Reference · the Board’s own FAQs, revised 02/2025 · read 5 September 2026
One set of hours, two licenses: what the Board requires for a dual AMFT and APCC registration.
The Board’s associate FAQs answer the question directly: a graduate whose degree qualifies for both licenses may count hours toward both, on five conditions. Two registrations, both kept active, two Law and Ethics exams, hours inside both scopes of practice, and hours that fit both licenses’ categories and caps. This page quotes the conditions, prices the paperwork from the fee schedule, and links the two hours pages the conditions point at.
What the Board requires →What the Board requires
Yes, on five conditions, in the Board’s words.
Question 1 of the Board’s FAQ for associate professional clinical counselors: “If I want to become dually licensed as an LPCC and LMFT, do I need to register as an Associate for both license types? Yes, you will need to register as both an APCC and as an AMFT to count hours toward both licenses.” Question 42 gives the conditions; the MFT associate FAQ repeats them as questions 10 and 53. The first sentence of the answer is the checkpoint: “First, you must have a degree that qualifies for both license types.”
“Register as both an APCC and AMFT (separate applications and fees).” Two packets, two fees, two registration numbers.
“Ensure that both registrations are active while you are gaining hours of experience (or if you are gaining hours under the ‘90-day rule’ … ensure that you have submitted both applications within the 90-day period after your degree award date).” A lapse in either registration stops the hours for that license.
“Take the California Law and Ethics Exam for both license types to ensure your ability to renew (separate applications, fees and exams).” Each registration’s renewal depends on its own exam.
“Ensure that the hours you gain are within the scope of practice for both license types.” The MFT scope is B&P §4980.02 and the LPCC scope §4999.20; work that one license may do and the other may not counts for one.
“Ensure that the hours you gain fit within the categories required, as well as the minimums required and maximums allowed for both license types.” The two hours pages carry the categories; the weekly log is where the fit is shown.
The degree comes first
The five conditions apply only to a graduate whose degree qualifies for both licenses. The MFT degree is defined in B&P §4980.36 and the LPCC degree in §4999.32 and §4999.33; a program that meets one is not thereby a program that meets the other, and the Board evaluates each registration application against its own section. The license paths page lays the degree requirements side by side; the Board’s decision on each application is the one that counts.
What it costs
Two of everything the Board charges an associate.
| Item | One registration | Both | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Associate registration application | $75 | $150 | Separate applications and fees (FAQ 42, first condition) |
| California Law and Ethics exam, first attempt | $75 | $150 | One exam per license type, “separate applications, fees and exams” (FAQ 42, third condition) |
| Associate renewal, each year | $75 | $150 | Both registrations must stay active while hours accrue (FAQ 42, second condition) |
| Live Scan fingerprinting | once | once | One set of prints: the Board’s Fingerprint FAQ (question 9) says an applicant does not pay or get fingerprinted for each registration or license type; the result is applied to every registration and license the applicant holds |
Fees as the site’s fee calculator carries the Board’s schedule, including the temporary reduction the calculator explains; the Board’s fee page governs. Supervision is not doubled: one supervised hour is one supervised hour, logged for both registrations if it qualifies for both.
The hours
The same 3,000 and 104 weeks, counted twice against two rulebooks.
Both licenses require 3,000 hours of supervised experience over at least 104 weeks with 1,750 hours of direct clinical work; the categories, the caps and what counts inside each are on the AMFT hours page and the APCC hours page. The Board’s fifth condition is that an hour must fit both licenses’ categories and caps to count for both; an hour that fits one counts for that one only. Keep one weekly log per registration, signed by the supervisor each week; the log is the evidence the Board can ask for, and the forms are read form by form on the forms guide.
The dates run separately
Each registration has its own issue date, its own renewals and its own life (six years until 31 December 2026, seven from 1 January 2027), and each license application has its own window for the hours (§4980.43(c)(7), which exempts up to 500 practicum hours, and §4999.46(e), whose 3,000 hours are all postdegree). The clocks calculator dates one registration at a time; run it once for each. AB 1598, signed as Chapter 528, makes both windows seven years from 1 January 2027; the bill tracker quotes it.
Then what
The pages each condition points at.
The first registration
AMFT registration in California
The packet, the 90-day rule, the Live Scan, the first renewal.
The 90 days
The 90-day rule
Both applications inside the window, or the hours before the numbers issue do not count.
The clocks
The associate clocks calculator
Each registration’s renewals and end, and the hours window, from its own dates.
Where every figure came from
Sources.
The Board’s FAQs
- Board of Behavioral Sciences, Answers to Frequently Asked Questions for Associate Professional Clinical Counselors, revised 02/2025: questions 1, 42 and 43
- Board of Behavioral Sciences, Answers to Most Frequently Asked Questions Relating to MFT Trainees and Associates, revised 02/2025: questions 10 and 53
- Board of Behavioral Sciences, 90-Day Rule FAQ
- Board of Behavioral Sciences, Fingerprint FAQs: one Live Scan covers every registration and license held (question 9)
- Board of Behavioral Sciences, Statutes and Regulations: §4980.02 and §4980.36 (MFT scope and degree), §4999.20, §4999.32 and §4999.33 (LPCC scope and degree)
The conditions are quoted from the Board’s two associate FAQs as revised 02/2025 and read on 5 September 2026; the fees are the Board’s schedule as the site’s fee calculator carries it. Whether a degree qualifies for both licenses, and whether an hour sits inside both scopes, are the Board’s and the supervisor’s determinations. Not legal advice.
