Utah Credit Toward a Professional Licence for Military Training

The newest veteran benefit in Utah. Senate Bill 90 of the 2026 general session enacted section 58-1-313, which takes effect May 6, 2026, and also amended section 71A-1-201 to require the Department of Veterans and Military Affairs to consult on it. What the division must build. Section 58-1-313, subsection 2: "The division shall, in consultation with the Department of Veterans and Military Affairs: (a) identify skills, experience, credentials, training, and education that an individual can obtain in the armed forces; (b) determine to what level the skills, experience, credentials, training, and education described in Subsection (2)(a) are substantially equivalent to current requirements in statute or administrative rule for a license and can substitute for the requirements; and (c) prepare and update as necessary a document, spreadsheet, or other resource accessible by the public on the division's website detailing the information described in Subsection (2)(a) and (b)." The third limb is the one to use. The Division of Professional Licensing must publish, on its own website, a public document mapping military training onto Utah licence requirements. That turns an argument about whether your military experience counts into a lookup. Ask the division for it; if it is not yet published, subsection 2, paragraph (c) is the authority for asking when it will be. What the division must then do for you. Subsection 3: "If a veteran or service member applies for a license and does not meet the current required training or education requirements established in statute or administrative rule for the license, the division shall give credit to the veteran or service member for relevant skills, experience, credentials, training, or education obtained while in the armed forces based on the determination described in Subsection (2)(b)." The verb is "shall give credit". The measure of the credit is the division's own substantial-equivalence determination under paragraph (2)(b), which is why the published resource matters: it is both the map and the standard. Who it covers. "Veteran" carries the general definition in section 68-3-12.5, and "service member" is defined in subsection 1, paragraph (b) by reference to section 71A-1-101, meaning a currently serving member of the armed forces. So a serving member preparing to separate can use it before discharge. "License" is defined in paragraph (a) as "an authorization that permits the holder to engage in the practice of a profession regulated under this title", so it reaches the whole of Title 58, Occupations and Professions. What the section does not do. It does not waive an examination, a background check, a fee or a continuing education requirement. It addresses "required training or education requirements" specifically. It does not create a temporary or provisional licence while you make up a shortfall, which some states provide for military spouses. And it does not set a deadline for the division to act on an application. Federal law covers the family that moves on orders. A service member or the spouse of one who relocates to Utah because of military orders, and who holds a licence in good standing from another state, does not need this section: under 50 U.S.C. section 4025a, as rewritten by Public Law 118-159 in December 2024, that licence "shall be considered valid for the scope of practice" in Utah once the holder applies with the orders, a marriage certificate for a spouse, and a notarized affidavit. A board that cannot act within 30 days may issue a temporary licence with the same rights. Licences held through an interstate compact follow the compact. A veteran who has left service is outside the federal section, which is why section 58-1-313 matters to veterans in particular. The sunset applies to the report, not the benefit. Senate Bill 90 also amended section 63I-2-258, the repeal dates provision for Title 58, to read: "Subsection 58-1-313(4), regarding a report by the Division of Professional Licensing, is repealed January 1, 2029." Subsection 4 is the reporting duty: on or before November 1, 2028 the division must report to the Business and Labor Interim Committee on the number of veteran and service member applicants successfully granted a licence under the section, and any legislative recommendations. So the report is due once, in late 2028, and the requirement to make it disappears at the start of 2029. The substantive duties in subsections 2 and 3 have no repeal date. A guide that describes this benefit as expiring in 2029 has read the sunset onto the wrong subsection. Two neighbouring provisions that do different work, and are easy to confuse with this one. Section 71A-8-103 extends a professional licence that expires while a Guard or reserve member is on active duty or deployed, renews it free of charge and waives continuing education for that cycle. That is about keeping a licence you already hold across a period of service, and it excludes annual training and in-state orders. Section 58-1-307 and the various "exemptions from licensure" sections scattered through Titles 4, 13, 58 and 61 exempt certain federal and military personnel from needing a Utah licence at all while acting in that capacity. Those are exemptions, not credit. Section 58-1-313 is the only one of the three that helps a veteran who has never held the Utah licence and cannot meet its training requirements on paper. Where the published resource shows your military training as substantially equivalent, the division must credit it. One practical sequencing point. Because the section works off a document the division must prepare "and update as necessary", the value of the benefit to any particular trade depends on whether that trade has been mapped yet. If your occupation is not on the resource, the substantial-equivalence determination in paragraph (2)(b) has not been made for it, and subsection 3's credit is measured by that determination. Raise it with the division early rather than at the point of application, and involve the Department of Veterans and Military Affairs, which the statute makes a consulting party.