Texas Board of Professional Engineers & Land Surveyors

See digital sealing guidelines.

(a) Upon issuance of a license, each license holder is required to obtain a seal under the requirements of §133.97 of this title (relating to Issuance of License) and submit an impression of the seal or an electronic seal, and an original or an electronic signature to the board for board records.

(b) Physical and electronic seals shall be of the design illustrated in this section and shall be no larger than two inches. Regardless of seal size the engineer's name and number must be clearly legible.

Texas Admin Code Title 22 Part 6 § 137.31

(a) Licensed professional engineers shall maintain the security of their electronic seals and electronic signatures. The following methods are allowed:

1. Licensed professional engineers may electronically copy their original hard copy work that bears their seal, original signature, and date and transmit this work in a secure electronic format.
2. An engineer may create an electronic seal and electronic signature for use in transmitting electronically formatted engineering work, regardless of whether the work was originally in hard copy or electronic format.

(b) As an alternative to electronic sealing and electronic signatures, engineers shall affix their original seals and signatures and date to their engineering work as specified in §137.33(f) of this chapter (relating to Sealing Procedures).

Texas Admin Code Title 22 Part 6 § 137.35

(d) License holders shall take reasonable steps to ensure the security of their physical or electronic seals and electronic signatures. For electronic seals and electronic signatures, the engineer must have reasonable security measures in place to protect these files. In the event of loss of a seal or electronic signature, the engineer will, as soon as possible, but within 30 days of discovery, give written notification of the facts concerning the loss to board.

(l) An engineer may securely transmit his or her final version of engineering work electronically provided that work bears the engineer's seal and uses one of the techniques described in §137.35(a) of this chapter (relating to Electronic Seals and Electronic Signatures) and must employ reasonable security measures to make the documents unalterable. Electronic correspondence of this type may be followed by a hard copy containing the engineer's printed name, date, signature and the designation "P.E." or other terms described in §137.1 of this chapter (relating to License Holder Designations).

Texas Admin Code Title 22 Part 6 § 137.33

• Starting May 2023, the current RPLS exam will be replaced with a combination of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) Principles and Practice of Professional Surveying (PS) exam and a new Texas Specific Surveying Exam (TSSE).
• April 2023 will be the last 8-hour RPLS exam. After April 2023, all applicants will be required to take and pass the NCEES PS and the TSSE to be registered as an RPLS in Texas.
• TBPELS will begin approving NCEES PS exam registrations starting May 1, 2023. TBPELS will offer the first TSSE in October 2023. Exam dates are located on our Surveying Exams Page.
• Your application for registration must be approved by TBPELS prior to taking the NCEES PS exam. Once your application is complete and approved, you will be notified by TBPELS and NCEES will be notified to allow you to register for the PS exam and TSSE. If you already hold a surveying license or registration in another state / jurisdiction and/or took the NCEES PS exam as part of that license or registration process, then you can use that exam result to meet the Texas exam requirement. You will NOT need to take the NCEES PS exam again if you passed the PS exam prior to applying for your Texas License. However, you will still need to take and pass the TSSE.
• The NCEES PS exam specifications are located on the NCEES Website. The TSSE was built using exam specifications put together by Texas RPLS and based on questions and scenarios from the previous RPLS exam item bank. Therefore, questions will be similar to the questions used on previous versions of the Texas RPLS exams.