Refrigeration and air conditioning technician licence in Puerto Rico

Practising without a licence carries a fine

Act No. 36 of 20 May 1970, as amended, created both the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technicians Examining Board and the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technicians Association of Puerto Rico.

And it set out something worth knowing before you take a job: anyone practising the trade in Puerto Rico without a Board licence and without association membership, or anyone advertising as a technician without being one, commits a misdemeanour, with a fine of five hundred to a thousand dollars. On later convictions the fine runs from one thousand to five thousand.

So this is not only about earning more. Side work in this trade carries legal consequences, and whoever hires you without a licence is putting you in the middle of it.

The law also requires the licensed technician to certify and seal the work they perform.

What the law requires

The requirements article is short and worth reading in full: file the application with the Board, be at least eighteen, have passed the fourth year of high school, pass a refrigeration and air conditioning technician course of more than eight hundred hours at a vocational school, a technological institute of the education system or any other institution accredited by the Department of Education, pass the Board's exam, pay the fees and be of good conduct.

The law also requires being a United States citizen and having lived in Puerto Rico for one year. Here is a point to state carefully: the portal's document list contemplates non-citizens and asks for a copy of the permanent resident card or work permit with its expiry date. If you are not a citizen, ask the Board before paying, because the text of the law and the portal's practice do not say exactly the same thing.

Exam and licence fees are set by law and paid with an internal revenue voucher from the Treasury Department. The amounts have changed by amendment, so confirm the current one on the portal before buying the voucher.

The 200-hour route almost nobody knows

If you do not have the eight hundred hours, the law gives you a way out and it is written in the same article.

The education requirement can be substituted by anyone who evidences two hundred hours of vocational training given by the Apprenticeship Division of the Right to Work Administration through institutions accredited by the Department of Education, who has been issued one or more one-year apprenticeship licences, and who holds one or more training or seminar certificates from the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technicians Association.

Two hundred hours plus the apprentice licence plus the Association's seminars, instead of eight hundred hours of academy. For someone already working in the field who cannot stop to study for a year, that is the door.

The law also provides for its own apprentice licence, which is the rung to start on.

The two EPA licences: 608 Universal and 609

This is where most people get shut out of the exam, and it has nothing to do with Puerto Rico law but with federal refrigerant regulation.

To be eligible for the board exam you need both: the EPA 608 Universal certification and the EPA 609 certification.

Two concrete warnings. The 608 must be Universal: Type I, Type II or Type III on their own are not accepted. And the 609 is not replaced by the 608 Universal, they are different things and you need both.

If you are considering this trade, get those two certifications early. They are the ones you can work on while you finish the course.

The exam and the two clocks that start afterwards

The Board offers at least two exams a year. The content must track the vocational area's curricular requirements and the industry's development, and the Association and the Environmental Quality Board take part in preparing it.

When you pass, two clocks start, and missing either one sends you back to the exam.

The first: from the day results are notified you have ninety days to complete the online licence application and upload every document to the PCS portal. Miss it and you retake the exam.

The second: once the Board approves and issues your licence number, you have sixty days to join the Association. If you do not, the issued licence is revoked and you retake the exam as well. PCS does not send the certificate until it receives evidence of membership.

The documents, and why they must be in colour

The list is long and several items expire, so the order matters. Everything is scanned as a PDF and in colour.

A recent 2x2 photo, less than six months old, in colour on a solid background that is not white, no glasses and no cap. Fourth-year diploma or a transcript evidencing it. Diploma and transcript of the refrigeration course with the minimum eight hundred credit hours. Study certification on the form the portal provides. A copy of your exam results.

Negative ASUME certification, valid ninety days, or evidence of a current payment plan. Negative criminal record certificate, valid only thirty days. Health certificate. Recent birth certificate, less than two years old, or a valid passport. Affidavit sworn before a notary, on the portal's form, which is the only one accepted. Proof of physical address, which can be a water, power or phone bill less than three months old, or your driver's licence.

And the two EPA ones: the 608 Universal and the 609.

The thirty-day criminal record certificate is the one to pull last, once everything else is uploaded.

Renewing every four years

The licence is renewed every four years, and renewal is filed thirty days before the expiry date.

To renew you must evidence three things: that you are a member in good standing, that your membership dues are current, and that your licence has not been suspended, cancelled or revoked by the Board.

Membership is not optional in this trade and cannot be allowed to lapse: the law itself says that all technicians duly licensed by the Board are members of the Association. The law also created a fund for the continuing education programme, so count on that training as a normal part of the profession.