NY PE application experience rejected. Looking for another state to apply for initial licensure via NCEES
My PE application experience was rejected twice by NY. On the rewrite, I was granted one more year of direct design experience but was told I still needed one more year. I made further revisions to my NCEES experience and now going to apply to a different state for initial licensure.
- Looking for states with faster turnaround times and more accepting of CM/design-adjacent experience when submitted through NCEES. Anyone have recent experience with a state that matches this? For example, I've read DE and NC are pretty efficient, whereas NJ can take 6+ months.
- Has anyone had success applying to NY by comity when previously rejected? Was it because you added more design experience or do you think applying after getting the initial license elsewhere made it easier?
TL;DR: NY rejected my initial PE license application since my work experience isn't in design, though I framed it as best as I could. I now have five years of work experience. Looking for states with faster NCEES-based turnaround times and more accepting of CM/design-adjacent experience.
Background:
Passed the PE Civil Construction exam in April 2025 under NJ board (no-approval needed to sit for exam) and hit 4 years of experience in Jul 2025.
Applied to NY for initial licensure via NCEES in Oct 2025. NY asked me to change endorsers, had to undergo another NCEES review, retransmitted the application, and then NY later requested rewritten experience showing 2 years of direct design experience. Rewrote experience on NY Forms 4/4A and resubmitted in Feb. Was credited with 1 more year of direct design experience but was told I still needed 1 more year. I contacted the board to find out which work was deemed sufficient so I could expand on that, and their response was essentially that construction inspection doesn't count, and my design experience was limited since the actual design was done by others. About half of my experience was field work and I did not get the sense that reframing the same experience again would get me over the hump.
I was aware of potential pushback since I'm not doing pure design work. I work as the CM/Owner’s rep on large infrastructure projects (Office Engineer/Construction Inspector) and our role is not the EOR. I was thorough in citing codes and calculations throughout my experience in the field and showed progressive office engineering analysis for high level work using "analyzed", “calculated”, “evaluated”, etc. I included “design” as often as I could, but I was limited in saying something like “I designed X by calculating Y in accordance with code Z”.
I've spent 9+ months in review/revision cycles and now pivoting to get my initial license in a different state. I’d like to have the PE title to my name and make obtaining a NY license easier in the near future. Was planning on waiting until I got my PE in NY to move into a new role to maximize marketability, but the Catch-22 is that I need a new position to get the design experience, so I’m trying to find something internally temporarily, and then will go from there.