Every Puerto Rico land surveyor, licensed there as an agrimensor, must keep a seal of Junta-authorized design that shows five items: name, profession practiced, condition as a licensee, license number and the inscription Puerto Rico. Art. 16 of Ley Núm. 173 sets no diameter or shape. The Junta's own regulation could not be read. Below: contents, size, signing, documents, lapse, firms and ordering.
Engineer Seal Stamps compliance desk. Checked against Ley Núm. 173 de 1988, Art. 16 and the Junta Examinadora de Ingenieros y Agrimensores de Puerto Rico. Sources read September 2026.
| Requirement | What the rule says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal duty | Yes. Every licensee the Act covers keeps a Junta-authorized seal and uses it where required. | Ley Núm. 173 de 1988, Art. 16 |
| Required contents | Name, profession practiced, condition as a licensee, license number and Puerto Rico. | Ley Núm. 173 de 1988, Art. 16 |
| Expiration date on the face | Not among the Art. 16 items. Whether the Junta's regulation adds one is unverified. | Not addressed in the cited rules |
| Size and shape | Art. 16 states neither. Reglamento Núm. 7749 could not be read. | Ley Núm. 173 de 1988, Art. 16 (no dimension) |
| Device type | No device named; none expressly allowed or barred. | Ley Núm. 173 de 1988, Art. 16 |
| Signature | In your own hand, with no date required next to it. | Ley Núm. 173 de 1988, Art. 16 |
| Documents | Surveys (mensuras), plans, reports and other professional work you make or authorize, for public or private clients. | Ley Núm. 173 de 1988, Art. 16 |
| Electronic seal | The Junta decides acceptance. No determination was confirmed. | Ley Núm. 173 de 1988, Art. 16 (delegated) |
| Suspended, inactive or expired | No signing or stamping. | Ley Núm. 173 de 1988, Art. 16 |
| Firm practice | No firm seal and no certificate of authorization. CIAPR membership is compulsory under Art. 2. | Ley Núm. 173 de 1988, Arts. 2, 16 |
Licensed in more than one place? Check each jurisdiction in land surveyor seal requirements by state. The seal follows the license; the education routes and exams that lead to a Puerto Rico license are compared in how to become a licensed land surveyor.
Who is a land surveyor under Puerto Rico law?
The credential is agrimensor licenciado, granted under Ley Núm. 173 de 1988 by the Junta Examinadora de Ingenieros y Agrimensores de Puerto Rico. That Junta sits inside the Departamento de Estado and also licenses engineers.
Practice also depends on Art. 2 of the Act: you must be an active member of the Colegio de Ingenieros y Agrimensores de Puerto Rico (CIAPR), a compulsory professional college. Ley Núm. 173 covers engineers, architects, agrimensores and landscape architects; notaries fall outside it, and our guide to Puerto Rico notary seals covers their device.
What must an agrimensor seal show?
Five items, all set by Art. 16 of Ley Núm. 173: your name, your license number, the profession you exercise, su condición de licenciado (your condition as a licensee) and the inscription Puerto Rico. The seal design itself is one the Junta authorizes.
Art. 16 does not spell out the wording of the profession line; it simply calls for the profession you exercise. The same list governs every profession under the Act, so engineers licensed by this Junta start from it too; see our guide to ordering the right Puerto Rico engineering seal.
Does the seal carry an expiration date?
Art. 16 does not list one. The expiration date on Puerto Rico architect and landscape architect seals comes from Reglamento Núm. 7717, a regulation of a different Junta, and it cannot be assumed for an agrimensor.
Whether the surveying Junta's own regulation adds a date could not be checked, because its text could not be read. For the professions where the date is required, see our Puerto Rico landscape architect seal rules and Puerto Rico architect seal rules.
What size and shape should the seal be?
No figure can be confirmed. Art. 16 of Ley Núm. 173 states no diameter and no shape. If a size exists, it would be in Reglamento Núm. 7749 de 2009, the Junta's operating regulation, which is published only as a scanned image without a text layer.
The two inch circle in Reglamento Núm. 7717 applies to Arquitecto and Arquitecto Paisajista and cannot be borrowed for an agrimensor.
Which device does Art. 16 require?
None in particular. Art. 16 names no device type, and it neither expressly permits nor forbids any, so the statute leaves an inked stamp and an embosser equally open. What the Junta's regulation says about devices is unread.
What the statute does fix is authorization: the seal must follow a special design the Junta authorizes.
How do you sign and seal a set of plans?
Seal and sign every sheet, and sign by hand. Art. 16 requires a signature con su puño y letra, in your own hand, and treats the pair as your certification that you did the work or controlled and supervised it.
No date is required beside the signature. Because the Act states the duty sheet by sheet, a stamp on the cover page alone does not cover the rest of the set.
Which surveying documents need the seal?
All graphic or written professional work you make or authorize, for the Government or for private clients. Art. 16 lists mensuras by name, together with plans, designs, reports, specifications and analogous documents, so survey work sits squarely inside the duty.
Whether Reglamento Núm. 7749 adds survey-specific document types or a certification statement could not be checked.
Can an agrimensor seal electronically?
That has not been settled in any readable rule. Art. 16 leaves it to the Junta to determine how digitized or cyber seals and signatures are accepted. No such determination by the Junta Examinadora de Ingenieros y Agrimensores could be confirmed.
Any electronic workflow still has to account for the Act's handwritten signature requirement.
When are you barred from sealing?
While your license is suspended, while you are inactive, and after your license has expired. Art. 16 prohibits both signing and stamping in each of those three situations, so the seal stays in the drawer until your status is current.
Whether a license number is reissued at renewal, or whether a superseded seal must be surrendered, is not addressed in the readable rules.
How does a surveying firm seal its work?
Signature by signature. Ley Núm. 173 gives firms no certificate of authorization and no firm seal; instead, each participating professional seals and signs, and the professional responsible for the work also signs and seals the first page.
Art. 2 conditions practice on active membership in the CIAPR, and professional documents are also subject to an arancel and estampillas regime run through that college. How that regime operates was not verified.
What should you confirm before ordering?
The five statutory items are fixed, so gather your name, profession, licensee condition, license number and the inscription Puerto Rico. Size, shape and device are not, so obtain the seal article of Reglamento Núm. 7749 from the Junta first.
Leave the architects' two inch, dated seal out of your planning; Reglamento Núm. 7717 governs a different Junta. When your seal arrives, stamp a test sheet and check each of the five items against your license.
Frequently asked questions
What profession wording goes on the seal?
Art. 16 asks for the profession you exercise without spelling out the words. The credential the Junta grants is agrimensor licenciado, and any fixed wording would come from the Junta's authorized design or its regulation.
Will I need a new seal at each renewal?
Not because of Art. 16, which puts no date on the face. If Reglamento Núm. 7749 adds an expiration date, as the architects' regulation does, a new seal would follow each renewal, but that point is unverified.
Does Colegio membership change what goes on the seal?
No item in Art. 16 refers to the Colegio. Membership in the Colegio de Ingenieros y Agrimensores de Puerto Rico is a condition of practice under Art. 2, not one of the seal items.
Does the Junta have to approve my seal design?
Art. 16 describes the seal as one of special design authorized by the Junta, so the design is the Junta's to authorize. What further specification its regulation adds could not be checked, since Reglamento Núm. 7749 could not be read.
Can I use a stamped facsimile of my signature?
Art. 16 calls for a signature in your own hand, con su puño y letra. A printed or stamped facsimile is not handwritten, so it does not match that wording.
Once the Junta has confirmed the size and device, order your agrimensor seal from our Puerto Rico stamps and seals collection.
