Plumbing Contractor License in New Mexico: Requirements, Qualifier, Bond and Exams

Statewide.

New Mexico licenses mechanical and plumbing contractors statewide through the Construction Industries Division (CID) of the state Regulation and Licensing Department.

CID licenses the business: contractor licenses are issued only to business entities that employ or are owned by a CID-certified qualifying party for the classification of contracting the licensee intends to engage in.

The individual journeyman certificates your crews hold are a separate, parallel track — our New Mexico plumbing license for individuals page covers that ladder in detail.

CID issues mechanical and plumbing contractor licenses by classification, and the plumbing contractor class is MM-1 (Plumbing): four years' experience, covering plumbing including hot-water heating up to 30 psi and 400,000 BTU/h — but not natural gas piping or gas appliances.

Natural gas piping, warm-air heating and gas appliances are MM-2 (Natural gas fitting), which may not install LP gas systems; ask CID how LP gas work is licensed.

Two specialty classes cover narrower plumbing work: MS-3 (Septic tanks & sewer) and MS-6 (Lawn sprinklers, which includes backflow devices), each requiring two years' experience.

MM-98 (Mechanical) is the broad mechanical license, combining MM-1 through MM-4 plus MS-3, MS-6, MS-12 and MS-14, and MM-4 covers hydronic, steam, chilled water and process piping, boilers and chillers.

The qualifier is a qualifying party certified by CID for the classification — the license is issued only to a business that employs or is owned by one.

A qualifying-party applicant must document four years of work experience within the 10 years before applying before CID allows them to test, and accredited training counts at half credit toward at most half of that requirement.

One qualifying party may qualify only one licensed entity, other than a joint venture, unless the entities share at least 30% common ownership.

Staffing under the license follows the journeyman certificates: a JP journeyman plumber can work under an MM-1, MS-3, MS-6 or MM-98 license; natural gas piping needs a JG or JPG journeyman — a JG may work under an MM-2 or MM-98 license; medical gas work takes a JMG journeyman medical gas installer certificate, which requires an existing JP, JG, JPG or JPF plus approved medical gas certification under 14.9.5 NMAC; and CID caps unregistered apprentices at one journeyman to two on commercial or industrial work and one to three on residential.

Our guide to the contractor license qualifier explains the qualifier's role where a state license requires one.

Both.

A qualifying-party candidate for MM-1 passes the PSI MM-1 trade exam — 100 questions, 250 minutes, 75% to pass — and must also either pass the PSI Business and Law exam or take an approved Business and Law course, with both completed within one year.

The Business and Law exam runs 50 questions in 130 minutes, is open book, requires 75% to pass, and is based on the NASCLA Contractors Guide to Business, Law and Project Management (14th edition).

PSI fees, per its bulletin updated April 3, 2026, are $68.88 for the Business and Law exam and $68.88 for each of the MM-1, MM-2, MM-3 and MM-4 trade exams.

One trap for out-of-state candidates: the CID bureau chief may waive the state trade exam for a qualifying party who passed a NASCLA-accredited general construction, electrical or electrical journeyman exam — a waiver that does not cover mechanical or plumbing classes.

The bond is fixed: every New Mexico contractor posts a $10,000 surety bond, underwritten by a corporate surety authorized to transact business in New Mexico, at licensure and again at each renewal.

Insurance is a gap in what we could confirm: our research found no insurance minimums in 14.6.3 NMAC, the rule chapter that sets the bond and the qualifying-party rules, so ask CID directly what coverage, if any, a plumbing contractor must carry before you bind a policy.

Our guide to contractor license bonds and insurance explains how surety bonds work where a state requires one.

CID charges a $30 application fee.

The license fee for a class like MM-1 is $50 per year, or $100 for two years; MM-98 runs $100 per year, or $200 for two years.

The rules we read price the fees per year or per two years but do not state the license term itself, so confirm the renewal cycle with CID before you budget.

Exam fees are separate and paid to PSI — $68.88 per exam — and the $10,000 bond is a separate cost, posted again at each renewal.

Our research found no general reciprocity rule for New Mexico journeyman certificates in the CID rules we read; what those rules do provide is expedited certification for military service members, spouses, dependents and veterans who are licensed or certified and in good standing in another jurisdiction.

For contractor licenses we did not confirm a reciprocity agreement with any state, so treat out-of-state credit as a question for CID rather than an assumption.

If you hold a plumbing contractor license in another state, plan to meet New Mexico's own experience and exam requirements, and ask CID how your out-of-state license and exams translate before you bid work.

Two clocks start.

First, notice: when a licensee loses its qualifying party, both the licensee and the qualifying party must notify CID in writing of the separation within 30 days.

Second, the license itself: a license that is no longer qualified is automatically cancelled — no new bids or new work — and work in progress at the time of cancellation may continue for not more than 120 days before permits are cancelled.

The replacement's certificate has its own clock: a new qualifying-party certificate that does not qualify a valid license within 12 months of the exam score being reported to CID — or that sits unqualified for any consecutive two-year period — automatically expires.

Start the replacement search as soon as a departure looks likely, and confirm the re-qualification process with CID.

Our research could not verify one.

The monetary job threshold / handyman exemption under NMSA 60-13-3 was not found in the material our research read, so we cannot tell you a dollar figure below which licensing stops applying — do not assume small jobs are exempt.

Ask CID whether any minor-work exemption exists before you contract a job without the license.

One item we flagged while reading the current sources: CID held an April 2026 hearing on amendments to the mechanical classification rules (14.6.6 NMAC) and the journeyman-certificate rules (14.6.4 NMAC) — the chapters this page quotes class scopes and staffing rules from.

Re-check the current rule text — including the parts this page quotes — with CID before you rely on a detail.