Transfer a Cosmetology License to New Hampshire

Straightforward $55first year 1,200hours New Hampshire asks its own students

Your training hours never come up, and New Hampshire has published a list saying so. Its determination for the cosmetologist license reads "All U.S. states, District of Columbia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica," with no state excluded and no date cutoff. You send one application, a screen capture of your current license record, and $55.

Training hours New Hampshire accepts, and when you need more

Two things changed here that no chart has caught. The published figure is 1,200 hours, not 1,500. It dropped on August 9, 2025 when 2025 chapter 91 amended RSA 313-A:11, I(c)(1), and the chaptered text of the 2024 licensing act still shows 1,500, which fixes the date from both sides. Separately, the cosmetology chapter no longer contains a transfer provision at all. RSA 313-A:14, headed "Nonresidents," was repealed on July 1, 2024, and it was the provision carrying the words "substantially equivalent to or higher than those of this state," which is the phrasing that imports an hour count. What replaced it is RSA 310:17 in the licensing office's general chapter, whose implementing rule asks only two things about the state that licensed you, being that it require graduation from a state approved program and passing a state approved competency examination. Neither element is a number. The rule measures the issuing state's published requirements rather than your transcript, and no transcript is requested.

What actually governs a transfer. RSA 310:17, implemented by Plc 313.18(b)

Does experience substitute? You will almost certainly not need this. It sits at Bar 304.01(g) and (h) in the Board's own rules, which are the rules built on the repealed RSA 313-A:14, and it appears on none of the Board's guidance pages. The operative endorsement route never counts hours, so there is nothing to substitute for. Recorded because it is still codified and because a reader who finds Bar 304 will want to know what it says. The Board has proposed repealing it. A separate live route, Plc 313.11, lets someone from a jurisdiction that fails the criteria request a waiver based on education, training and actual work experience, which is discretionary rather than a rate.

How to transfer a cosmetology license to New Hampshire

Endorsement by equivalence

RSA 310:17 and Plc 313.18(b)

Hold an active, unencumbered, non temporary cosmetology license in good standing from a qualifying jurisdiction. Every US state and the District of Columbia is a qualifying jurisdiction for cosmetologists.

The statute says the office "shall issue" and opens "Notwithstanding any other state law to the contrary." Plc 313.06(a) repeats the command at rule level. There is no minimum time you must have held the license, no residency step, no examination, no course, and no criminal background check for this profession. Plc 313.05(a) accepts a print-out or screen capture of your own board's portal as proof, so you do not have to buy a certification from your old state.

Endorsement by equivalence, second route

RSA 332-G:12, I

The board shall grant a license where it determines the other state's requirements are equivalent to, or greater than, New Hampshire's.

An older, dormant second door carrying a genuine equivalence phrase, which is the kind of phrase that can import an hour count. It is not the operative route, because RSA 310:17 was enacted later and overrides it by its own terms. Its publication duty is what produced the qualifying jurisdictions table, and that table admits every US state for cosmetology. Listed so that a reader who finds this statute alone knows it has already been discharged in their favor.

Worth knowing: This is the whole story. Since July 1, 2024 the cosmetology chapter RSA 313-A has contained no transfer provision of any kind. Searches of its full codified text return zero matches for reciprocity, endorsement, comity, compact, military and "another state." The door lives in RSA 310:17, part of the general chapter for the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, with rules at Plc 313. A reader who looks only in the cosmetology law will find nothing and may conclude New Hampshire has no route.

Exams New Hampshire requires, and exams it waives

None. No written exam, no practical exam and no jurisprudence exam on the endorsement route. Plc 313.18(b) asks whether the state that licensed you requires a competency examination, and Plc 313.05 never asks you to produce a result. Plc 313.10(e) defines a New Hampshire jurisprudence exam and five other sections of the same rule chapter impose one, being funeral directors, optometry, physical therapists, professional engineers and veterinary medicine. The cosmetology section does not.

Working in New Hampshire while your application is pending

File before you move, or plan for roughly two to three weeks without New Hampshire income. The reason is structural rather than aimed at you. Plc 305.02(a) offers a temporary license only to someone applying because their profession is not covered by Plc 313, and cosmetology is covered by Plc 313. The statute behind it, RSA 332-G:14, I, switches itself off for any board that already has a reciprocity procedure. So having the fast route is what costs you the temporary permit. The licensing office's other temporary license program is limited to health care professions by RSA 310:6, V. The temporary permit in RSA 313-A:18 is written for people waiting to sit an examination and requires working under the guidance of a licensed practitioner.

What a New Hampshire cosmetology license costs

$55 in your first year.

Set by Plc 1002.07, Table 1002.7, and matched by the Board's official fee page. That is the whole first year cost. No background check fee, because cosmetology is on neither of the licensing office's published criminal records check lists. No examination fee, no course fee, and no verification purchase, since a screen capture of your own board's portal satisfies Plc 313.05(a). Ignore the fee amounts printed in the Board's own rules, which still say $100 for an applicant licensed elsewhere at Bar 304.01(f)(2) and $40 for a renewal at Bar 401.01(c)(3). Those were superseded when fees moved to the Plc 1000 rules.

Military spouses moving to New Hampshire

RSA 310:16 gives a member of the armed forces or their spouse a temporary license, issued within 30 days of application and valid for not less than 180 days, with one 180 day extension available. It needs an active unencumbered license from another state and a notarized affidavit. Plc 306 implements it. For a cosmetologist this is the only way to work in New Hampshire before the full license issues, because the ordinary temporary license routes are switched off for this profession.

Watch out in New Hampshire

The five state list on the Board's applications page is for master barbers

The Board publishes a line reading that a Master Barber is only eligible for reciprocity if currently licensed in Delaware, Georgia, North Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia. It governs master barbers. The cosmetologist row of the same table reads "All U.S. states, District of Columbia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica." Read the license type in front of the list before reading the list.

Every chart still prints 1,500 hours for New Hampshire

The figure has been 1,200 since August 9, 2025. Nobody is at fault for believing a number that every search result agrees on, and it does not change your answer either way, because the number is never applied to an arriving licensee. It matters only if you are comparing states on paper before deciding where to move.

You cannot work until the license issues, so file before you move

The decision takes 10 to 14 business days, but there is no temporary permit for an arriving cosmetologist. The temporary license rules exclude professions that have a reciprocity route, and cosmetology has one. Apply first, then move, and you will usually have the license in hand or close to it. Military members and spouses are the exception and can work in about 30 days under RSA 310:16.

Ask about the fee if you are a military spouse

Plc 304.02(a) exempts military spouses from application and licensing fees, but by its own words it applies to spouses who are not already licensed in a qualifying jurisdiction. Plc 313.03 then makes the endorsement fee payable unless Plc 304.02(a) applies. The two rules describe different groups and point at each other. Whether a military spouse arriving with a qualifying license pays the $55 is worth one email to the licensing office rather than an assumption.

The interstate compact

New Hampshire has not enacted the Cosmetology Licensure Compact. Proved from the Title XXX table of contents, which lists the medical, psychology and mental health counseling compacts as their own chapters and lists no cosmetology compact, and from a zero match search of RSA 313-A for the word compact. No multistate cosmetology license is being issued in any state today, and the Compact Commission says so on its own site. Two compact clauses do appear in New Hampshire law and they run in opposite directions. RSA 332-G:14, I, drafted in 2018, switches off the 120 day temporary license for any board that joins a compact, which subtracts a right. Plc 313.02(c) says the endorsement route shall not supersede, replace or otherwise affect any profession specific compact, which preserves both rather than barring either.

What you actually do

Confirm your current license is active, unencumbered, not temporary and in good standing, which is the whole eligibility test at Plc 313.01(b).
Take a screen capture or print-out of your own state board's license lookup showing your name, license and good standing, since Plc 313.05(a) accepts exactly that and you do not need to buy a certification.
Download the Universal Application for Initial Licensure from the licensing office and complete it for the cosmetologist license. Do not use the older Individuals Licensed in Another State form, which belongs to a repealed statute.
Mail the application, the verification and a $55 check or money order payable to Treasurer, State of New Hampshire, to the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, 7 Eagle Square, Concord, NH 03301, or file through the office portal.
File before you move if you can, because there is no temporary permit for an arriving cosmetologist and the decision takes 10 to 14 business days.
Watch your email, since licenses are issued by email rather than by post.
If you plan to open a shop or rent a booth, start that application separately, because it needs its own license and a passed inspection with a $150 initial inspection fee.

What we have not verified

We would rather name a gap than fill it with a guess. For New Hampshire we have not established:

whether New Hampshire runs the federal military spouse lane that lets a spouse practice with no state license

Everything else on this page is sourced below. If you need one of these answered before you move, the board is the fastest route, and we are working through them.

Official links for New Hampshire

Verified August 2026. 13 questions about New Hampshire remain open and are named in our research rather than guessed at.

Keep going

Cosmetology license reciprocity by state, with the published hour figure for every jurisdiction and whether it reaches you.
Cosmetology training hours by state, and the five ways a state can still apply its number to someone already licensed.
The Cosmetology Licensure Compact, who has enacted it and why no multistate license exists yet.
All four professions we cover.

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