United States
Hong KongMoving your license to another state
Your Texas license does not become another state's license. You apply there as a nonresident on your Texas license. Texas requires you to file with TDI not later than the 30th day after moving between states, and section 4003.008 protects your Texas license if you keep practicing elsewhere.
Insurance licensing is state by state, so there is no such thing as transferring a license. What there is instead is a network of reciprocal nonresident licensing, and a Texas license is a good passport into it.
This page covers the Texas side, which is the only side we hold documents for. What your destination state does with your Texas license is that state's rule and we are not going to guess at it.
The duty you owe TDI
Section 4003.009 says that not later than the 30th day after moving from one state to another, an agent licensed in Texas shall file the required information with the department. This is an obligation on you, not on the department, and it starts running from the move rather than from the paperwork.
The handbook's change of address material covers the mechanics, including a change of residency to Texas going the other way, through the manage your license section of the TDI site. Keeping your address current is not administrative housekeeping. Section 4003.003 requires TDI to send your renewal notice to your last known mailing address, so a stale address is how a renewal notice goes to a house you sold.
What happens to the Texas license
| What you do after moving | What happens to the Texas license |
|---|---|
| Keep renewing it as a nonresident | It stays live, on the normal chapter 4003 cycle |
| Let it expire but stay licensed and practicing elsewhere | Section 4003.008 lets TDI renew it without reexamination |
| Let it expire and stop practicing | The section 4003.007 tiers apply, and past a year you sit the exam again |
| Move back to Texas within 90 days holding a similar license elsewhere | Apply through Sircon without the examination |
The second row is the provision worth knowing about, because it is generous and almost nobody has read it. Section 4003.008 allows the department to renew, without reexamination, the expired license of a person who was licensed in Texas, moved to another state, and is currently licensed and has been in continual practice in the other state preceding the date of the application. The fee is equal to the license application fee.
So the statute distinguishes between an agent who stopped working and an agent who kept working somewhere else. Only the first one is treated as lapsed. That is a sensible distinction and it is not one every state makes.
Getting licensed where you are going
You apply there as a nonresident, on the strength of your Texas resident license, and their equivalent of chapter 4056 decides what you get. Texas's own version of that chapter is a fair guide to the shape of the system, because reciprocity only works if states behave roughly symmetrically.
Texas issues a nonresident license to an applicant holding a license in good standing in a home state that reciprocally licenses Texas residents with the same or similar authority, without an examination, and then caps the nonresident's Texas authority at whatever the home state allows. Expect a version of that test wherever you are going. Nonresident agent licensing in Texas sets out the Texas rules in full.
Two things that do not travel
Your appointments are the first. An appointment is one insurer authorizing you to act for it, filed with TDI under section 4001.201, and it is a Texas filing. A new state means new appointment filings with that state's regulator, and the carrier does them.
Your Texas statute knowledge is the second, and this is the one that matters for how you should have studied. The examination's 30 Texas questions cover Texas statutes and rules common to life and health, life-only provisions, accident and health requirements and HMO regulation. None of that is portable. The 100 general questions on insurance principles are, because insurance principles do not stop at the Red River.
What that should have changed about your studying
Which is our opinion on this whole subject, and it has a study consequence. The general portion is 77% of the scored paper and it is the part that keeps its value if you ever leave. Candidates who over-invest in Texas statute are over-investing in the only part of this license that is stuck here.
The concession: we hold 47 chapters of the Texas Insurance Code and nothing from any other state, so everything above about your destination is inference from how Texas treats incoming agents. Check with the regulator where you are going, and check before you move rather than after, because their equivalent of the ninety-day window may be shorter.
Common questions
Can you transfer a Texas insurance license to another state?
Not directly. Insurance licensing is state by state, so you apply in the new state as a nonresident on the strength of your Texas license. Most states have a reciprocal route that waives the examination for an applicant licensed in good standing elsewhere.
Do you have to tell TDI you moved?
Yes. Section 4003.009 requires an agent licensed in Texas to file the required information with the department not later than the 30th day after moving from one state to another. The clock starts at the move, not at the paperwork.
What happens to a Texas license if you move away?
It carries on if you renew it. If you let it expire but stay licensed and in continual practice in another state, section 4003.008 lets TDI renew it without reexamination for a fee equal to the license application fee.
Do your appointments move with you?
No. An appointment is an insurer authorizing you to act for it, filed with TDI under section 4001.201, so it is a Texas filing. Carriers file fresh appointments with the regulator of whichever state you move to.
How quickly must you act if you move back to Texas?
The handbook gives new Texas residents who held the same or similar license in their previous resident state within the preceding 90 days a route through Sircon without the examination. Miss that window and you are treated as a new applicant.