1.3 Licensure Qualifications, Education & Experience Pathways (G.S. 89C-13(b))

1.3 Licensure Qualifications, Education & Experience Pathways (G.S. 89C-13(b))

North Carolina licenses professional land surveyors on four ingredients: character, education, examination, and progressive practical experience. The statute is G.S. 89C-13(b); the Board fills in the definitions in 21 NCAC 56 .0601 through .0603. Because the state-specific exam draws 16 percent of its items from licensing-related statutes, the numbers in this section are directly testable — and the most common wrong answers are plausible-sounding year counts that appear nowhere in the statute.

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1. The Four Statutory Routes (G.S. 89C-13(b)(1a))

Every applicant, regardless of route, must (i) be of good character and reputation, (ii) submit five character references, three of whom are professional land surveyors or individuals acceptable to the Board with personal knowledge of the applicant's land surveying experience, (iii) comply with Chapter 89C, and (iv) satisfy one of the following education-plus-experience combinations. Note that subdivision (1) and sub-subdivision c. were repealed, so the surviving lettering runs a., b., d., d1.

        EDUCATION  ────────────────────────────────►  EXPERIENCE

        BS in Surveying ..................................  2 years
        AAS Surveying Technology .........................  5 years
        HS/HSE + Land Surveyor Apprenticeship ............  7 years
        HS/HSE alone .....................................  9 years

        Every route then requires: FS exam --> PS exam -->
        NC State-Specific Exam --> license issued.

[!IMPORTANT] The associate-degree route is five years, not four. "Four years" is the single most frequently miskeyed number in North Carolina surveying prep material, and it is wrong. Likewise, there is no statutory pathway keyed to "15 semester hours" or "18 semester hours" of surveying coursework bolted onto an unrelated degree — those thresholds do not appear in G.S. 89C-13 or in 21 NCAC 56 .0601.

Separately, G.S. 89C-13 provides for comity or endorsement: a person licensed elsewhere on comparable qualifications, of a standard not lower than North Carolina's at the time of issuance, may be licensed without further examination except as required to examine the applicant's knowledge of laws, rules, and requirements unique to North Carolina. That exception is precisely why the state-specific exam exists and why comity applicants still sit for it.

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2. What Counts as a Qualifying Degree (21 NCAC 56 .0601(a))

The Board, not the college registrar, decides whether a diploma satisfies the statute:

The appearance of surface drainage in the associate-degree definition is not an accident. It is the same competency the state-specific exam tests under the 16 percent Drainage weight, and it traces back to the incidental drainage exception in G.S. 89C-3(7).

The Land Surveyor Apprenticeship (21 NCAC 56 .0601(a)(3))

G.S. 89C-3(4a) defines the apprenticeship as supervised on-the-job learning combined with surveyor-related classroom instruction approved by the Board. The rule accepts any one of four ways to complete it:

1. NSPS Certified Survey Technician (CST) program, Levels I through IV.
2. ASPRS "Technologist" Certification Program.
3. The NCEES Surveying Education Standard, as modified by the Board to require 39 college semester hours: 12 hours of mathematics beyond basic mathematics (college algebra or higher, emphasizing concepts rather than computation) and 27 hours of surveying science and surveying practice taught by qualified surveying faculty.
4. An apprenticeship program administered through ApprenticeshipNC or an equivalent administrator approved by the Board as containing elements equivalent to the first three options.

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3. Progressive Practical Experience (21 NCAC 56 .0601(b))

The statute uses the phrase "progressive practical experience," and the Board defines it precisely. It means that over the period claimed, the applicant made practical use of the principles of geometry and trigonometry in determining the shape, boundaries, position, and extent of the earth's surface, and that a continuous improvement, growth, and development in that use is demonstrable — together with the continuous assumption of greater individual responsibility for the work product.

Three operational rules follow:

• The half rule. "Not less than half of the required land surveying experience shall be of a professional grade and character, and shall be performed under the responsible charge of a Professional Land Surveyor." Experience not under a PLS's responsible charge requires a written explanation, evaluated case by case.
• Unlicensed supervisors. Experience gained under the technical supervision of an unlicensed individual is weighed against that supervisor's own engineering education and experience credentials.
• Military experience. Service experience, typically in an engineering or surveying group, is accepted only if substantially equivalent to what would have been gained in civilian work.

The rule also singles out three categories the applicant must document in detail so the Board can judge their equivalency to land surveying: construction layout, engineering surveying, and part-time surveying work. Documenting these thinly is a common reason an application stalls.

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4. The Mandatory Boundary-Map Exhibit (21 NCAC 56 .0601(c))

North Carolina is one of the states that makes you prove competence with a real plat, not just a score report. Before being seated for the Principles and Practice of Surveying examination, the applicant must submit an actual plat of a boundary survey of an actual project, prepared under the direct supervision and responsible charge of a PLS who states that the applicant did the preparatory work.

• Physical requirement: a clean, clear, legible print of an original map in a PLS's file.
• Substantive requirement: the details evaluated are those applicable to that particular project as described in the Standards of Practice in Section .1600 and in G.S. 47-30.
• Attestation: the exhibit must state that the field work, calculation, and mapping were performed by the applicant under the supervision of a PLS, attested by that PLS.
• Comity applicants: may submit a representative map of an actual project performed in the state of licensure, modified to meet the same requirements and evaluated against Section .1600 and G.S. 47-30.

NCBELS publishes an example on its website and asks for a simple black-and-white 18" x 24" single-page plat. Where a submitted map needs revision, the Board asks the applicant to cloud, describe, and date the revisions.

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5. References, Fees, Interviews & Re-Examination

References (G.S. 89C-13(b)(1a)(ii); 21 NCAC 56 .0602(e))

Reference forms go from the Board to the applicant, from the applicant to the references, and from the references back to the Board — the applicant is responsible for making sure they arrive before the filing deadline. Where a supplemental application is filed, five references current to within one year of the examination date are required.

Fees (21 NCAC 56 .0602(f))

• Land Surveyor Intern certification application: $100
• Professional Land Surveyor application: $100 plus the examination fee
• Comity licensure: $100 plus the appropriate examination fee
• NCEES examination fees are paid directly to NCEES under G.S. 89C-14

A comity application may be administratively approved by the Executive Director — without waiting for the next Board meeting — on evidence of current licensure elsewhere based on comparable qualifications, the required references, having passed the two-hour North Carolina portion of the exam, and no record of disciplinary action.

Re-Examination on the State-Specific Exam (21 NCAC 56 .0603(b))

• Filing deadline: the completed application, with all references, transcripts, and verifications, must reach the Board office at least 60 days before the exam date.
• Unexcused absence: failing to appear after a seating notice issues forfeits the examination fee unless the absence was for jury duty or documented physical inability.
• Retake: after a six-month waiting period, by written request with the required fee.
• Three failures: a combined record of three failures requires a new application with the application fee, and the Board considers the candidate for re-examination at the end of 12 months after the last failure.
• Review of a failed exam: a candidate may request, in writing within 30 days, to review the two-hour state-specific portion. The review happens in the Board office under staff supervision and is limited to one hour.

[!NOTE] The Board's public reexamination page describes a somewhat more permissive practice — reapplying at the next regularly scheduled examination period, with a demonstration of remedial study after three or more failures. Where the page and the codified rule differ, cite the rule, 21 NCAC 56 .0603(b)(3), on the exam.

Finally, 21 NCAC 56 .0602(h) permits a personal interview by Board members at any point in the application process if they have questions about education, experience, or character, and G.S. 89C-13(b) expressly authorizes review of the applicant's qualifications at an interview.