You become a licensed land surveyor in six stages: education, crew experience, the FS exam and surveyor-in-training status, qualifying experience under a licensed surveyor, the PS exam plus any state-specific exam, and the application itself.
NCEES describes the most common route as an ABET-accredited surveying degree, four years of acceptable, progressive and verifiable experience, and the FS, PS and a state-specific exam.
Each state board writes its own rules — this page walks the route and flags where your board decides.
What are the steps to become a land surveyor?
The route to the license runs through six stages, in this order.
- Choose an education path your board accepts.
- Get field experience on a survey crew.
- Pass the NCEES Fundamentals of Surveying (FS) exam and earn surveyor-in-training status.
- Build qualifying experience under a licensed surveyor.
- Pass the NCEES Principles and Practice of Surveying (PS) exam plus any state-specific exam.
- Apply for the license — then keep it current.
NCEES describes the most common path as a bachelor's degree from an ABET-accredited surveying program, four years of acceptable, progressive and verifiable experience, and the FS, PS and a state-specific exam.
NCEES also notes that many states provide additional paths for licensure.
One thing NCEES does not do is issue licenses.
Its members are the engineering and surveying licensing boards of all 50 states, DC, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, and it is those boards, not NCEES, that issue the licenses.
That makes your state board the authority for every step below: the education it accepts, the experience it counts, the exams it requires and the fees it charges are all the board's rules.
If you are still weighing the career itself, the land surveyor career guide covers the work, the employers and pay first.
Rules differ by state
Step 1: choose an education path (degree, associate, experience-only)
The education decision comes first because it shapes which boards you can apply to later.
Under the NCEES Model Law — the model NCEES publishes, not any state's law — every education option for a professional surveyor applicant is degree-based, and the model contains no experience-only route.
The model's qualifying degrees run from an ABET-accredited surveying bachelor's, to any bachelor's degree with 30 or more semester hours in core surveying topics, to a non-accredited surveying-related degree meeting the NCEES Surveying Education Standard.
The specific routes are spelled out in the education section below.
An associate degree sits on the employment side, not in the model's routes: BLS notes some employers hire surveyors with an associate's degree plus training, while every Model Law education option for a professional surveyor is a bachelor's degree or higher.
NCEES notes that many states provide additional paths for licensure.
What those additional paths require is each board's own rule — read the rule before you build a plan on anyone else's route.
If you are already working on a crew, the sequencing question is which comes first: the degree or more years in the field.
Your board's education rule answers it, so read the rule before you enroll anywhere — the board decides whether an education route qualifies, not the school advertising it.
Step 2: get field experience on a survey crew
Crew work is where the trade is learned, and the NCEES Model Rules spell out what makes experience count toward licensure.
Under the Model Rules, surveying experience must be progressive.
It should be gained under the supervision or mentorship of a licensed professional surveyor; if it was not, the applicant must explain it to the board.
The Model Rules also require the experience to demonstrate two things: property-conveyance and/or boundary-determination experience, and the technical field aspects of the profession.
All of it must be gained by the time you apply.
The crew ladder is where that experience gets built.
Rod person, instrument operator and party chief are crew job titles, not licenses — the license comes from your board at the end of this process — and the work in each seat is the raw material your board will evaluate.
If you are not on a crew yet, entry-level crew jobs like rod person are where field experience starts, and the seats climb from there.
Start documenting early.
Keep a project list, the duty descriptions for each seat you hold and the name of the licensee responsible for your work — the record you build now becomes the evidence your application needs later.
Step 3: pass the FS exam and become an LSIT
NCEES describes the Fundamentals of Surveying (FS) exam as generally the first step toward becoming a licensed professional surveyor, designed for recent graduates and students close to finishing an undergraduate surveying degree from an ABET-accredited program.
The FS is a computer-based exam given year-round at NCEES-approved Pearson test centers, and the exam fee is $225 paid directly to NCEES, as listed on ncees.org in October 2026.
NCEES lists 110 questions, with 5 hours and 20 minutes of exam time inside an appointment of about six hours.
Who may sit is the board's call, not NCEES's.
Some boards require a separate application and application fee before you can register, while others let you register directly with NCEES for the FS.
Once you are approved to test, you have 12 months to take the exam.
Year-round exams run in quarterly testing windows; NCEES policy allows one attempt per window and no more than three attempts in any 12-month period, and some boards are stricter.
Results are reported pass/fail, typically available 7 to 10 days after the exam through MyNCEES.
NCEES does not publish the passing score.
The Model Law's surveyor intern certificate takes a qualifying surveying degree plus the FS pass.
The enrollment document does not authorize the holder to practice as a professional surveyor — it marks the stage at which the remaining experience years get built.
States name the stage their own way — LSIT, SIT, surveyor intern — and the exact title and its rules come from your board.
The LSIT stage has its own role page on this site.
Step 4: earn qualifying experience under a PLS
This is the long block.
Under the Model Law, a professional surveyor applicant must present a specific record of four years of progressive surveying experience.
The model reduces the years for advanced degrees: three years with an acceptable master's in surveying, and two years with a surveying doctorate plus the FS.
The Model Rules expect the experience to come under the supervision or mentorship of a licensed professional surveyor, and to include property-conveyance and/or boundary-determination work alongside the technical field work.
In practice, the intern years are when you steer toward that mix.
Volunteer for boundary projects, keep the field books and records that show what you did, and track how your responsibility grows from setup work toward decisions.
NCEES says most states require four years of acceptable, progressive and verifiable work experience.
How your board treats the model's numbers — reduced years for a master's or doctorate, credit for time before graduation — is its own rule, so confirm it before you count your years.
Step 5: pass the PS and state-specific exams
The Principles and Practice of Surveying (PS) exam is NCEES's professional-level exam.
NCEES designed it for surveyors with at least four years of professional experience, and each state board decides when you may sit.
Under the Model Rules, the PS is allowed only after all of your jurisdiction's requirements are met — the board's gate, not a scheduling one.
The model has one carve-out: a surveying doctorate holder with an ABET-accredited undergraduate degree and qualifying experience may sit for the PS without having taken or passed the FS.
Under the PS exam specification in effect until July 2027, the PS is closed book with an electronic reference, 100 questions in 7 hours — a window that includes a tutorial and an optional scheduled break — and it uses US Customary units.
It is given year-round by computer at Pearson test centers, and the fee is $375 paid to NCEES, as listed in October 2026.
The Model Law's exam set is the FS, the PS and any jurisdiction-specific exam — your board may require its own exam on top of the national ones, and the Model Rules let jurisdictions add exams such as the PLSS.
A new national option is coming.
NCEES is launching a separate Public Land Survey System (PLSS) exam, given twice a year starting in fall 2027 at a $325 fee, and NCEES says some states will require it as a component of licensure.
Results are pass/fail, typically available 7 to 10 days after the exam.
Step 6: apply for and maintain the license
The application goes to your board, and under the NCEES Model Law it packages everything the previous steps produced: good character and reputation, the board's education criteria, the board's experience criteria, the board's exams and five references acceptable to the board.
The Model Rules detail the references: at least five people with personal knowledge of your surveying experience, a minimum of three of them professional surveyors.
Relatives and current board members may not serve.
Approval is the board's act — the state and territory boards issue licenses, and NCEES does not.
Keeping the license current is its own cycle of state rules.
Each board sets its own renewal period and whether, and how much, continuing education it requires — confirm both with your board rather than assuming a national number.
NCEES's model continuing-proficiency standard calls for 15 PDHs per calendar year with no carryover and at least 1 PDH of ethics — that is the model, not a requirement any given state has adopted.
The model also lets a board require a licensee who has not legally practiced for more than five years to pass the PS and any state-specific exam again before reinstatement.
Renewal and CE are your board's rules
How long does the whole process take?
There is no single national timeline — the total is the sum of your state's parts.
Three blocks matter: the education path, the experience years and the exam steps.
The experience block is the most predictable one.
The Model Law requires four years of progressive surveying experience, and NCEES says most states require four years of acceptable, progressive and verifiable work experience.
How the blocks overlap is a board question: whether experience earned before graduation, or before you pass the FS, counts toward the total is decided by your state's rules.
The exam steps run on their own clocks: once your board approves you to test, you have 12 months to sit for the exam, and results are typically available 7 to 10 days afterward.
Build your own estimate from your board's rule set: the education route you will use, the experience years your board requires and will credit, and when your board lets you sit for the FS and the PS.
Check the board's current rules before you commit to a plan.
What education do you need?
BLS lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry-level education for surveyors — land surveying or a related field such as engineering or natural resources — with internship or residency as typical on-the-job training.
BLS also notes that some employers hire with an associate's degree plus training.
For licensure, the NCEES Model Law's options are all degree-based: an ABET-accredited surveying bachelor's; any bachelor's degree with 30 or more semester hours in core surveying topics; or a non-accredited surveying-related degree meeting the NCEES Surveying Education Standard.
Under the model, "surveying" covers surveying engineering, mapping, geodesy and geomatics.
NCEES describes the most common path as a bachelor's from an ABET-accredited surveying program — and notes many states provide additional paths.
So the honest answer is: the education rule that applies to you is your board's.
Read it before you enroll, and read it again before you apply, because routes change.
How much field experience is required?
The Model Law's number is four years of progressive surveying experience, reduced to three with an acceptable master's in surveying and to two with a surveying doctorate plus the FS.
NCEES's own licensure summary says most states require four years of acceptable, progressive and verifiable work experience.
The Model Rules define what makes the years count alongside the number.
The experience must be progressive, gained under a licensed professional surveyor's supervision or mentorship — or explained to the board if it was not.
It must demonstrate property-conveyance and/or boundary-determination experience and the technical field aspects of the profession, and it must all be gained by the time you apply.
Whether the years can start before graduation, or before you pass the FS, is each board's call — time that question with your board's experience rule, not with the model.
Your board's experience rule — the years it requires, what it credits and the documentation it wants — governs your application, so confirm it directly with the board before you count your own years.
Career information, not legal, tax or licensing advice — licensure routes, exams, experience credit and renewal are each state's law. Confirm the current requirements with your state licensing board, and with NCEES for the national exams.