Texas Electrician ExamTexas journeyman & master

Checked against primary sources 2026-08-25

Three statutes say the same thing, and all three stop at the examination

Texas will count what you did in uniform toward the hours, will waive the state's own fees, and will move your application to the front of the queue. It will not sit the paper for you, and it says so in three separate places. Here is exactly where the line falls.

On this page
  1. The sentence that appears three times
  2. The rule says it in plain English too
  3. What the credit is actually worth
  4. The fee waiver got much wider on 1 September 2025
  5. What to pull before you separate
  6. The two clocks that work in your favor
  7. The GI Bill will pay for the test itself
  8. So the examination is the part that is actually yours
  9. What this page cites

The sentence that appears three times

The credit provision for electricians is Occupations Code 1305.1645(a), and the exclusion is inside the sentence rather than in a footnote.

Notwithstanding any other law, the department shall credit verified military service, training, or education toward the licensing requirements, other than examination requirements, for a license issued under this chapter by the department.

Tex. Occ. Code 1305.1645(a)

The agency wide version at Occupations Code 51.4013(a) is written in the same terms, with the same carve out.

And the statewide version reads the same way again.

Notwithstanding any other law, a state agency that issues a license shall, with respect to an applicant who is a military service member or military veteran, credit verified military service, training, or education toward the licensing requirements, other than an examination requirement, for a license issued by the state agency.

Tex. Occ. Code 55.007(a)

Three statutes, three carve outs, all in the operative sentence. This is not an oversight anybody is going to be persuaded out of.

The rule says it in plain English too

16 TAC 60.510 is the rule that implements all three, and as amended effective 1 December 2025 its subsection (g) reads that an applicant under this section must pass any applicable examination required for obtaining the license. The wording before the amendment was equally direct.

TDLR puts it on its own military page in one line: you will still be required to take any examinations required for the license.

There is an electrician specific waiver rule and military service is not in it. 16 TAC 73.24 lists two grounds only: licensure in another state that has a reciprocity agreement with Texas, and the situation in 16 TAC 73.21(b), which covers somebody licensed for the preceding year by a municipal or regional authority that terminated its licensing program, applying within ninety days of it closing.

So there is no door. What there is instead is a great deal of value on the other side of the line, and most of it is underused.

What the credit is actually worth

Occupations Code 1305.155 requires 8,000 hours of on-the-job training under the supervision of a master electrician for a journeyman license. That is the requirement the credit is measured against, and the supervision clause in it is the reason the credit is an assessment rather than a conversion.

Occupations Code 55.008 adds that where an apprenticeship is required for a license, the agency shall credit verified military service, training or education that is relevant to the occupation toward the apprenticeship requirements. 16 TAC 60.510(d) carries that into TDLR's own rules.

How much you get is governed by a sentence that deserves to be read before anybody builds a timeline on it.

An applicant will receive credit for time incurred in training or in performing the specific work, duties, or functions that are applicable for a specific license. The amount of time credited may be limited to a maximum amount of time (hours, months or years) as specified by statute or rule for a specific license or may be less than the total amount of time (hours, months or years) the applicant has served in the military.

16 TAC 60.502(b)

Two things follow from that. Credit is for time spent on the work the license covers, not for time served. And it may be less than the whole of it. There is no published table mapping a rating or a specialty code to a number of Texas hours, and anybody who shows you one has made it up.

The fee waiver got much wider on 1 September 2025

This is the change most guidance has not caught up with, and the old version is still all over the internet.

Notwithstanding any other law, a state agency that issues a license shall waive the license application and examination fees paid to the state for an applicant who is a military service member, military veteran, or military spouse.

Tex. Occ. Code 55.009, as amended by HB 5629, effective 1 September 2025

That is the whole section now. No subsections, no five year window from discharge, and no requirement that your service substantially meet the license requirements. The previous version limited the waiver to people whose service substantially met all the requirements for the license or who held an equivalent out of state license, and HB 5629 struck both prongs. Status alone qualifies.

Any page describing a substantially meets the requirements test on the Texas fee waiver is describing repealed law.

Occupations Code 55.002 covers a different situation: it requires each agency to adopt rules exempting a licensee from any increased fee or penalty for renewing late where the licensee shows the delay was because they were serving as a military service member. 16 TAC 60.520(b) is TDLR's version, and it exempts a documented service member from the late renewal fee.

What to pull before you separate

TDLR's form is MIL001, the military service member, military veteran, or military spouse supplemental application, filed alongside the ordinary license application. For the military experience credit route it asks for three things.

The VMET, DD Form 2586, is the one to deal with first, because it is the document that speaks to duties rather than to status, and it is generated while you are still in.

16 TAC 60.510 also requires that the applicant pass a criminal history background check, and the amended version adds that the department may deny an application where there is a disqualifying criminal history.

One caution on the form itself. The copy TDLR serves still shows an October 2019 revision date and its fee section is organized around the pre HB 5629 rules. Fill it in, but take the fee position from 55.009 and 16 TAC 60.520 rather than from the form.

The two clocks that work in your favor

Occupations Code 55.003 gives a military service member holding a license two years of additional time to complete continuing education and any other renewal requirement.

Occupations Code 55.004 is a different route again, and it is not about military experience at all: it requires issuance to an applicant who holds a current license from another state that is similar in scope of practice and in good standing, or who held the Texas license within the preceding five years. Under 55.004(b-1) the agency must promptly issue a provisional license while it processes the application, expiring at the earlier of the decision or the one hundred and eightieth day.

Occupations Code 55.005 puts a deadline on the agency: not later than the tenth business day after a military service member, veteran or spouse files an application, it must process the application and issue the license to an applicant who qualifies under 55.004. A license issued that way may not be a provisional one and confers the same rights as any other.

Read 55.005 carefully before relying on it. The duty is tied to applicants who qualify under 55.004, which is the out of state or previously held Texas license route, rather than to the raw military experience route.

The GI Bill will pay for the test itself

This is the benefit that goes unclaimed most often, and it is aimed squarely at the one thing Texas will not waive.

VA covers licensing and certification tests and pays the test costs, up to $2,000 for each test. There is no limit on the number of tests you may take or on how many times you take the same one, as long as entitlement remains. The test has to be one VA has approved, and entitlement is charged in proportion to what was paid rather than in whole months. Reimbursement is claimed on VA Form 22-0803, and approved preparation courses use Form 22-10272.

Separately, the Post 9/11 GI Bill covers on-the-job training and apprenticeships, with a monthly housing allowance that steps down across the program: one hundred percent of the full rate for the first six months, then eighty, sixty, forty and twenty percent in six month bands, with up to $1,000 a year for books and supplies. Those rates are published as effective 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2027.

The Department of Labor makes the point that matters about how it stacks: the housing allowance and the books stipend come in addition to your registered apprenticeship wages, not instead of them. It also confirms that the United States Military Apprenticeship Program is itself registered with the Department of Labor, and names electrician among its trades.

None of that is a Texas benefit and none of it goes through TDLR. It is money aimed at the part of this that nobody can waive for you.

So the examination is the part that is actually yours

Once the hours are credited and the fees are waived, what is left is one open book paper that fewer than one in four people passed last year, and a calculations portion that fewer than one in five passed.

It is worth saying that the exam does not test whether you can do the work. Plenty of people who wire aircraft, ships and substations for a living fail it, because it tests finding a rule in a particular book under a clock, and then applying a method in a particular order. Both are learnable and neither is what you did in the field.

What this page cites

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Every rule here is cited to the section it comes from, and corrections are logged in public with the date. This is study material rather than electrical advice, and it does not replace your own code book or your inspector.