For years, the path to a Professional Engineer license in Georgia followed a fixed sequence: pass the Fundamentals of Engineering exam and accumulate four (4) years of qualifying experience, before ultimately sitting for the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam.  Effective July 1, 2025, that sequence is no longer mandatory. With the signing of Senate Bill 125 (“SB125”), Georgia now allows engineering candidates to complete both licensing examinations before satisfying the experience requirement.

The prior framework was governed by O.C.G.A. § 43-15-8, which required candidates to pass the Principles and Practice of Engineering examination only after accumulating the requisite years of professional experience. That structure created a bottleneck; candidates who graduated and passed the Fundamentals of Engineering exam often waited years before they were even eligible to register for the Principles and Practice of Engineering, regardless of whether they were prepared to sit for it sooner. Georgia lagged behind the majority of states that had already decoupled their requirements.

Signed by Governor Brian Kemp on May 9, 2025, SB125 removes the word “subsequently” from O.C.G.A. § 43-15-8, decoupling the sequential order of examination and experience requirements. Candidates may now complete both the Fundamentals of Engineering and Principles and Practice of Engineering examinations after meeting their educational requirements, without waiting to first log the required years of experience. Licensure still requires education, examination passage, and qualifying experience. The change is to the order in which those elements must be completed, not the underlying standards.

The decoupling change has immediate implications: Firms that recruit directly from engineering programs can now support candidates in preparing and sitting for the Principles and Practice of Engineering examination during the early years of their employment, rather than waiting until the experience threshold is met. A candidate who passes the Principles and Practice of Engineering examination in year two of employment and completes the experience requirement in year four reaches licensure on the same timeline as before but arrives with the examination already behind them – reducing uncertainty for both the candidate and the firm.

The bill also establishes a statewide continuing education tracking system for professional licensing boards under the Secretary of State’s office. Beginning January 1, 2026, license renewals will require verified compliance through that centralized platform. Firms should confirm that their current continuing education documentation practices are compatible with the new state platform before renewal season. Gaps identified at renewal create exposure for individual licensees and, depending on project staffing, for the firm itself.

Both changes reflect a broader legislative trend toward reducing administrative friction in the professional licensing process. Engineering firms would do well to understand these changes and act on them now.