PA real estate license to NJ: the waiver path for Pennsylvania agents in 2026

The short answer for Pennsylvania licensees

Your Pennsylvania license does not transfer to New Jersey. The New Jersey Real Estate Commission has no reciprocity with any state, Pennsylvania included. What it offers instead is an education waiver: if your Pennsylvania license is current, or you held one at some point in the last three years, the Commission can excuse you from New Jersey's 75-hour prelicensing course.

You still take New Jersey's full exam, get fingerprinted for New Jersey and join a New Jersey brokerage. Our reciprocity and waiver overview explains the waiver for every state, and our New York to New Jersey guide covers the New York version. This post is the Pennsylvania version: the Commission's own instruction sheet for Pennsylvania licensees, how to get the right paper from Harrisburg, a worked timeline, and the differences between the two states that change what you study and pay.

Your two routes: waiver or the 75-hour course

The Commission publishes a one-page sheet titled "Information for Pennsylvania real estate licensees that are interested in obtaining a New Jersey real estate salesperson license." Both routes on it require you to be at least 18 with a high school diploma, GED or equivalent, and to be licensed in Pennsylvania now or within the last three years. Both end at the same exam, the same fingerprinting and the same broker-filed application.

The sheet's exam wording matters: "Schedule and pass the NJ state salesperson's combo (state and national questions) exam." There is no state-only exam for Pennsylvania licensees. All 110 scored questions count, including the national questions you already passed once in Pennsylvania. You can test remotely or at a PSI test center.

The August 2018 rule: do you need 15 extra hours?

New Jersey requires 75 hours of prelicensing education. Pennsylvania requires 75 hours today too, but the New Jersey sheet notes that Pennsylvania salespersons first licensed before August 2018 qualified with 60 hours. If that is you, you make up the 15-hour difference before you apply, with either of these:

• New Jersey's 15-hour refresher course.
• 15 hours of courses that would lead toward broker licensure in Pennsylvania.

If you were first licensed as a Pennsylvania salesperson after August 2018, or you are licensed in broker status in Pennsylvania, the sheet says no extra coursework is required. The date that counts is when you were first licensed as a salesperson, not your most recent renewal. The sheet says "prior to" and "after" August 2018 without placing August 2018 itself in either group, so if your first license is dated that month, ask the Commission before you skip the 15 hours.

One observation from us, not the Commission: the Pennsylvania broker course outlines we checked on the Pennsylvania Real Estate Commission's education page run 30 or 45 hours each. If you have no plans to become a Pennsylvania broker, the New Jersey 15-hour refresher is likely the shorter way to cover the gap. Confirm with your school that its course is the New Jersey 15-hour refresher before you pay.

Getting your Pennsylvania license verification

New Jersey will not accept a copy of your license. The waiver application asks for a license certification, certificate of licensure or letter of good standing, and it must reach the Commission within 30 days of the issue date shown on it. The Pennsylvania sheet says you get this through Pennsylvania's PALS portal for a $15 fee. You can download it as a PDF, print it and include it with your application, or Pennsylvania can send it to the Commission directly by email. The sheet does not give an email address for that.

Here is what goes in the envelope, according to the sheet and the waiver application (revised May 27, 2022):

1. The completed Salesperson Education Waiver Application, with category A (licensed salesperson in another state) or B (licensed broker in another state) marked and the affidavit signed.
2. A $25 non-refundable fee payable to "State Treasurer of New Jersey" by money order, certified check, cashier's check or a brokerage business check. Personal checks, cash and card details are not accepted.
3. Your Pennsylvania license verification, printed from PALS, unless Pennsylvania is emailing it to the Commission.
4. Your 15-hour course certificate, if the August 2018 rule applies to you.
5. Mail it all in one envelope to the New Jersey Real Estate Commission, 20 West State Street, P.O. Box 328, Trenton, NJ 08625-0328, Attn: Salesperson Education Waiver Application, 7th Floor.

The Commission emails you either an approval or a request for corrections. The application also lets New Jersey residents who are honorably discharged disabled veterans claim a fee waiver with a DD-214 and a VA certificate of disability.

A worked timeline: Marcus, Bucks County salesperson

Marcus is an illustrative example. He lives in Yardley, on the Delaware River across from New Jersey, was first licensed in Pennsylvania in 2016 and his license is active. He wants to work for a New Jersey brokerage in 2027. Neither state publishes a processing time for his paperwork, so the dates for course completion, approval and the exam are our assumptions, marked as such.

Yardley is within ten miles of New Jersey, so Marcus books IdentoGO like any other applicant. Our fingerprinting guide covers the Universal Form and the $66.05 fee. The year after approval works exactly like a course graduate's year, so the advice in our one-year deadline guide applies to you too. Leave room for a retake, because PSI does not let you book a new appointment on the day you test.

Two other Pennsylvania situations

For Luis, the sheet does not say exactly which date the three years is measured to. Our suggestion: do not cut it close. If the window is nearly gone, ask the Commission before you mail anything, or plan on the 75-hour course.

NJ vs PA: the differences that matter

On paper the two states look close: both require 75 prelicensing hours and both license salespersons to work under a broker. The details differ more than most people expect.

New Jersey sources: PSI's February 1, 2026 candidate bulletin and the Commission's continuing education page. Pennsylvania sources: the Pennsylvania Real Estate Commission's salesperson licensure snapshot, renewal, education and announcements pages, listed at the end of this post.

The bigger difference is on the exam. Thirty of the 110 questions cover New Jersey law and Commission rules, 22 of them on statutes and rules that govern licensee activities. Pennsylvania has its own state rules, but these New Jersey ones are the ones to learn fresh:

• Attorney review. Under N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.2(g), a licensee-prepared contract for a one-to-four-family home or a vacant one-family lot must say at the top that it becomes final within three business days, not counting Saturdays, Sundays or legal holidays, while either party's attorney can review it. See attorney review.
• Net listings are banned outright by N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.2(f). See listings and offers.
• New Jersey's Consumer Information Statement, which describes five business relationships: seller's agent, buyer's agent, disclosed dual agent, designated agent and transaction broker.
• Commission powers and New Jersey's own licensing rules, which make up 5 of the state questions.

Keeping your Pennsylvania license, and going the other way

Nothing on New Jersey's Pennsylvania sheet or waiver application asks you to give up your Pennsylvania license. To keep it, Pennsylvania's own rules still apply: a Pennsylvania salesperson works under the supervision of a licensed Pennsylvania broker, renews by May 31 of each even-numbered year for $96, and completes 14 hours of CE each period. Pennsylvania's renewal page says there is no grace period. If you work both sides of the river, expect two brokers or a firm licensed in both states, two renewals and two sets of CE. How one firm handles a dual-state agent is a question for your brokers; we did not find a published answer from either commission.

If you hold a New Jersey license and want Pennsylvania's, the rules point the other way. Pennsylvania's snapshot says an applicant actively licensed by another state within the last five years takes only the Pennsylvania portion of the exam, and someone whose principal place of business is outside Pennsylvania may be issued a reciprocal license. Check the details with the Pennsylvania Real Estate Commission before you rely on either.

If you hold a Pennsylvania broker license and want a New Jersey broker license, that is a separate path with its own experience and education rules. Call the New Jersey Commission at 609-292-7272 before you start.