The NCEES Model Law is a template that the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying publishes for state licensing boards to use when they write or revise their own statutes governing professional engineers and surveyors. It sets baseline standards for education, examinations, experience, firm authorization, professional conduct, discipline, and continuing competency. States are free to adopt provisions verbatim, modify them, or ignore them, but the shared framework keeps requirements roughly consistent across jurisdictions, which matters most for anyone whose work crosses state lines.
Becoming a Licensed Professional Engineer
Section 130.10 B of the Model Law lays out the Professional Engineer (PE) path in four stages: education, a first exam, supervised experience, and a second exam.
Step one is a bachelor’s degree in engineering from a program accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, known as an EAC/ABET program.1National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Law With that degree, a candidate sits for the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, a six-hour, 110-question test with a $225 fee paid directly to NCEES.2National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. FE Exam Passing the FE earns the Engineer Intern designation and starts the clock on the supervised experience period.
The Model Law then requires at least four years of progressive engineering experience after the qualifying degree is conferred.1National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Law That experience should ideally be gained under a licensed PE, but the Model Rules allow experience under an unlicensed supervisor if the applicant explains why the experience qualifies and submits the supervisor’s credentials to the board.3National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Rules That flexibility matters in fields like manufacturing and software where many senior engineers never obtained a license.
The final step is the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam, which tests specialized knowledge in the applicant’s discipline. The NCEES fee is $400, with a higher fee for the PE Structural exam.4National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Examinee Guide State boards charge their own application and licensing fees on top of the NCEES exam fees. The Model Law deliberately leaves fee amounts to each board.1National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Law
Becoming a Licensed Professional Surveyor
Section 130.10 C covers the Professional Surveyor (PS) path. The structure mirrors engineering, but the education piece accepts a wider range of credentials. Qualifying degrees include bachelor’s programs in surveying, surveying engineering, mapping, geodesy, or geomatics accredited by EAC/ABET, ETAC/ABET, or ANSAC/ABET. A candidate can also qualify with a bachelor’s degree that includes at least 30 semester hours of core surveying coursework, or with an unaccredited degree supplemented by evidence that it meets the NCEES Surveying Education Standard.1National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Law
Candidates must pass both the Fundamentals of Surveying (FS) exam, which carries a $225 NCEES fee, and the Principles and Practice of Surveying (PS) exam.5National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. FS Exam Four years of progressive surveying experience are also required, focused on activities such as boundary determination, topographic mapping, and the interpretation of land records.
Who Is Exempt from Licensure
Not everyone who touches engineering or surveying work needs a license. Section 170.20 carves out exemptions that come up often in practice.
The most commonly invoked exemption covers employees and subordinates working under a licensed professional. An unlicensed person can perform engineering or surveying tasks as long as the work doesn’t include final designs or decisions and a licensee maintains responsible charge and verifies the output.1National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Law This is how engineering firms can staff junior engineers, drafters, and technicians who haven’t yet passed their exams.
Practitioners of other legally recognized professions are also exempt for work that falls within their own profession’s scope. And at the firm level, a business performing engineering or surveying solely for itself or for a parent or subsidiary company does not need a certificate of authorization.1National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Law That provision is why large manufacturers and utilities can employ in-house engineering staff without a firm permit.
Firm Authorization and the Managing Agent
Any firm that offers engineering or surveying services to the public must hold a certificate of authorization from the state board under Section 160.10. The requirement applies to corporations, partnerships, LLCs, and every other business structure.1National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Law The certificate connects the business entity to the regulatory board so oversight reaches beyond individual licensees.
Every authorized firm must designate a licensed professional as its managing agent under Section 160.20. The managing agent is personally responsible for the firm’s engineering or surveying work in that jurisdiction, renews the firm’s certificate, supervises licensed and unlicensed staff, and ensures the firm follows the rules of professional conduct.1National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Law
The role carries real restrictions. A licensee cannot serve as managing agent for more than one firm. Someone who only provides occasional, part-time, or consulting services to a firm cannot be designated unless that person is also an officer or owner.1National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Law The intent is to prevent firms from naming a token licensee while operating without genuine professional oversight.
The Model Law does not require any specific percentage of a firm’s owners or officers to be licensed. The managing agent requirement is the mechanism that supplies accountability instead. A firm can be entirely owned by non-engineers so long as a qualifying managing agent is in place. Practicing without a certificate of authorization carries steep consequences: the board can fine an unauthorized firm for each day of violation, and each day counts as a separate offense.1National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Law The specific fine amount is left blank for each state to fill in.
Sealing Documents
The seal is where individual accountability becomes tangible. Model Rules Section 240.20 requires a licensee’s seal, signature, and signing date on all final engineering or surveying documents presented to a client or public agency, including specifications, reports, drawings, plans, calculations, plats, and design information.3National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Rules The seal certifies that the licensee either performed the work directly or maintained responsible charge over its preparation.
A licensee can only seal work within their areas of competence. That limit gets overlooked under deadline pressure and is a common ground for discipline. On a multi-sheet document, the title page is sealed by the licensee in responsible charge, and each sheet is sealed by the licensee responsible for its content. When multiple licensees contribute to one document, a note under each seal must specify the subject matter that person was responsible for.3National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Rules
Drafts and working drawings don’t need a seal as long as they prominently display the words “PRELIMINARY, NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION, RECORDING PURPOSES, OR IMPLEMENTATION” in large bold letters.3National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Rules Without that language, even an informal sketch shared with a client could be treated as a final document that should have been sealed.
For electronic submissions, the Model Rules allow three sealing methods: a physical seal with a handwritten ink signature, a digitally placed seal with a handwritten ink signature, or a digitally placed seal with a digital signature. A qualifying digital signature must be unique to the signer, verifiable, under the signer’s sole control, and linked to the document so that any alteration invalidates the signature.3National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Rules NCEES recommends against self-signed certificates and favors digital IDs issued by third-party certification authorities.
Rules of Professional Conduct
Section 240.15 of the Model Rules binds every licensee and every authorized firm to a code of professional conduct built around three sets of obligations: duties to the public, duties to employers and clients, and duties to other professionals.
The overriding obligation is that the health, safety, and welfare of the public come first. When a client or employer overrides a licensee’s professional judgment in a way that endangers the public, the licensee must notify the employer or client and any other appropriate authority.6National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Rules Professional documents, public statements, and testimony must be objective and truthful and grounded in adequate knowledge of the facts. Licensees also have an affirmative duty to report any person or firm they believe is violating engineering or surveying laws.
Licensees can only accept assignments they’re qualified for by education or experience. They cannot seal plans dealing with subject matter outside their competence and cannot seal work that wasn’t prepared under their responsible charge.6National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Rules Conflicts of interest must be disclosed. Licensees cannot accept compensation from more than one party on the same project without full disclosure to all parties, and they must avoid situations where financial or personal interests could compromise their professional judgment.
Grounds for Discipline and Available Sanctions
Section 150.10 gives boards broad authority to discipline licensees and interns. The grounds range from fraud in obtaining a license to practicing outside one’s areas of competence to habitual intoxication. A conviction of any felony or any crime involving dishonesty is also grounds for discipline, whether or not the crime was related to professional practice.1National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Model Law
Available sanctions include suspension, revocation, probation, fines, cost recovery, and public reprimand. A board can also refuse to issue, restore, or renew a license. Beyond those standard penalties, the NCEES Investigation and Enforcement Guidelines describe nontraditional remedies boards can use for rehabilitation:7National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Investigation and Enforcement Guidelines
- Peer review of the disciplined licensee’s work for a set period.
- Required college-level courses in the area of the violation, or a board-approved ethics course.
- Practice restrictions limiting the licensee to areas where competence hasn’t been questioned.
- Required retaking of the licensing exams.
- Required presentation of the licensee’s case at a professional meeting or ethics seminar as a teaching example.
These options let boards address incompetence or negligence without automatically ending a career, while still protecting the public. The most serious cases still result in revocation and a prohibition on reinstatement for a specified number of years.
Continuing Professional Competency
Passing the exams isn’t the end of the obligation. The NCEES Continuing Professional Competency (CPC) Standard requires every licensee to earn 15 professional development hours (PDHs) per calendar year, at least one of which must come from a course on engineering or surveying ethics.8National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Continuing Professional Competency Guidelines
Under the NCEES standard, unused PDHs don’t carry over. Individual jurisdictions may choose to allow carryover, and where they do, the cap is 15 PDHs regardless of whether the renewal period runs one year or two.9National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Continuing Professional Competency Guidelines Failing to complete CPC requirements is grounds for the board to refuse renewal, so letting these hours lapse puts your ability to practice at risk.
Practicing in More Than One State
Engineers and surveyors who work across state lines rely on comity, obtaining a license in a new jurisdiction based on credentials established elsewhere. The NCEES Records Program is the primary tool for streamlining the process. Setting up a Record is free, but NCEES charges a fee each time you transmit it to a state board.10National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. NCEES Records Program
When NCEES reviews a Record application, staff automatically check whether the credentials meet Model Law requirements. If they do, the applicant receives the Model Law Engineer (MLE) or Model Law Surveyor (MLS) designation. MLE status requires a bachelor’s degree from an EAC/ABET-accredited engineering program, four years of acceptable experience, passing scores on both the FE and PE exams, no felony convictions, and a clean disciplinary record.11NCEES Knowledge Base. Model Law Designation FAQs MLS mirrors it: an ABET-accredited surveying degree, four years of experience, passing scores on the FS and PS exams, and a clean record.
Holding MLE or MLS doesn’t guarantee automatic licensure in another state, but it signals to receiving boards that the applicant’s qualifications meet the NCEES baseline. Many boards expedite applications from MLE or MLS holders, which can cut weeks or months off the comity process.11NCEES Knowledge Base. Model Law Designation FAQs For professionals who regularly pick up new state licenses, that time savings adds up.