Connecting RPLS Today for Better Tomorrow

Many land surveyors who are just getting started who work outside of the United States of America are unfamiliar with the term RPLS and how it relates to Land Surveying.  Simply put, RPLS means Registered Professional Land Surveyor, a licensed surveyor in the United States.

It is not uncommon for the public to confuse the differences between RPLS, RLS and PLS designations.  In fact, many land surveyors can get confused when licensed in more than one state.  

Post-nominal letters and Professional Land Surveyors

The letters PLS (professional land surveyor), PS (professional surveyor), LS (land surveyor), RLS (registered land surveyor), RPLS (Registered Professional Land Surveyor), or PSM (professional surveyor and mapper) follow their names, depending upon their jurisdiction of registration.

Post-nominal letters such as RPLS, today are also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles or designatory letters, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual holds a position, academic degree, accreditation, office, military decoration, or honour, or is a member of a religious institute or fraternity. An individual may use several different sets of post-nominal letters, but in some contexts it may be customary to limit the number of sets to one or just a few.

There are no RPLS, PLS or RLS in Canada because in Canada, land surveyors register to work in their respective province. The designation for a land surveyor breaks down by province. It follows the rule whereby the first letter indicates the province, followed by L.S. There is also a designation C.L.S. or Canada lands surveyor. They have the authority to work on Canada lands, which include Indian Reserves, National Parks, the three territories, and offshore lands.

The Canadian version of the PLSS is the Dominion Land Survey.