How to Complete TDLR Journeyman Electrician Hours Verification

To complete TDLR journeyman electrician hours verification, you document all 8,000 hours of on-the-job training on TDLR’s Experience Verification Form (Form ELC017), have each licensed supervisor who oversaw your work sign it, and submit the completed forms with your journeyman license application. One form per supervisor, every field filled in, every signature original. Miss a date, skip a signature, or lose track of a former boss, and your application stalls.

The 8,000 Hours You Have to Document

Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1305 requires 8,000 hours of on-the-job electrical training before you can sit for the journeyman exam. Those hours can come from residential, commercial, or industrial work, as long as a licensed master electrician, journeyman electrician, or residential wireman had general supervision over the job.¹

You also need a valid Texas electrical apprentice license during the entire period you’re accumulating hours. Anyone performing electrical work in Texas has to be licensed, and the apprentice license is what makes your work count.¹ Apprentice licenses last one year and cost $20 to renew. Let yours lapse, and the hours you worked during the gap may not qualify.

What Goes on the ELC017 Form

The Experience Verification Form is filled out mostly by your supervising electrician, not by you. TDLR needs the supervisor’s full name, license type, license number, effective and expiration dates, and the state or municipality that issued the license.² The supervisor’s license has to have been active during the period they’re vouching for.

The rest of the form covers:

The exact start and end dates the supervisor oversaw your work
Total hours you worked during that period
A description of the electrical work performed, broken down by type (residential, commercial, industrial), including installing, maintaining, or extending wiring systems
The company name and contact information
The supervisor’s signature and date

TDLR may request a copy of or verification letter for the supervisor’s license.² If you worked for three different contractors, you need three separate ELC017 forms. One supervisor cannot sign for hours another supervisor oversaw.

If a Former Supervisor Won’t Respond

Under 16 TAC § 73.26, when you or TDLR asks a supervisor to verify your hours, that supervisor has 30 calendar days to provide the verification. Refusing or ignoring the request is a Class C violation, carrying a fine between $2,000 and $5,000 and possible license suspension.³⁴ Mention the rule when you ask. It usually moves things along.

When the Supervisor Cannot Sign at All

Retirement, death, a closed company, an out-of-state move: any of these can leave you without a signature you legitimately earned. TDLR reviews alternative evidence case by case, and the regulation does not spell out a fixed list of substitute documents.

Applicants in this position commonly submit W-2s showing employment with electrical contractors, Social Security earnings statements tying them to specific employers in specific years, and notarized statements from other licensed electricians who worked alongside them. The goal is to establish the employer’s name, the dates you worked there, and enough context for TDLR to conclude the work was qualifying electrical work. The more supporting documents you provide, the better the odds. Expect a longer review than a standard signed form gets, because a human has to weigh each piece of evidence.

If you’re still early in your career, keep pay stubs, W-2s, and employment records. You may need them years from now.

Submitting the Forms

Once your ELC017s are signed and complete, submit them with your journeyman electrician license application. The application fee is $30 and is non-refundable.⁵ You can upload documents through TDLR’s online portal when filing a new application. If you’ve already applied and need to add paperwork, mail it to TDLR at P.O. Box 12157, Austin, TX 78711.

TDLR doesn’t publish a guaranteed processing time for experience verification, though the agency notes that criminal history checks alone can take one to six weeks.¹ If reviewers spot a problem — mismatched dates, a missing signature, hours that don’t add up — you’ll get a formal request for more information. Respond fast. Sitting on a correction request is one of the most common reasons applications get closed.

Falsifying the Form

Putting false information on an application or ELC017 is a Class D violation under TDLR rules, the most severe administrative category. The penalty runs up to $5,000 and can include license revocation.⁴ It applies to both the applicant and the supervisor who signs. The relevant rules are 16 TAC § 73.22(c) and 16 TAC § 60.23(a)(1). TDLR cross-references what you submit, so inflating hours or inventing a work period is not a safe shortcut.

Shortcuts: Military Credit and Reciprocity

Two situations let you skip part of the verification process.

Military Service

Texas law requires TDLR to credit verified military service, training, and education toward journeyman licensing requirements, except for the exam itself.⁶ If your Military Occupational Specialty involved electrical work, that time can count toward the 8,000 hours. TDLR uses MOS designations and the American Council on Education’s Military Guide to evaluate military experience against civilian standards.⁷ Veterans who already hold a current electrician license from another state get expedited issuance of a temporary or reciprocal license when the other state’s requirements are substantially equivalent to Texas standards.

Reciprocity

Texas has journeyman electrician reciprocity with Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming.⁸ If you hold a current journeyman license from one of those states and meet the additional conditions TDLR sets, you don’t have to reproduce ELC017s covering years of past work.

1
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Apply for a New Electrical Apprentice License
2
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Electrician Experience Verification Form
3
Legal Information Institute. 16 Texas Admin Code 73.26 – Documentation of Required On-The-Job Training
4
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Electrical Safety Penalties and Sanctions
5
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Journeyman Electrician License Application
6
State of Texas. Texas Occupations Code 1305.1645 – License Eligibility Requirements for Applicants With Military Experience
7
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Lessons Learned: A Primer for Developing Military Service Credit for Occupational Licensing
8
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Transfer Your Out-of-State Electrician License to Texas