Does OSHA 10 expire? No. Under the federal program, OSHA 10-hour and 30-hour cards have no expiration date, whether they're for construction, general industry, maritime or disaster site work. But a state law, a city, a client contract or your own company policy can still refuse an older card, and several of those rules draw the line at five years.
So "does it expire?" has two answers: the federal one, and the one for the job your crew starts next week. Both are below, along with how to replace a lost card, how to check a card is real, and what to put in your spreadsheet so you know which cards will pass on which job.
Does OSHA 10 expire under federal rules?
OSHA's Outreach Training Program FAQ says the student course completion cards in Construction, General Industry, Maritime and Disaster Site "do not have an expiration date." A card from 2012 is still a valid record that the person finished the course in 2012.
Most of the confusion comes from what the program is. It's voluntary: OSHA says it does not require Outreach training, and that none of the courses is a certification. The card proves someone finished a class. It isn't a license, so OSHA has nothing to renew.
Maritime has one date to know. OSHA's FAQ notes that, as of April 1, 2019, Maritime cards do not expire, and that training completed before that date remains valid.
And since OSHA doesn't require the card, it doesn't decide when a card is too old either. Whoever requires the card does.
Does OSHA 30 expire?
No. The 30-hour card comes from the same program, and OSHA's FAQ gives it the same answer: no expiration date. What differs is the audience. OSHA describes the 10-hour class as awareness training for entry-level workers and the 30-hour class as "more appropriate for supervisors or workers with some safety responsibility."
So how long is OSHA 30 good for? Federally, indefinitely. On a given job, as long as that job's rule allows. Take a supervisor's OSHA 30 from 2019: it's fine on a private job with no card rule, and too old for a Philadelphia contractor license application (see the table below).
Where an OSHA card effectively expires
OSHA's FAQ spells it out: "Some states, municipalities, employers, unions, and other organizations have enacted requirements mandating training." Those rules are where five-year limits come from.
State and city rules we found
The table lists rules we found at state or city sources. It isn't complete: other states have public-works OSHA 10 laws too, and rules change, so check with your state labor department before you bid.
| Where | Who it covers | What's required | Card age limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connecticut | Workers and apprentices on public works projects covered by the state prevailing wage law | OSHA 10 construction (or an approved equivalent); a copy goes with the certified payroll the first time the worker appears | The card must be issued no more than 5 years before the project's start date |
| New York City | Workers on sites that need a Site Safety Plan or a designated superintendent, coordinator or manager | Site Safety Training (SST) card: 40 hours for workers, 62 for supervisors; OSHA 30 counts toward the hours | OSHA 30 counts only if taken in the past 5 years; the SST card itself expires 5 years after issue |
| Philadelphia | Supervisors a contractor names on its license application | An approved OSHA 30 course | Completed within 5 years of the application date; the supervisor must keep a current certificate |
| Nevada | Construction workers and the people who supervise them | OSHA 10 construction card for workers, OSHA 30 for supervisors, within 15 days of hire | None, according to Nevada SCATS: since June 10, 2015, the cards don't expire for Nevada construction work |
| New York State | All laborers, workers and mechanics on public work contracts of $250,000 or more | An OSHA-approved construction course of at least 10 hours, before any work on the project | None in the statute |
| Missouri | On-site employees on public works projects | OSHA 10 construction, within 60 days of starting work on the project | None in the statute; prior completion counts |
| Rhode Island | On-site employees on state and municipal construction projects of $100,000 or more | OSHA 10 construction card, carried on the job | None in the statute |
Sources: Connecticut Department of Labor bulletin, NYC Department of Buildings, City of Philadelphia, Nevada SCATS, NY Labor Law § 220-h, RSMo 292.675, R.I. Gen. Laws § 37-23-1.
One row carries a caveat. The "don't expire" date in the Nevada row comes from Nevada SCATS, a unit of the state's Division of Industrial Relations. The statute itself, NRS 618.983, sets the card requirement and says nothing about expiry.
Connecticut and New York City are the ones people tend to misread.
Connecticut counts back from the project start date, not from today. A card issued in March 2021 is good for a public project that starts in February 2026 and not for one that starts in April 2026. Same card, different start date.
And does OSHA 30 expire in NYC? The OSHA card doesn't, but the NYC SST card does, five years after it's issued. Workers renew it with a refresher course and have one year after expiry to do so. During that year, the DOB says, the expired card can't be used on a jobsite. Miss the year and the worker has to apply for a new card.
Employer, client and union rules
A "your card is too old" conversation often has nothing to do with a state law. The rule comes from a general contractor's prequalification form, a client's safety manual, a union, or your own company's policy. You'll see "OSHA 10 within the last five years" a lot. That's their wording, not a federal rule, and OSHA leaves it to them: on its card hierarchy page it says the employer has discretion over safety training requirements and decides whether a card meets its standard.
So if a site turns a worker away over an old card, telling the gate that OSHA cards don't expire won't get them in. Ask for the written requirement (the subcontract, the site safety plan, the prequalification form) and keep a copy next to your card list. Better to know the rule before the crew drives out.
OSHA 10 renewal and refresher courses
There's no official OSHA 10 renewal. When a job needs a newer card, the worker retakes the full 10-hour or 30-hour course with an authorized trainer and gets a new card with a new date. An "OSHA 30 refresher course" is something training providers sell, and whether it satisfies a requirement depends on how that requirement is worded.
Some rules set their own renewal path. NYC's SST card has refresher courses. Philadelphia lets a supervisor whose OSHA 30 the city has already accepted take 30 hours of continuing education in construction or demolition safety instead of retaking the course.
The only fixed renewal cycle in the program is for trainers, who must take an update course every four years to stay authorized. Your crew's cards aren't affected.
How to replace a lost OSHA card
OSHA doesn't keep class records and can't issue a replacement. Per OSHA's FAQ:
- Contact the Outreach trainer or online provider who taught the class. They keep the records and issue replacements.
- Do it within five years of the class. After that, no replacement can be issued.
- Expect one replacement per student per class, and possibly an administrative fee.
This is why five years matters even where no law mentions it. A worker who loses a six-year-old card can't get it replaced and has to retake the course. Scan the front and back of every card the day you receive it.
How to verify an OSHA card
There's no OSHA certification lookup by name. OSHA says it doesn't verify individual student cards and doesn't run or recognize any national database. What you can do:
- Scan the QR code on the back of the card, if it has one. OSHA's FAQ says scanning it verifies the training and shows the contact details of the OTI Education Center that processed the card.
- Check the trainer. Only OSHA-authorized trainers can issue cards, and OSHA publishes a list of authorized trainers. It also warns of a rise in fraudulent courses and asks people to report fraud to the Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General.
- Ask the provider. Whoever issued the card holds the class record.
A training certificate isn't the same as the card. Trainers often hand one out at the end of class, and OSHA leaves it to the employer whether to accept it in place of the card.
What to track for each OSHA card
If you keep crew cards in a spreadsheet, an "expiration date" column won't work, because the card doesn't have one. Track these instead:
- Worker name, and who's responsible for chasing them (often their foreman).
- Card type: 10-hour or 30-hour, and the industry (construction or general industry). A general industry card won't satisfy the construction rules in the table above.
- Course completion date, exactly as printed on the card. Every rule above counts from this date.
- Trainer or provider, so you know who to call for a replacement.
- A scan of both sides, including the QR code.
- A working deadline: completion date plus five years. That's when replacements stop, and when "within five years" rules counted from today stop accepting the card.
- Job-specific rules, in a notes column: a Connecticut public project's start date, an NYC SST card's own expiry date, a client's written requirement.
Set reminders on that working deadline. Send them to the worker and their foreman early enough to book a class before it matters, and check the job-specific rules whenever a new project starts.
If the spreadsheet is where reminders get missed, ExpirationPilot keeps OSHA cards next to the rest of your crew's certifications, each with that deadline and one person responsible. By default it emails reminders 30, 14 and 7 days before the deadline, on the day, and 7 days after, and you can change those days for OSHA cards alone. To start, import the spreadsheet you already have.
Quick answers
How long is OSHA 10 good for?
Federally, for life: the card has no expiration date. In practice, some states, cities, clients and employers want a card from the last five years, and replacements are only issued within five years of the class.
How long does OSHA certification last?
OSHA says its 10- and 30-hour courses aren't certifications. They're course completion cards, and they don't expire. A specific job can still require a newer one.
Does OSHA 30 cover OSHA 10?
OSHA says the 30-hour course gives greater depth than the 10-hour one, but its pages don't say one card stands in for the other. Whether a 30-hour card satisfies a 10-hour requirement depends on the rule's wording. New York State's law, for example, asks for a course "at least ten hours in duration."
Do I need to retake OSHA 10 if my card is old?
Only if the job, state or employer requires a newer card, or the card is lost and more than five years old. Ask for the written requirement first.