Idaho · Land Surveyor seal requirements
Idaho Land Surveyor seal requirements: size, wording, and the rule that sets them
As of
Land surveyors in Idaho seal under Idaho Code § 54-1215(3); IDAPA 24.32.01.200.01 (Practice Standards — Seals), administered by the Idaho Board of Licensure of Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors. No diameter is prescribed. The land surveyor's seal is governed by the same statute and rule as the engineer's, and neither states a dimension.
Idaho publishes no seal artwork for any of the three professions. Idaho Code § 54-1215(3)(e) hands the engineer and surveyor design to the board, and the board's only published statement about the wording is a June 2008 news bulletin announcing that the specification would move from "Registered" to "Licensed" on July 1, 2008; asked about the seal, the board's FAQ points licensees back to the letter the board sent when their license was issued. The 7-1-25 recodification of IDAPA 24.32.01 moved the seal rule from Section 012 to Section 200.01 and dropped the subsection headed "Standard Seals for Engineers and Land Surveyors" — and the board's FAQ still cites IDAPA 24.32.01.101.03, "Use of Seal on Documents," which the recodified chapter no longer contains. The contact block on the cover of that chapter prints the board's website as https://dopl.idaho.gov/pht/, which is the Physical Therapy Board; the working address is https://dopl.idaho.gov/ipels/, and the older ipels.idaho.gov host no longer resolves at all. Two articles in the board's own Ethics and Professional Practice Guidance Document, both carrying the same 07/10/2025 revision date, disagree about facsimile signatures: "Digital Signatures" lists "a facsimile image of the licensee's signature adjacent to or over an electronically generated stamp" as an allowable form since Senate Bill 1235, while "Stamping Practices" still says "you cannot use computer generated signatures and dates" and requires the licensee to personally sign and date each original. The statute itself no longer defines "signature" at all. For architects, Idaho Code § 54-304(2) provides that the design and use of the seal "shall be as required by board rule," but IDAPA 24.01.01 contains no seal rule, and the rulemaking pending before that board in 2026 adds one for certified interior designers only.
Idaho Land Surveyor seal
- Diameter
- No diameter is prescribed. The land surveyor's seal is governed by the same statute and rule as the engineer's, and neither states a dimension.
- Expiration date
- Surveyors seal under the same provision as engineers, which requires only the signature and the date adjacent to or across the seal and leaves the design to the board. No expiration date appears in either the statute or the rule.(Idaho Code § 54-1215(3)(a), (e); IDAPA 24.32.01.200.01)
- Signature date
- Whenever the seal is applied, the licensee's signature and date shall be included adjacent to or across the seal, and each plan or drawing sheet shall be sealed, signed and dated.(Idaho Code § 54-1215(3)(a), (b), (c))
- City on seal
- Nothing in the statute or the rule puts a place on a licensee's seal. IDAPA 24.32.01.200.01.a's "State of Idaho" describes the Board's own corporate seal.(Idaho Code § 54-1215(3)(e); IDAPA 24.32.01.200.01)
- Professional land surveyors are licensed by the same board as engineers and seal under the same provision: the seal is obtained on licensure and its design shall be as determined by the board, which has published no wording, layout or size.(Idaho Code § 54-1215(3) and (3)(e); IDAPA 24.32.01.200.01)
- An engineer who obtains licensure as a land surveyor uses the seal showing licensure as a Professional Engineer and Land Surveyor as adopted by the Board, rather than a separate seal for each license.(IDAPA 24.32.01.200.01.c)
- Since July 1, 2008 the board's seal specification uses "Licensed" rather than "Registered"; seals prepared and approved before that date are valid for continued use.(Board News Bulletin no. 41 (June 2008); IDAPA 24.32.01.200.01.b)
- Whenever the seal is applied, the licensee's signature and the date shall be included adjacent to or across the seal, and each plan or drawing sheet shall be sealed and signed and dated by the licensee responsible for it.(Idaho Code § 54-1215(3)(a) and (3)(c))
- The professional land surveyor making the survey shall certify the correctness of a plat and shall place the seal, signature and date on the plat. The Board reads this together with § 54-1215(3)(c) to require every map sheet of the plat, as well as the Surveyor's Certificate, to be sealed, signed and dated.(Idaho Code § 50-1309(1); Professional Land Surveying Guidance Document, 05/27/2026)
- On plats and on records of survey, signatures shall be in reproducible black ink — a requirement of the recording statutes rather than of the licensing law, and one the seal itself does not satisfy.(Idaho Code §§ 50-1304(1) and 55-1905(1))
- A corner perpetuation form must include the professional land surveyor's seal, signed and dated by the surveyor, along with the surveyor's name, the license number issued by the Board and the name of the employer.(IDAPA 24.32.01.200.06.b.iv and b.v)
- A legal description prepared without a field survey counts as a "report" and must be sealed, signed and dated on that basis.(Idaho Code § 54-1215(3)(b); Ethics and Professional Practice Guidance Document, 07/10/2025, "PEs and PLS Must Seal Legal Descriptions")
Idaho land surveyor seal questions
Where does Idaho publish the land surveyor's seal design?▾
Nowhere. Idaho Code § 54-1215(3)(e) makes the design "as determined by the board", and the board has published no wording, no layout and no dimension — not in IDAPA 24.32.01, not in its guidance documents, and not on its website. Asked about the seal, the board's FAQ sends licensees back to the letter the board sent when the license was issued, and still cites IDAPA 24.32.01.101.03, "Use of Seal on Documents," a section the 7-1-25 recodification of that chapter no longer contains. The one documented element of the wording is that since July 1, 2008 the board's specification uses "Licensed" rather than "Registered", with seals prepared and approved before that date valid for continued use. (Idaho Code § 54-1215(3)(e); IDAPA 24.32.01.200.01.b; Board News Bulletin no. 41 (June 2008))
Can an Idaho land surveyor use a computer generated signature and date?▾
The board's own guidance answers both ways, in the same document. Under the heading "Digital Signatures", the Ethics and Professional Practice Guidance Document lists "[a] facsimile image of the licensee's signature adjacent to or over an electronically generated stamp" among the allowable forms, because Senate Bill 1235 removed the statutory definition of "signature" effective July 1, 2022. Under "Stamping Practices", the same document, carrying the same 07/10/2025 revision date, answers that "you cannot use computer generated signatures and dates", requires the licensee to personally sign and date each original, and calls pre-signed "sticky-backs" improper. For plats and records of survey the point is settled elsewhere in any event: Idaho Code §§ 50-1304(1) and 55-1905(1) both require that signatures be in reproducible black ink. (Ethics and Professional Practice Guidance Document, 07/10/2025, "Digital Signatures" and "Stamping Practices"; Idaho Code §§ 50-1304(1), 55-1905(1))
Do Idaho right-of-way plans need a land surveyor's seal?▾
Where they come out of a field survey, yes. The board's guidance states that if right-of-way plans are the result of a field survey and the information derived from them is used to prepare legal descriptions for conveyances, the work falls within the statutory definition of the practice of professional land surveying, must be performed under the responsible charge of a licensed professional land surveyor, and the work product must be sealed, signed and dated by the professional in responsible charge. Plans of that kind are routinely produced inside engineering departments, which is exactly where the requirement gets missed. (Professional Land Surveying Guidance Document, 05/27/2026, "Right-of-Way Plans Require PLS")
Generate a Idaho Land Surveyor seal to this specification
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