New Mexico certifies sheet metal journeymen individually under the Construction Industries Licensing Act: the JSM certificate, issued by the Construction Industries Division under 14.6.6.11D NMAC, works under an MM-3 or MM-98 license — and a JSM-licensed entity is in turn named in the rules as a supervision home for refrigeration journeymen — behind a two-year experience gate and an examination passed at 75% or higher. The PassProfessor New Mexico JSM Journeyman Sheet Metal program prepares candidates for that certificate and the web of supervision around it.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
One certificate, three directions of supervision
Most journeyman certificates in New Mexico’s mechanical system can be described with a single line: the holder works under these licenses. The JSM — journeyman sheet metal — needs three lines, and this page is organised around all of them. Upward, the JSM holder works under an MM-3 or MM-98 license. Downward, apprentices work under the direct supervision of a certified journeyman such as the JSM holder. Sideward — and this is the JSM’s distinctive position — the rules name a JSM-licensed entity as a permissible supervision home for a JR journeyman refrigeration certificate holder. No other journeyman certificate in this family sits at quite that junction, and preparation that misses the web misses the credential.
The JSM itself is a certificate for an individual journeyman, issued by the Construction Industries Division (CID) of the Regulation and Licensing Department under the Construction Industries Licensing Act (CILA), NMSA 1978, Chapter 60, Article 13. Journeyman certificates sit at 14.6.6.11D NMAC, with the certification rules at 14.6.4.8 NMAC. It is not a contractor license, and the sideward relationship described below does not make it one: New Mexico licenses contracting through businesses, held through a qualifying party, and contracting with the public runs through those contractor licenses. What the JSM certifies is the person — verified experience and a passed examination — to do sheet metal work under the licenses named here.
The companion New Mexico JSM Journeyman Sheet Metal Exam Guide works through the supervision web, the gate arithmetic, the published examination rules, the fee layer, and the renewal discipline in full depth.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | New Mexico JSM Journeyman Sheet Metal — the JSM journeyman certificate examination layer |
| Regulator | Construction Industries Division (CID), Regulation and Licensing Department, under the CILA and NMAC Title 14, Chapter 6 |
| Certificate | JSM — journeyman sheet metal, an individual journeyman certificate under 14.6.6.11D NMAC |
| Passing standard | A passing score is 75% or higher — 14.6.4.8C(2) NMAC |
| Experience gate | Two years (4,000 hours) of experience, all within the last 10 years; approved training credited at half rate, capped at half the requirement |
| Supervision | Works under an MM-3 or MM-98 license; a JR may work under a JSM-licensed entity — 14.6.4.8F(5) NMAC |
| Examination fee | $25 — the CID rule fee for a mechanical journeyman examination, 14.5.5.9B NMAC |
| Term and renewal | Three-year term; renewal $25 per year per classification held; 16 hours of continuing education, at least 8 on the current CID code |
| Retakes | The same examination not more than twice within a 30-day period |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Construction Industries Division |
The web, strand by strand
Upward: under MM-3 or MM-98. A JSM holder works under an MM-3 or MM-98 license — the sheet metal journeyman’s work is performed within a heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractor’s license, or within the broad MM-98 mechanical license. There is no stand-alone sheet metal contractor classification in the framework as the sources present it; the JSM’s home is inside the mechanical contractor structure. Record the set exactly as written: MM-3 and MM-98. A neighbouring certificate’s set includes a further classification that the JSM’s set does not, and the two sets are never harmonised here — each certificate’s supervision line is its own.
Sideward: the JSM-licensed entity. Per 14.6.4.8F(5) NMAC, a JR journeyman refrigeration certificate holder may work under an MM-3, MM-4 or MM-98 license, or under a JSM-licensed entity. That sentence is printed exactly at that level, because its level is its meaning: the rule names a JSM-licensed entity as a permissible supervision home for JR work. The sources do not define the entity further, do not state what other certificates may work under one, and do not make the JSM a contractor license. This program claims no general supervision authority and no contractor authority from this relationship — it records the relationship the rule creates, and stops where the rule stops.
Downward: apprentices under the journeyman. An apprentice may perform mechanical work only under the direct supervision of a validly certified journeyman employed by a validly licensed person or the holder of a valid annual permit. The JSM holder is that journeyman for apprentices placed under the holder. Within the wider system, licenses and certificates carry letter-number symbols — the field letter M covers the mechanical and plumbing classifications — and work outside the scope of one’s classification violates the CILA.
The gate: two years, 4,000 hours, inside ten years
Journeyman certification requires two years of experience — 4,000 hours — and all of it within the last 10 years. The recency window is part of the gate: experience older than ten years does not count toward the requirement, however substantial it was. A sheet metal worker whose experience is deep but dated should measure the window first, because the window, not the career, is what the rule counts.
Approved training can stand in for part of the requirement under a precise credit rule: accredited technical training counts in lieu of work experience at one-half year of experience per year of training, and credited training may never exceed one-half of the total experience requirement. Training can therefore shorten the worked road by at most half; at least half the gate is always worked experience, earned inside the window. Document the training and its approval before applying.
The application runs on a clock: all certification requirements must be met within six months of CID’s — or its designee’s — receipt of the application, or the application expires and all fees paid are forfeited. Assemble the record first, and start the clock only when the file is ready to finish inside it.
The examination: what the rules publish, and what they do not
Examinations are administered by CID or its designee. The pass standard is stated in the certification rule in its own words: a passing score is 75% or higher — 14.6.4.8C(2) NMAC. New Mexico’s journeyman standard is 75%, and a 70% figure remembered from another state’s examination should be set aside for this sitting. An applicant who fails may retake the same examination, but not more than twice within a 30-day period. A CID determination of cheating voids the examination, forfeits all fees, automatically voids any certificate issued on that examination, and bars the applicant from any CID examination for one year.
What is not published is stated just as plainly. No question count, no time limit in minutes, no reference list, no book policy, no content outline, and no pretest count for the JSM examination appears in the primary sources behind this page, and none is printed here. That boundary deserves extra care in this trade: the contractor examination for the classification the JSM works under publishes its own mechanics and reference list, and sheet-metal material appears in that contractor layer. Those are the contractor qualifying party’s mechanics and references, for a different credential — not the JSM’s — and no figure or title from them is used anywhere in this package.
Fees at the rule layer
The JSM’s dollars are CID rule dollars. The mechanical journeyman examination fee is $25, and the journeyman renewal fee is $25 per year per classification held — both at 14.5.5.9B NMAC. Renewal is priced per year per classification; the sources state no single lump-sum renewal figure for the three-year term, and none is printed here. These are the certificate’s own fees: the contractor tier above carries its own, different fee instruments for its licenses and its qualifying-party examinations, and none of those contractor figures applies to the JSM or appears in this package. The rule also records that CID may raise examination fees by a commission-approved multiplier of up to three; the $25 examination figure is the rule amount as published, noted with that standing authority and never blended into a different total.
The field code layer — and the tested layer’s honest boundary
New Mexico’s field mechanical code is stated in rule: the current 14.9.2 NMAC is the 2021 New Mexico Mechanical Code, adopting the 2021 Uniform Mechanical Code as amended by CID, effective March 10, 2022. That is the code layer under which a JSM holder’s work is performed in the field, and this program grounds its preparation in it as field law. The examination layer is kept separate: because no JSM reference list is published in the sources, this page claims no tested edition for the JSM examination itself, and nothing here transfers the contractor tier’s reference list down to this certificate. A draft rule proposing a later mechanical code exists at the Department but is not adopted, and it is not treated as field or examination code anywhere in this package.
Holding the certificate: term, continuing education, renewal
The JSM certificate runs a three-year term, expiring the last day of the issue month. Renewal is earned, not merely paid: no journeyman certificate may be renewed without proof of continuing-education compliance. Before renewal or reinstatement the holder must complete a minimum of 16 hours of approved coursework, of which a minimum of 8 hours must cover the current CID code enforced for the classification being renewed — at least half of every cycle is code education, tied to the code actually enforced for the JSM classification. The renewal fee is the rule’s $25 per year per classification held. The boundary runs in the other direction as well: the contractor licenses above this tier carry no continuing-education requirement in their rules, so the 16 hours belong to this certificate tier and are not lent upward.
One pathway at the family’s edge is worth naming exactly as the rules state it. The JW welder certificate requires a JP, JG, JPG, JPF or JSM certificate together with ASME Section IX certification, and JW requires no separate test — so the JSM is one of its qualifying certificates. The ASME requirement belongs to the welder credential itself, not to the JSM examination.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
The web as the organising structure. Because the JSM is a supervision-defined certificate, the program is built around the web: the MM-3 and MM-98 licenses under which JSM work is performed, the JSM-licensed entity relationship stated at its exact sourced level, the apprentice supervision the holder anchors, and the classification discipline that makes work outside one’s classification a violation of the Act. The sheet metal craft at journeyman depth follows inside that frame: layout and fabrication reasoning, duct systems and air distribution as working knowledge, joining, support and installation practice, grounded in the 2021 Uniform Mechanical Code as New Mexico’s field code. The New Mexico rule layer as its own subject: the two-year, 4,000-hour gate and its training-credit arithmetic, the ten-year window, the six-month application clock, the 75% standard, the retake cap, the cheating rule, the $25 rule fees, and the 16-hour, code-weighted renewal requirement. Every item is written from scratch against the rules; no item is drawn from another provider’s material, and nothing in the program borrows the contractor examinations’ mechanics or references for this certificate.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the Construction Industries Division or the Regulation and Licensing Department. Completing this program confers no certificate and no exemption; CID alone certifies, and candidates apply through CID and its designee. The full route is set out in the New Mexico JSM Journeyman Sheet Metal Exam Guide.
Tell me when enrollment opens. This program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when it is ready — and only about this program.
Frequently asked questions
What is the JSM certificate?
JSM is New Mexico’s journeyman sheet metal certificate — an individual journeyman certificate under 14.6.6.11D NMAC, issued by the Construction Industries Division. It is not a contractor license: contracting with the public runs through the contractor licenses held by businesses through qualifying parties.
Under whom does a JSM holder work?
Under an MM-3 or MM-98 license. In the other direction, apprentices perform mechanical work only under the direct supervision of a validly certified journeyman employed by a validly licensed person or annual permit holder.
What is the JSM-licensed entity relationship?
Under 14.6.4.8F(5) NMAC, a JR journeyman refrigeration holder may work under an MM-3, MM-4 or MM-98 license, or under a JSM-licensed entity. The rule names that entity as a supervision home for JR work; it does not make the JSM a contractor license, and this page claims no broader supervision authority from it.
What score passes the JSM examination?
A passing score is 75% or higher, as the certification rule states it at 14.6.4.8C(2) NMAC. New Mexico’s journeyman standard is 75%, not the 70% figure used in some other states.
How much experience does the JSM require?
Two years — 4,000 hours — all within the last 10 years. Approved accredited training counts at one-half year of experience per year of training and can never supply more than half of the total requirement.
How many questions are on the JSM examination, and how long does it run?
The primary sources behind this page publish no question count, time limit, reference list, book policy, or content outline for the JSM examination, and this page prints none. Figures and reference lists published for the contractor examinations belong to that different tier and do not describe this certificate’s examination.
What does the JSM examination cost?
$25 — the CID rule fee for a mechanical journeyman examination at 14.5.5.9B NMAC. Renewal is $25 per year per classification held, also at the rule layer; the sources state no lump-sum renewal figure for the term.
How long does the certificate last, and what does renewal require?
A three-year term expiring the last day of the issue month. Renewal requires proof of continuing-education compliance: at least 16 hours of approved coursework, at least 8 of them covering the current CID code enforced for the classification being renewed. No certificate may be renewed without that proof.
What happens if I fail, or if an application stalls?
A failed applicant may retake the same examination not more than twice within a 30-day period. Separately, all certification requirements must be met within six months of the application’s receipt or the application expires and fees paid are forfeited.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with CID?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider. The Construction Industries Division alone certifies journeymen and administers the certification process.
When does enrollment open?
The program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address on this page and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.