I responded to your specific post in the other thread. So I'll answer the broader issue here.
So my co-worker who doesn't have 4 years work experience was looking to sign up for the CBT PE exam and was planning to take it in a decoupled state (I am in Colorado which is not decoupled). They were able to register for the exam under the Nevada board but chose a testing site in Colorado. This seems crazy to me! Is this a loop-hole that will allow testers in any state to take the exam under the board of a de-coupled state? Has anyone heard of anything like this?
This is the first time I've heard of someone doing this. But it also doesn't surprise me that it ultimately moved in this direction. It's definitely a loop hole. I certainly don't think it's intentional on the part of any State board. OTOH it's questionable if (m)any of the applicable boards will be in a rush to close the loophole either.
Interesting. I guess my question is, why do they need to first be licensed in Nevada? Can't they simply wait until they have the appropriate experience and apply through the NCEES record?
https://engineerboards.com/threads/...-be-in-same-state-as-exam.37733/#post-7760640
It looks like it will work in Colorado and possibly all of the other States found in that post. There may be a quite a few other States where that scheme could work.
With your response in this thread (and the similarity of rules in all states), the few de-coupled states essentially makes all of the states on this list de-coupled with minimal effort.
On that list, yeah that seems to be the case.
I can't imagine many states will hold up the experience requirements to take the exam if this is truly the case.
It might appear that way at a high level, but the laws and regs are actually pretty different when looking at the details.
For instance, Pennsylvania, which has some of the most strict
laws wrt experience, testing, and licensure in the country. In Pennsylvania, an applicant must have four* years of progressive professional experience as an EIT before they can take the PE exam. If they lack the experience requirement when they pass the exam then the pass does not count for PA. There are no exemptions for comity applicants. The PA Board has forced applicants to retest and pass the exam again to get licensure. Happens all time! And the board can't even waive the requirement because it's a law. If it were a regulation then the board could waive it. The rest of the Commonwealth law is written quite strict too. A PE-candidate who wants to keep their options open to work anywhere in the US or it's territories in the future would be wise to look at PA's laws and making sure they satisfy them before taking the exam to ensure that they can transfer their license anywhere without having to retake the exam or jump through extra hoops.
*grad degrees may reduce this time by up to 2 years.
I know several other States have similarly strict laws/regs. Ohio comes immediately to mind.
There are also a few State boards that are virulently anti-decoupling. If their regs accidently allow for such a loophole now then they'll close the loophole quickly. Probably in the next couple years. If any of the anti-decoupling boards are on that list then they'll move to close the loophole with their own regs, and/or force NCEES to screen the applications before forwarding them to the Boards.
