Applying for licences through TIS Connect

In provinces with a contractor exam, the application leads to a seat in an exam room. In New Brunswick it leads directly to a decision on the licence. That makes the application itself the test of whether you are ready: it must show, with documents, that every condition in the regulation is met. This lesson walks through applications for the electrician's licence, the identification card and the electrical contractor licence, using TIS Connect, the online portal that Technical Inspection Services uses for new professional licences and other services.

TIS Connect and Service New Brunswick

TIS Connect is the online portal of Technical Inspection Services. The province directs applicants to it for new electrician licences, new electrical contractor licences and new sign installer licences, among other services such as power engineering and gas exams. The portal's own pages show the fees for the main electrical licences: fifty dollars for an individual electrician's licence and four hundred dollars for an electrical contractor licence, matching the amounts in section 23 of Regulation 84-165.

Renewals follow a different path. The province's licence pages direct holders to renew technical licences online through Service New Brunswick, the provincial service agency, and list separate renewal links for electricians and electrical contractors. Because all of these licences expire one year after issue or renewal, renewal is a yearly task. Lesson 11 covers renewal in detail; for now, note that the first application and the later renewals use different front doors.

If anything in the portal is unclear, Technical Inspection Services can be reached by telephone during business hours. The province publishes a toll-free number for TIS on its licence pages. Calling before you apply is often quicker than correcting an application afterward, especially for unusual situations such as a business with several owners or an electrician whose experience was gained outside the province.

Applying for an electrician's licence

The electrician's licence application is the simplest. The applicant creates an account in TIS Connect, completes the application for a new electrician's licence, provides proof of the New Brunswick certificate of qualification and pays the fee. Because the licence rests entirely on the certificate, the key document is a clear copy of it, or its number so that TIS can confirm it with Skilled Trades NB. Apprentices who have just passed the certification exam should wait until the certificate is issued before applying; the exam result alone is not the certificate.

Logan, two years from finishing his apprenticeship, already knows the sequence he will follow: write and pass the exam, receive the certificate from Skilled Trades NB, then apply for the Class 3 licence in TIS Connect. Until the licence is issued he remains an apprentice and works under supervision, even on the day after he passes.

Applying for an identification card

A construction electrician certified in another province applies for a construction electrician identification card. The province lists the fee as fifty dollars. Regulation 84-165 limits these cards to a period of up to six months, which makes them a bridge rather than a permanent arrangement. During that time the holder should pursue recognition of their certificate in New Brunswick so that they can apply for the Class 3 licence before the card runs out.

Owen applies for a card in his first week at Tantramar, with a copy of his Nova Scotia certificate and its Red Seal endorsement. At the same time he contacts Skilled Trades NB about recognition. Nicole adds both applications to the company's tracking sheet, with the date the card was issued and the date it will expire, so that nobody discovers in month six that Owen can no longer work.

Applying for an electrical contractor licence

The contractor licence application has more parts because it must show both the business and the qualified person. For a sole proprietor applying on their own qualifications, the core documents are the applicant's Class 3 licence and evidence of the date they qualified. For a business, the application must also identify the business, name the employee whose qualifications it relies on and include the written certification that the business employs that person. The fee is four hundred dollars, and the licence, like the others, expires a year after it is issued.

Although the regulation's eligibility rule is short, practical questions come up. Who in the business signs the certification? What happens if the qualified person works part-time? What records of experience will TIS accept? The regulation does not answer these in detail, so the safe course is to ask TIS before applying and to keep a record of the answer. Nicole keeps a notes file with the date, the name of the person she spoke to and what she was told, so that the company can refer back to it if the same question arises at renewal.

When the qualified person changes

A business licence rests on a particular person. When that person leaves, the business no longer meets the condition it certified, and it should not carry on as if nothing had happened. The regulation lets the Chief Electrical Inspector suspend or revoke a licence for, among other things, misrepresentation, so a business that keeps relying on a qualified person who has left takes a real risk. The practical answer is to plan the change, name the new qualified person and inform TIS promptly.

This is exactly Tantramar's situation. Gilles will retire in about eighteen months. Émilie has more than two years since qualifying, so she meets the conditions. The company's plan is to have Émilie named as the qualified person well before Gilles leaves, so that the change is complete and recorded while Gilles is still available to answer questions. Gilles will also hand over his files on open permits, so that Émilie knows which jobs are waiting for final inspections.

Starting your own company instead

Émilie is also thinking about leaving to start her own business. If she does, her application looks different: as a sole proprietor she can hold the licence on her own qualifications, or if she incorporates, her new company can hold it with her as the qualified employee. Either way she will need the business side in place too: registration of a business name if she uses one, tax accounts, insurance and, once she has three or more workers at any time in the year, registration with WorkSafeNB. Lesson 8 covers those business requirements. One thing she cannot do is support two unrelated businesses' licences at once without raising awkward questions about which business she actually works for, so she will have to choose.

Avoiding common application problems

Most delays come from avoidable gaps: a copy of a certificate that cannot be read, a licence that expires during processing, an experience date that does not match the records, or a business name that differs between documents. A short checklist before submitting prevents nearly all of them. Keep copies of everything submitted and the confirmation you receive, and note any reference number in case you need to follow up.

required = {
    "class3_licence_current": True,
    "qualification_date_documented": True,
    "two_years_since_qualifying": True,
    "business_name_matches_registration": False,
    "written_certification_signed": True,
    "fee_ready": True,
}
missing = [item for item, ok in required.items() if not ok]
if missing:
    print("Do not submit yet. Fix:")
    for item in missing:
        print("  -", item.replace("_", " "))
else:
    print("Ready to submit")

Do not submit yet. Fix:
  - business name matches registration

In this check, the business name on the application does not match the registered name. Nicole fixes the application to use the exact registered name, Tantramar Electric Ltd., before submitting.

Keep one more record: a dated copy of the licence once it arrives. Contractors are asked for their licence number on every permit application, by general contractors before a subcontract is signed and by customers who want to check that they are hiring a licensed business. Having the number, the expiry date and a copy ready saves time on every job.

Timing the applications

Processing takes time, and the regulation does not promise a turnaround. A sensible rule is to apply as early as the conditions allow and to keep working within your current authority until the new licence or card arrives. For a business changing its qualified person, apply well before the change date. For an apprentice about to qualify, have the electrician's licence application ready to submit as soon as the certificate arrives. For a new company, apply for the contractor licence before the first job is promised to a customer, because a job cannot start without a permit and a permit cannot be issued without the licence.

Nicole works backward from the date each licence is needed. For Émilie's appointment as qualified person, she sets the target date for TIS's confirmation one month before Gilles's retirement, the submission date six weeks before that, and a date two weeks earlier still to have every document gathered and checked. Writing the dates down turns a vague plan into a set of tasks with owners.

If a question comes up that the published pages do not answer, such as how to show experience gained in another province, call TIS before submitting rather than guessing. Write down the answer, the date and the name of the person you spoke to, and put a copy in the application file.