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MJohnson

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Here's my situation:

After graduating with a 2-year civil degree, I went to work as a Civil Designer. I did grading plans, site/subdivision layout, roadway design, hydrology, utility design, erosion control plans, etc. I did this full time for a little over 5.5 years (approx. 67 months). I then quit my job and went back to school to get my B.S. in Engineering. After teaching high school for a few years to fulfill a scholarship obligation, I have been working as a Civil Engineer for about 20 months. I passed the FE exam in Georgia in April 2019.

I took, and passed, the PE exam in Alabama this past October. At the time, I was confident that I had satisfied all PE licensure requirements outlined in the State Code. However, I have since received a letter that my application must be reviewed by the Alabama Board, and I am afraid that they will not give me full credit for my qualifying experience prior to graduation. This leads me to my question: does anyone know of any state(s) that will accept PE exam results from another state for initial licensure?

 
Are you considering moving? Or are you trying to find a state to accept your experience for initial licensure and then plan to apply to Alabama via comity?
Ultimately you have to be licensed in the state where you practice. So if you're working in Alabama, you have to have an Alabama license. I have no idea what the Alabama rules are, but if they don't accept your Civil Designer work experience, then they probably won't accept your comity application either. States don't just automatically accept comity applications because another state licensed you, they review everything against their specific requirements. They can reject your comity application even if you're already licensed by another state. If you're going to be working in Alabama, I'd recommending waiting for Alabama to review your application and then going from there. 

To answer the specific question about states accepting the PE Exam from another state. The PE Exam is exactly the same everywhere. It's administered by NCEES, and every state accepts it. But some states require you to take it AFTER getting the required experience (referred to as "coupled" because taking the exam is connected to gaining the experience first), and some allow you to take it BEFORE (referred to as "decoupled" because taking the exam is not connected to gaining the required experience). Every decoupled state will accept your PE exam results. For coupled states, it may vary based on whether they accept your Civil Designer, experience.

 
I currently work in Georgia and plan to stay here. In GA you apply for PE license, then, once accepted, you register for and take the exam. The only reason I didn't take the test in Georgia is because I didn't receive my FE exam results in time to apply to take the exam in Georgia. 

My plan was to get initially licensed in AL then apply for comity in GA.

 
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