eventually needs. Apprentice technicians, the low voltage and limited side of the same idea, register the same way but fall under a tighter ratio: W.S. 35-9-127(b) caps a licensed technician at supervising one apprentice technician at a time, half the journeyman ratio.
Sourceswsfm.wyo.gov 1wyoleg.gov 2
A journeyman electrician license requires four years, or 8,000 hours, of documented electrical wiring experience under the direct supervision of a qualifying electrician for a licensed electrical contractor, spanning residential, commercial and industrial work with no more than 75 percent of the hours in any one category, according to the department's licensing page. Alongside the hours, an applicant must show 144 hours a year, or 576 hours across a four year apprenticeship, of classroom instruction through a Department of Labor approved electrical apprenticeship program; up to two years, or 4,000 hours, of schooling can count toward the work experience total. An applicant who cannot document the 576 classroom hours may still qualify with 10 years and 20,000 hours of on the job training, subject to approval by the Chief Electrical Inspector. Military electrical experience counts if the applicant uploads a DD-214, and a Joint Service Transcript can support the classroom hour claim. The exam is based on the current National Electrical Code, which Wyoming adopts without modification under W.S. 35-9-120(a); the department schedules the test through a testing facility that bills its own fee separately from the license. Once an applicant passes, the pass letter goes into the eLicense portal account and the initial license fee is $100.00, matching the cap at W.S. 35-9-129(a)(v). A journeyman license runs on a three year cycle expiring January 1 of the third year after issue, under W.S. 35-9-126(a), a different reset date than every other individual license class in the state.
Sourceswsfm.wyo.gov 1wyoleg.gov 2
A master electrician license sits on top of the journeyman license rather than beside it. The department's licensing page requires eight years, or 16,000 hours, of electrical wiring experience, of which four years, or 8,000 hours, must be documented specifically as a licensed journeyman, plus the same 576 hours of classroom instruction the journeyman license requires, or the 10 year, 20,000 hour on the job alternative approved by the Chief Electrical Inspector. W.S. 35-9-102(xiv) defines a master electrician simply as someone with eight years experience and the technical knowledge to plan, lay out and supervise installation work under the National Electrical Code. Work history documentation runs through notarized employer letters, union letters, or letters from other state licensing boards, and a current license from another state with equal or stricter hour requirements can support the application. The initial license fee once the exam is passed is $200.00, the cap set at W.S. 35-9-129(a)(iv). A master license runs on the same three year cycle as low voltage and limited technician licenses, expiring July 1 of the third year after issue under W.S. 35-9-126(a), one cycle offset from the journeyman license's January 1 date. Any master electrician doing electrical work in Wyoming must be employed at all times by a licensed electrical contractor, and the department's own page warns that a master of record, the person whose license backs a contractor's license, can carry that responsibility for only one company. The board can suspend or cancel a master's license for a serious violation, defined at W.S. 35-9-124(c) as one that risks injury or death or is likely to cause property damage over $2,500.00.
Sourceswsfm.wyo.gov 1wyoleg.gov 2
Electrical contractor licenses attach to the business, not the individual, and Wyoming charges separately for each of three kinds. An electrical contractor license, new or renewal, is $400.00, the cap set at W.S. 35-9-129(a)(i); a low voltage electrical contractor license and a limited electrical contractor license are each $200.00, capped at W.S. 35-9-129(a)(ii) and (iii). Unlike the individual licenses, contractor licenses run on an annual cycle: W.S. 35-9-125(a) requires an electrical contractor to file its license application on or before July 1 each year, and the license expires July 1 the following year. The contractor must actively employ, full time, a Wyoming licensed master electrician who serves as master of record and who is not the master of record for, or employed by, any other electrical contractor, under W.S. 35-9-125(a) and the definition at W.S. 35-9-102(xv). Low voltage and limited contractors follow the same structure with a technician of record in place of a master, per W.S. 35-9-125(b) and (c); notably, the statute waives the low voltage or limited contractor license fee entirely for a contractor who employs no low voltage or limited technicians or apprentice technicians other than himself. The department's own licensing page repeats the one company rule in plain language: a master of record, or a technician of record, can only be the record holder for one company at a time. Applications and renewals run through the eLicense portal, and the department has posted printable Master of Record and Technician of Record acknowledgment forms and a Personnel of Applicant form for the paperwork these filings require.
Sourceswsfm.wyo.gov 1wyoleg.gov 2
Every fee the department charges for licenses, permits, examinations and apprentice registrations is capped by statute at W.S. 35-9-129(a), and the department's current fees match those caps exactly. The caps: electrical contractor's license $400.00; low voltage electrical contractor's license $200.00; limited electrical contractor's license $200.00; master electrician license $200.00; journeyman electrician license $100.00; low voltage technician's license $100.00; limited technician's license $100.00; temporary working permit for a journeyman, low voltage technician or limited technician $50.00; examination fee $300.00; apprentice registration fee $20.00. Renewal fees run at half the new license fee under W.S. 35-9-126(b): $50.00 for a journeyman, low voltage technician or limited technician, and $100.00 for a master electrician. An electrician or technician who renews within 45 days of an expired license pays an additional $50.00 late fee under the same subsection. The department separately charges a $50.00 electrical wiring permit fee and a $40.00 temporary service permit fee under W.S. 35-9-120(c), waiving the wiring permit fee for anyone who pays for a requested inspection instead. Since April 1, 2025, the department has added a 2.5 percent processing charge to every credit or debit transaction at checkout under Wyo. Stat. section 9-4-217(h), a general state electronic payment statute rather than an electrical-specific one, with a $1.00 minimum charge when 2.5 percent of the transaction is less than a dollar. Ninety-five percent of licensing fees and 95 percent of inspection fees collected fund additional state electrical inspector positions under W.S. 35-9-129(b) and 35-9-120(f); the remaining 5 percent goes to the general fund.
Wyoming's electrical licensing statute, W.S. 35-9-101 through 35-9-130, sets no minimum liability insurance amount and requires no surety bond for any of the six license classes, individual or contractor. The department's own rules, Chapter VI of the Department Rules covering electrical licensing, condition a contractor license on employing a full time master or technician of record and on paying the statutory fee; they do not add an insurance certificate or bond filing to that list. This differs from what many state electrical boards require, and from what several Wyoming municipalities require of other trades under their own local contractor licenses. The gap does not mean an electrician or contractor can skip coverage altogether. Workers compensation and general liability coverage remain ordinary business obligations under separate Wyoming law and under whatever a general contractor, property owner or lender requires by contract before handing over work, and a city that has assumed local electrical inspection authority under W.S. 35-9-121 can layer its own conditions onto a building permit even though it cannot issue a competing electrical trade license. What this section can say with confidence, because the statute and the department's rules were both read in full, is that the state license itself, the card the Electrical Board issues, does not depend on showing proof of any specific insurance limit or bond amount. A contractor who wants to know whether a particular city or a particular customer demands insurance on top of the state license has to check that separately; it is not part of the department's application.
Sourceswyoleg.gov 1wsfm.wyo.gov 2
Renewal dates split by license class, and missing the window has a hard deadline built into the rule. Master electrician, low voltage technician and limited technician licenses run three year cycles expiring July 1, while journeyman electrician licenses run the same three year cycle but expire January 1, under W.S. 35-9-126(a). Master and journeyman electricians must show proof of at least 16 hours of continuing education in the National Electrical Code or in advances in the electrical industry before their license expires, with at least 8 of those 16 hours specifically on code, under W.S. 35-9-126(b); the department's renewal pages repeat this as 16 CEU hours, 8 of them code related, completed within the 3 year period since the last renewal. The department's published renewal information does not list a parallel CEU hour requirement for low voltage or limited technician renewals, only the renewal fee itself. Anyone who applies for renewal within 45 days after expiration pays an extra $50.00 late fee and keeps the license without retesting, under W.S. 35-9-126(b) and Department Rules Chapter 6, Section 1(f). Miss that 45 day window and Department Rules Chapter 6, Section 1(g) requires paying all applicable fees and passing the appropriate examination again to reinstate, which the department's own renewal pages describe as a hard close roughly 45 days after the license expires. Apprentice electricians and apprentice technicians work on a different clock entirely, renewing their registration every year rather than every three, on or before September 1 under Department Rules Chapter 6, Section 4.
Wyoming lets an out-of-state journeyman or master electrician reciprocate into a Wyoming license, but only once. The department requires the applicant's original license to have been earned by examination with a score of 75 percent or better, held for at least one year from the exam date, and currently in good standing with no violations; W.S. 35-9-126(d) backs this with authority for the department to issue a reciprocal license if the applicant's out-of-state exam is equal to or exceeds Wyoming's own exam, and W.S. 35-9-124(g) lets the board approve state to state reciprocal agreements on those terms. The applicant must independently meet Wyoming's own underlying requirements for the grade sought, meaning a reciprocal master applicant still needs the equivalent of four years as a journeyman among the total experience, and must submit 16 hours of continuing education completed within the last three years, 8 of them code related, plus a copy of the current out-of-state license and an apprentice education transcript. The department verifies the applicant's on the job hours and exam date and score through NERA, the National Electrical Reciprocal Alliance, rather than taking the applicant's word for it. The one time limit is strict: once a reciprocated Wyoming license lapses or expires, the holder is not eligible to reciprocate again and must pass the Wyoming exam by examination instead. Anyone who has already tested and failed a Wyoming journeyman or master exam is locked out of reciprocity until they have held a license from their home state for three years. Licenses that were grandfathered into another state without examination do not qualify for reciprocity at all.
Sourceswsfm.wyo.gov 1wyoleg.gov 2
Working outside your license, or without one, exposes you to both a misdemeanor charge and a separate civil penalty in Wyoming, and W.S. 35-9-130 spells out both tracks. Under subsection (a), a person who violates any provision of W.S. 35-9-101 through 35-9-130 commits a misdemeanor: an individual, including a corporate officer or agent who participates in or is an accessory to the violation, faces a fine of not more than $500.00, imprisonment for not more than six months, revocation of the license, or a combination of a fine, imprisonment and revocation, while a corporation faces a fine of not more than $1,000.00 and license revocation, or both. Subsection (b) lets the district or county attorney or the attorney general seek an injunction against a continuing violation, on the department's recommendation. Separately, subsection (c) creates a civil penalty specifically for violating W.S. 35-9-123, the section requiring licensed electricians and contractors to perform the work: not more than $500.00 for a first offense, or $1,000.00 for a subsequent offense within any three month period. The department must notify the accused in writing before imposing that civil penalty, under subsection (d), and the accused can pay within 60 days or appeal to the Electrical Board, which can uphold, reduce or throw out the fine. Subsection (e) makes nonpayment of an upheld penalty grounds for suspending the electrical license until the fine is paid in full, and subsection (f) blocks stacking the criminal penalty and the civil penalty for the same violation. Separately, W.S. 35-9-124(c) lets the board suspend or cancel a license outright for a serious violation, one that risks injury or death or is likely to cause more than $2,500.00 in property damage.
Sourceswyoleg.gov
Beyond the license itself, Wyoming charges for the permits and inspections that go with electrical work, and the department's Wiring Permits page and W.S. 35-9-120 set the same numbers. An electrical wiring permit is required before new construction or remodeling if the work needs a public utility to connect, disconnect or restore power, and costs $50.00 under the cap at W.S. 35-9-120(c); that fee is waived for anyone who instead pays for a requested electrical inspection. A temporary power permit costs $40.00 and covers up to 90 days under National Electrical Code Article 305. Requested inspection fees follow a schedule at W.S. 35-9-120(c)(i): $20.00 plus $0.50 per ampere of service for a residential unit, the same for a mobile home service, $40.00 for temporary services, $20.00 plus 2 percent of the remodel's electrical value for a residential remodel, $20.00 plus $0.50 per ampere for other installations, and $50.00 plus $0.20 per ampere for a reinspection. A plan review, separate from a wiring permit, is required under W.S. 35-9-108 for government buildings, schools, buildings over 5,000 square feet with public access, larger childcare centers, multi-story buildings, places of assembly, fire protection systems of any size, and alterations valued at $40,000.00 or more. The department must accept or reject a plan review submission within 5 business days and complete the review within 21 business days of acceptance, extending only if it needs more information. Both permits and plan reviews are handled through the same eLicensing, ePermit and ePayment portal as electrician licenses, at wyelectrician.imagetrendlicense.com.
Sourceswyoleg.gov 1wsfm.wyo.gov 2
Wyoming's electrical license itself is issued by one state agency no matter where in the state you work, but who inspects that work changes by address. W.S. 35-9-121(a) lets the State Fire Marshal delegate full local enforcement authority to a municipality or county that adopts standards at least as strict as the state's and that employs an electrical inspector who is both certified by the International Code Council or the International Association of Electrical Inspectors and separately licensed by the state as a journeyman or master electrician. The department's own Local and State Jurisdictions chart, updated September 2026, shows several of Wyoming's largest cities using that authority for electrical inspection rather than routing through the state's own inspectors: Cheyenne, Casper, Gillette, Rock Springs, Laramie, Sheridan and the Town of Wright all appear on the chart with local electrical inspection, and Casper and Gillette also run local electrical plan review rather than sending it to the state. Jackson, in Teton County, runs every category, fire, building and electrical, entirely at the local level. Where a city is not listed at all, W.S. 35-9-121 and the chart's own key make the default explicit: the state has full jurisdiction. None of this changes who licenses the electrician. A contractor still needs the same department-issued electrical contractor license and master of record to work in Cheyenne as in an unincorporated county with no local program; the only difference is which office issues the wiring permit, reviews the plans and shows up to inspect the finished work.
Wyoming's electrical statute does not require a license number on a truck, a website, a business card or a written estimate. A full read of W.S. 35-9-101 through 35-9-130, the statute that creates every electrician and contractor license class, and of Chapter VI of the Department Rules covering electrical licensing, turns up no advertising disclosure requirement and no rule requiring a license number to appear anywhere in marketing. That puts Wyoming in a different position from states that fine a contractor for omitting a license number from an ad; there is no equivalent fine here to omit, because there is no disclosure requirement to violate. The statute is similarly quiet on restricting the words a person can use to describe themselves. Unlike some other states, W.S. 35-9-101 through 35-9-130 contains no section barring an unlicensed person from calling themselves an electrician or a master electrician in advertising. What the statute does control is who may actually do the work: W.S. 35-9-123(a) requires licensed electrical contractors employing licensed master or journeyman electricians, or supervised apprentices, to install electrical equipment, with narrow exceptions, and the misdemeanor and civil penalties at W.S. 35-9-130 attach to doing the work without the right license, not to how a business describes itself. A contractor's safest practice is still to advertise only the scope its master of record's license actually covers, since a contractor license depends entirely on that one person's grade and a job outside it is a licensing problem regardless of what the ad says.
Sourceswyoleg.gov
A customer, a general contractor or a property manager can check a Wyoming electrical license through the Wyoming State Fire Marshal's Public Portal and Look Up, linked directly from the department's own site at wsfm.wyo.gov, and hosted on the state's eLicense system at wyelectrician.imagetrendlicense.com. The same portal that issues licenses to applicants runs the public lookup, so a license that was just renewed or just issued should already be reflected there rather than sitting in a separate, slower directory. Because Wyoming licenses the business and the individual separately, the more useful check for a hiring decision is often the contractor license and its named master of record or technician of record together, since W.S. 35-9-125 requires every electrical contractor to have one on staff full time and W.S. 35-9-102(xv) makes that person personally responsible for code compliance on the company's work; a contractor license with no current master of record is not a company that can legally take the job. Anyone who suspects a company is quoting electrical work it cannot legally perform, such as work outside the scope of a low voltage or limited license, can raise that with the department's Agency Investigation Unit, which the department's Personnel and Inspectors page lists as responsible for license and enforcement matters. A written estimate or contract that names the electrical contractor's license number gives a customer a specific record to check against the portal, even though the state does not require an estimate to carry that number.
Sourceswsfm.wyo.gov 1wyelectrician.imagetrendlicense.com 2wyoleg.gov 3wsfm.wyo.gov 4
These are common details other guides publish about Wyoming, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes. The Department of Fire Prevention and Electrical Safety and its Electrical Board issue apprentice, journeyman, master, low voltage and limited technician licenses under W.S. 35-9-101 through 35-9-130. There is no separate city electrician license anywhere in Wyoming, though several cities run their own electrical inspections.
A journeyman needs four years, or 8,000 hours, of supervised experience and can install and supervise wiring. A master needs eight years, or 16,000 hours, of which half must be as a licensed journeyman, and can plan, lay out and supervise installations. Only a master electrician can serve as a contractor's master of record.
Yes. An individual license, journeyman or master, lets you do the work personally. An Electrical Contractor license, a separate $400.00 filing under W.S. 35-9-129(a)(i), is required to contract with customers, and the company must employ a Wyoming licensed master electrician full time as its master of record.
The cap under W.S. 35-9-129(a) is $400.00 for an electrical contractor license and $200.00 for a low voltage or limited electrical contractor license, both due annually by July 1. A low voltage or limited contractor who employs no other technicians has that fee waived entirely.
No. Wyoming's electrical statute and the department's own rules set no bond amount and no minimum insurance limit for any electrician or contractor license. A contractor license depends on employing a licensed master or technician of record, not on proof of coverage.
Only once, and only if your original license was earned by exam with a score of 75 percent or better, held at least one year, and in good standing. Wyoming verifies the score and hours through NERA. Once a reciprocated license lapses, you cannot reciprocate again and must take the Wyoming exam.
W.S. 35-9-130 makes it a misdemeanor: up to a $500.00 fine, six months in jail or license revocation for an individual, and up to $1,000.00 plus revocation for a corporation. A separate civil penalty of up to $500.00 for a first offense, or $1,000.00 for a repeat offense within three months, can also be imposed directly by the department.
Master, low voltage and limited technician licenses run three years and expire July 1; journeyman licenses run three years and expire January 1. Master and journeyman electricians also need 16 hours of continuing education, 8 of them code related, before the license expires.
You have a 45 day grace period to renew by paying an extra $50.00 late fee. After 45 days, the department requires you to pay all applicable fees again and pass the appropriate examination to reinstate the license, rather than simply renewing it.
Yes. Both cities hold local enforcement authority under W.S. 35-9-121 and inspect electrical work inside city limits with their own certified inspectors, and Casper and Gillette also handle their own plan review. The electrical license itself still comes from the state, not the city.
No. Neither W.S. 35-9-101 through 35-9-130 nor the department's rules require a license number on an ad, a truck, a website or a written estimate. Wyoming's licensing rules focus on who performs the work, not on what a business prints about itself.
Through the Wyoming State Fire Marshal's Public Portal and Look Up, linked from wsfm.wyo.gov and run on the state's eLicense system. Because contractor licenses depend on a named master or technician of record, checking that the named individual is also currently licensed is part of a complete verification.
We can review the local market, your current search visibility, and paid-search fit before recommending any marketing work.